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Breakfast in America

Breakfast in America
Supertramp - Breakfast in America.jpg
Studio album by Supertramp
Released 29 March 1979
Recorded May–December 1978
Studio The Village Recorder (Studio B) in Los Angeles
Genre Art pop, progressive pop, Progressive Rock
Length 46:06
Label A&M
Producer Peter Henderson, Supertramp
Supertramp chronology
Even in the Quietest Moments...
(1977)
Breakfast in America
(1979)
Paris
(1980)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic 4.5/5 stars
Encyclopedia of Popular Music 4/5 stars
Mojo 4/5 stars
Record Collector 3/5 stars
The Rolling Stone Album Guide 3/5 stars
Smash Hits 8/10
Uncut 3/5 stars
The Village Voice C+

Breakfast in America is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Supertramp, released on 29 March 1979 by A&M Records. It was recorded in 1978 at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles. It spawned four U.S. Billboard hit singles: "The Logical Song" (No. 6), "Goodbye Stranger" (No. 15), "Take the Long Way Home" (No. 10) and "Breakfast in America" (No. 62). In the UK, "The Logical Song" and the title track were both top 10 hits, the only two the group had in their native country.

Breakfast in America won two Grammy Awards in 1980, and holds an RIAA certification of quadruple platinum. Breakfast in America became Supertramp's biggest-selling album with more than 6 million copies sold in the US alone and was No. 1 on Billboard Pop Albums Chart for six weeks in the spring and summer of 1979. The album also hit No. 1 in Norway, Austria, Canada, Australia and France, where it is one of the five biggest selling albums of all time.

As with Even in the Quietest Moments..., Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson wrote most of their songs separately but conceived the theme for the album jointly. Their original concept was for an album of songs about the relationship and conflicting ideals between Davies and Hodgson themselves, to be titled Hello Stranger. Hodgson explained: "We realized that a few of the songs really lent themselves to two people talking to each other and at each other. I could be putting down his way of thinking and he could be challenging my way of seeing life [...] Our ways of life are so different, but I love him. That contrast is what makes the world go 'round and what makes Supertramp go 'round. His beliefs are a challenge to mine and my beliefs are a challenge to his."

This idea was eventually scrapped in favour of an album of "fun" songs, and though Davies initially wanted to keep the title Hello Stranger, he was convinced by Hodgson to change it to Breakfast in America. Hodgson commented later: "We chose the title because it was a fun title. It suited the fun feeling of the album." Due to the title and the explicit satirising of American culture in the cover and three of the songs ("Gone Hollywood", "Breakfast in America", and "Child of Vision"), many listeners interpreted the album as a satire of the United States. Supertramp's members have all insisted that the repeated references to US culture are purely coincidental and that no such thematic satire was intended. Hodgson has described the misconception as a parallel to how Crime of the Century (1974) is often misinterpreted as being a concept album.


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