CoronaVinyl Day 436 (A): Ambrosia by Ambrosia

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

We are back to "A," and today I listened to Ambrosia's self-titled 1975 album.

I have three Ambrosia albums, and I last featured them in the "Yacht Rock" category way back in May 2020 -- back when we were naïve enough to think this whole COVID thing was just going to last a couple months.  Anyway, Ambrosia is best known for their yacht rocky hits "How Much I Feel" (#3) from 1978 and "Biggest Part of Me" (#3) and "You're The Only Woman (You & I)" (#13) from 1980.  However, before they band was churning out baby-making music, they started out as a prog rock band, and this album is definitely pure mid '70s prog.

The album was mixed by Alan Parsons, and all of the band members played on the Alan Parson's Project's debut album in 1976.  The first number, "Nice, Nice, Very Nice," has lyrics from a poem in Kurt Vonnegut's Cats in the Cradle.  Super proggy.  It was a minor hit, reaching #63 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Other than that, the album sounds very much like ELP or Yes from that time period.  "Holdin' Onto Yesterday" was the group's first Top 40 hit, getting to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The album itself reached #22 on the Billboard album chart, their second-highest charting album behind 1978's Life Beyond LA.  The band would go onto more success, as discussed above, in the late '70s and early '80s.  All in all, they had 5 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including two Top 10s (mentioned above).  They broke up after 1982's Road Island album, shortly after Bruce Hornsby joined the group's touring band.  Co-lead singer and bassist would go onto be a founding member of Bruce Hornsby and The Range.  The band reunited in 1989 and have toured since then with varying lineups, and though they haven't released any studio albums since Road Island, they released two live albums in the 2000s. 

Favorite Song on Side 1:  ""World Leave Me Alone"
This song is a little more rocking and has a little more grit than the other songs on the album.  There's a good guitar solo, as well.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "Mama Frog"
This one is a proggy rocker, complete with an organ solo.  And then there's a spoken word interlude of "Jabberwock" from Alice in Wonderland.  Again, super proggy.