| Oceans of Fantasy | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | Boney M. |
| Cover: | Boney M. - Oceans Of Fantasy (1979).jpg |
| Released: | September 21, 1979 |
| Recorded: | February 1979 – August 1979 |
| Producer: | Frank Farian |
| Prev Title: | Nightflight to Venus |
| Prev Year: | 1978 |
| Next Title: | The Magic of Boney M. – 20 Golden Hits |
| Next Year: | 1980 |
Oceans of Fantasy is the fourth studio album by Euro-Caribbean group Boney M. Released in September 1979, Oceans Of Fantasy became the second Boney M. album to top the UK charts and features the hits "El Lute / Gotta Go Home" and "I'm Born Again / Bahama Mama".
The album had been preceded in the spring of 1979 by the single "Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday" (based on the American folksong "Polly Wolly Doodle"), one of the band's biggest hits. This was not included on Oceans of Fantasy but the B-side, "Ribbons of Blue" was, albeit in a heavily edited form. The original length of the track is 4:02, and songs like "Gotta Go Home" and "Bahama Mama" were also longer on 7" than on the actual album.
As with the group's previous album, Nightflight to Venus, the original Hansa Records pressings of the album also included a range of different edits of certain tracks.
The 1994 CD version used same master with East German version of the album. (Same with fourth pressing, but "Ribbons of Blue" is longer like the other pressings, 2:01 min.) unlike the common West German pressings with different edits of certain songs. On 2007 reissue, two bonus tracks added to the album.
Several pressings also contained the wrong running order on cover and labels, incorrectly listing "El Lute" as the opening track on side two, followed by "No More Chain Gang" and "Oceans of Fantasy" like only the first pressing.
The first pressing also features "Let It All Be Music" and "Gotta Go Home" segued together. So the later pressings feature the songs separately.
Oceans of Fantasy also features a guest appearance by Eruption's lead singer Precious Wilson on "Let It All Be Music" and the cover of Sam & Dave's "Hold On I'm Coming", which was also issued as Wilson's first solo single. The Argentinian pressing omitted "El Lute" in favour of "Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday".
The album was the only Boney M. album to feature a full track-by-track vocal credits list which confirmed that only two of the four band members, Liz Mitchell and Marcia Barrett, actually sang on the Boney M. records, and that producer Frank Farian sang the characteristic deep male vocal as well as high falsetto vocals (he even duetted with himself on the track "Bye Bye Bluebird"). Maizie Williams and Bobby Farrell did not take any part in the studio sessions, though performed vocals at Boney M.'s live concerts.
"No More Chain Gang" was covered by Turkish singer Tarkan as "Çok Ararsın Beni" ("You Call Me Too Much") on his debut album "Yine Sensiz" ("Without You Again") in 1992.
Side A:
Side B:
| Chart (1979–80) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[1] | 21 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[2] | 1 |
| Chart (1979) | Position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[3] | 10 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[4] | 86 |
| Chart (1980) | Position |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[5] | 29 |
. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 41.