Charlie Anthology

Charlie was a British rock band formed in 1971 by singer/songwriter Terry Thomas. The group was most active as a recording unit from the mid-1970s to 1986. Charlie never charted in the UK but had four minor hits in the US: "Turning To You" (1977) "She Loves to Be In Love" (1978), "Killer Cut" (1979) and "It's Inevitable" (1983).The group's second album, No Second Chance, began the practice of having a photograph of a female model as the album's cover. "Turning To You", from that album, was Charlie's first chart entry, peaking at #96 in the US. Eugene Organ was added as a fifth member on guitar for the following two albums, Lines in 1978 and Fight Dirty in 1979. The band had it's biggest hit in 1978 with "She Loves to Be In Love", which peaked at #54 in the US. In the following year, the band had another minor hit with "Killer Cut", which rose to #60 in the US. Colbeck and Organ left in 1980 amid some turmoil, after having finished recording of the group's planned fifth album, Here Comes Trouble. Colbeck wrote, "Finally, the touring band line-up of Terry Thomas, John Anderson, Eugene Organ, Steve Gadd, and myself ceased operations once Arista refused to release Here Comes Trouble, and our caring, sharing management company immediately cut off all our money in 1980. That's a whole other story but, for the record, our final gig was in 1979 at the Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island on Monday 29 October, alongside Foreigner." Thomas commented, "Arista our new label in the U.S. wanted more songs our company in the UK Trident Audio Productions refused to put us in the studio or spend any more money. The UK record company Polydor wouldn't release it until it had a U.S. release. Effectively Charlie had no record label and no money to live on. Eugene and Julian decided to leave."In 1981 a reorganised Charlie issued the album Good Morning America for RCA Records. Produced by Thomas and John Verity, the band now consisted of Thomas, Anderson, Gadd, Verity (vocals, guitar, formerly with the band Argent) and second drummer Bob Henrit (also ex-Argent). (Lonsdale had moved on to work for the band Toto as a sound engineer, mixing their live shows.) The previously unissued Here Comes Trouble, recorded in 1980, was finally released in 1982, albeit only in continental Europe.In 1982 Verity left to pursue a solo career and Terry Slesser joined the group as the new lead singer, while Thomas, still a member of the band, began concentrating more on the instrumentation. In 1983, the group had their most successful hit single, "It's Inevitable", which peaked just inside the US Top 40 at #38. The MTV music video showed a humorous kitchen pie fight.Pressed on 180 gram marbled colored vinyl and including all song lyrics.