Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins

Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins is the 16th studio album by American rock band Sparks. It was released in 1994, after an absence from the music industry of 6 years, and marked the duo's transition into a more techno/Eurobeat-influenced sound, which earned them popularity in Germany.

History

Sparks' previous album was released in 1988, and while it scored a couple of club hits in the US, had not been commercially successful. Critically the group had been receiving mixed reviews since their 1984 album Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat. While promoting Interior Design, Sparks banded together with the French duo Les Rita Mitsouko and released the single "Singing in the Shower" which was a moderate hit in France. Sparks then went on a temporary hiatus while the brothers spent the late 1980s and early 1990s concentrating on film-making, particularly an attempt to make a Japanese manga series, Mai, The Psychic Girl, into a movie. They had hoped to have Tsui Hark direct with the actress-musician Christi Haydon voicing the lead character. Russell Mael had initially met Haydon when he admired her look while she was working on the cosmetics counter of a department store. Haydon's only experience at the time had been as a long running extra of the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation. Despite interest from Tim Burton and six years' work on the project, it came to nothing.
In 1993, Sparks returned to the studio and released the stand-alone single "National Crime Awareness Week", and wrote and produced the single "Katharine Hepburn" for Christi Haydon. Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins followed in November the next year. It was produced by the duo without an additional backing band. The album had a sound that returned towards the European-synthesizer orientated sound of No. 1 In Heaven. However, the songs retained an emphasis on pop song structure and a sound that was only slightly removed from that of Pet Shop Boys.. The album was toured with Christi Haydon complementing the brothers on drums, as well as appearing in videos for the group. The a cappella title track "Gratuitous Sax" looked back to the equally brief opener of the band's 1974 album; Propaganda. "When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" makes reference to Frank Sinatra's signature-tune "My Way".

Release

Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins became Sparks most successful album in Germany reaching No. 29 and scored three hits on the German Singles chart. While the album only reached No. 150 on the UK Albums Chart, the singles did well enough to return the group to the Top 40, the first time since "Beat the Clock" in 1979. The lead single "When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" made No. 7 in Germany and No. 38 in the UK. The second single "When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing)" reached No. 61 in Germany and No. 36 in the UK. The final single "Now That I Own the BBC" did less well making No. 81 in Germany and No. 60 in the UK.
"When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'" and "When I Kiss You " managed to chart across Europe, and recommenced Sparks' popularity on the US Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where they reached No. 9 and No. 24.

Critical reception

Simon Price from Melody Maker praised the album, writing, "A fountain, a For 'eyn of a record."

Re-releases

Japanese editions of the album included a new mix "When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing) by Bernard Butler as a bonus track. The album was re-released as the first album in the series Sparks – The Collection in 2006 on the groups' own record label Lil' Beethoven Records. This re-release featured new artwork, additional sleeve-notes and was packaged in a digipak-sleeve. The album was re-released again in 2019 by BMG Rights Management, in which the original album was remastered and included an additional 31 tracks.

Personnel

Russell Mael – vocals, production
Ron Mael – keyboards, production
Tsui Hark and Bill Kong – guest vocals on "Tsui Hark"
John Thomas – additional engineering and mixing
Steve Bates – additional engineering and mixing
Mark Stagg – additional production on " I Hear Charlie Parker Playing", "I Thought I Told You to Wait in the Car" and "Let's Go Surfing"
Alan Fisch – engineering on " I Hear Charlie Parker Playing" and "I Thought I Told You To Wait in the Car"
Linus Burdick – additional production on "Now That I Own the BBC", "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil" and "Let's Go Surfing"

Charts

Album

Country/Region	Peak position
UK Albums	150

Country/Region	Peak position
Scottish Albums	45
UK Independent Albums	11

Singles

Chart	Peak Position
Belgium	16
Belgium	12
Netherlands	35
Netherlands	48
Switzerland	22
UK Singles	38
UK Singles 1995 re-issue	32

Chart	Peak Position
UK Singles	36
US Dance Club Songs	24

Chart	Peak Position
UK Singles	60

Chart	Peak Position
UK Physical Singles	6