Supertramp – Breakfast in America

Supertramp were an English rock band that experienced massive global success in 1979 with their sixth album Breakfast in America.

Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards and guitars) and Rick Davies (vocals and keyboards), the group were distinguished for blending progressive rock and pop styles as well as for a sound that relied heavily on Wurlitzer electric piano.

The group’s lineup changed numerous times throughout their career, with Davies being the only constant member throughout its history. Other longtime members included bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg and saxophonist John Helliwell.

The band were initially a prog-rock group, but starting with their third album, Crime of the Century (1974), they began moving towards a more pop-oriented sound.

They reached their commercial peak with 1979’s Breakfast in America, which yielded the international top 10 singles “The Logical Song“, “Breakfast in America“, “Goodbye Stranger“, and “Take the Long Way Home“.

Their other top 40 hits included “Dreamer” (1974), “Give a Little Bit” (1977), and “It’s Raining Again” (1982).

In 1983, Hodgson left the group to pursue a solo career. Davies took over as the band’s sole leader until 1988, after which they disbanded and periodically reformed in various configurations.

As of 2007, Supertramp album sales exceeded 60 million. They attained significant popularity in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia.

Their highest sales levels were in Canada, where they had two diamond-certified (ten-times platinum) albums (Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America), and their only number 1 singles anywhere (“The Logical Song” and “Dreamer”).

In 1969 Stanley “Sam” August Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire, ceased providing financial support to a band called The Joint, as he was disappointed with them.

He offered Swindon-born keyboardist Rick Davies, a former bandmate of Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O’Sullivan, whose talent he felt had been bogged down by the group, an opportunity to form his own band with Miesegaes’s financial backing.

The band included Roger Hodgson (bass and vocals), Richard Palmer (guitars and vocals), and Keith Baker (percussion).

Davies and Hodgson had radically different backgrounds and musical inspirations: Davies was working class and fiercely devoted to blues and jazz, while Hodgson had gone straight from English private school to the music business and was fond of pop.

Despite this, they hit it off during the auditions and began writing virtually all of their songs together, with Palmer as a third writer in the mix. Hodgson and Davies collaborated on the songwriting while Palmer composed the lyrics.

Wikipedia / ABC Flash Point Music News 2023.