WALTZING ALONG
CD JIMDD 18 - Waltzing Along / Homeboy (live) / How Was It For You? (live) / Greenpeace (live)
CD JIMCD 18 - Waltzing Along / Your Story / Where You Gonna Run? / Long To Be Right
CD JIMED 18 - Waltzing Along / Waltzing Along (Disco Socks Mix) / Waltzing Along (Flytronix Mix)
RELEASED : JUNE 1997
CHART POSITION : 23
The release of Waltzing Along was originally timed to coincide with the end of the band's US tour and their Glastonbury appearance. Tim's injury which meant the curtailment of the US tour and the band joining the Lollapolooza travelling festival meant that the band would be out of the country for the single's release.
The single was rerecorded to give the song a much harder and more commercial edge than the album version. As with the previous two singles there were 3 CDs released. The first featured live tracks recorded by the BBC at the band's Shepherds Bush Empire in March including a rousing version of Homeboy with its extended opening section. The second CD featured three new tracks, the strident rude-lyriced Your Story, an instrumental Where You Gonna Run? and a falsetto-driven Long To Be Right. The third single once again featured remixes, this time a little more successful, by Flytronix and Midfield General. Artwork was once again designed by Blue Source with photography by Davies and Davies.
The video featured James in the Spanish desert, one by one hitchhiking and being picked up by a woman in an open top car. Mark plays an escaped convict chained to another prisoner who is the long lost brother of the policeman trying to recapture them.
With absolutely no promotion at all, the single, again given a £1.99 release, exceeded most expectations by entering the charts at number 23 and the song became a live favourite in James sets with crowds chanting along to the intro.
REVIEWS
NME
Time was when these merry Mancunian misfits could lay claim to being one of the most forward-looking groups in this country, with their weird take on rock music and an ascetic outlook that stuck out a while in times of much frippery. These days, James are more like Simple Minds than the Scottish stadium rockers themselves, if the hackneyed and plodding backing track here is to be taken seriously. Which is a pity as Tim Booth still sings like he's got something of importance to impart - in the case a prayer for the dying. Oh well, there's always the solo career.