| The Birthday Party | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | The Idle Race |
| Cover: | The Birthday Party (The Idle Race album).jpg |
| Released: | October 1968 Re-Issues 1976, 2014 |
| Recorded: | 1967–68 |
| Studio: | Advision Studios, London |
| Genre: | Psychedelic pop |
| Length: | 31:36 |
| Label: | Liberty Sunset (Re-Issue) Parlophone (Re-Issue) |
| Producer: | Eddy Offord, Gerald Chevin |
| Next Title: | Idle Race |
| Next Year: | 1969 |
The Birthday Party was the first album by The Idle Race, a psychedelic pop band, released in 1968 (see 1968 in music).
This quasi-concept album was the first to be composed almost entirely of songs by a young Birmingham guitarist/singer named Jeff Lynne. The LP came in a gatefold sleeve. The inside sleeve art included a mock birthday feast attended by many British celebrities, including most of the Radio 1 disc jockeys, the Beatles, the Duke of Windsor, actor Warren Mitchell in his role as Alf Garnett, and group leader Jeff Lynne as an eight-year-old schoolboy. In the U.S. the cover art was different with a rather psychedelic-styled paisley pattern behind the band.
While warmly received by critics, the record failed to chart in the U.K. or the U.S.
The album was re-issued in 1976 by Liberty on their budget-price label Sunset, although in a non-gatefold sleeve with different design, to capitalise on Electric Light Orchestra's success. A further re-issue came in 2014 by Parlophone, as the Liberty back catalogue had long since been acquired by EMI Records, for Record Store Day, in a limited edition on gold vinyl.
All tracks composed by Jeff Lynne, except where indicated.
Side 1
Side 2