Gentle Giant was the first album of British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 band Gentle Giant

Gentle Giant

Gentle Giant were a British progressive rock band active between 1970 and 1980. The band was known for the complexity and sophistication of its music and for the varied musical skills of its members. All of the band members, except the first two drummers, were multi-instrumentalists...

, released in 1970.

Side One

1. "Giant" (D Shulman, P Shulman, R Shulman & K Minnear) – 6:22
2. "Funny Ways" (D Shulman, R Shulman & K Minnear) – 4:21
3. "Alucard" (D Shulman, P Shulman, R Shulman & K Minnear) – 6:00
4. "Isn't It Quiet And Cold?" (K Minnear) – 3:51

Side Two

1. "Nothing At All" (D Shulman, R Shulman & K Minnear) – 9:08
2. "Why Not?" (K Minnear) – 5:31
3. "The Queen" (Trad Arr. D Shulman, P Shulman, R Shulman & K Minnear) – 1:40

Personnel

• Gary Green
  Gary Green
  Gary Green is a British musician. During the 1970s, he was the guitarist for the progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Green was with the band from the debut album Gentle Giant all the way to the last album Civilian. Green's style was different from most of his peers, being a more "blues" based...
  
   – lead guitar, 12 string guitar, flute, backing vocals
• Kerry Minnear
  Kerry Minnear
  Kerry Minnear is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist who played in the innovative progressive rock band Gentle Giant during the 1970s....
  
   – keyboard, some bass, cello, synthesizer, lead vocals, backing vocals, some tuned percussion
• Derek Shulman
  Derek Shulman
  Derek Shulman is a British musician and singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record executive...
  
   – lead vocals, backing vocals, some bass
• Phil Shulman
  Phil Shulman
  Phil Shulman , was a member of the progressive rock group Gentle Giant from 1970 to 1972 and performed on their albums Gentle Giant, Acquiring the Taste, Three Friends and Octopus....
  
   – sax, trumpet, recorder, lead vocals, backing vocals
• Ray Shulman
  Ray Shulman
  Raymond Shulman is a British musician, and the youngest of three brothers in progressive rock band, Gentle Giant.Born in Portsmouth, Shulman's father was a trumpet player in a jazz band, and that was the first instrument he learned to play...
  
   – most bass, violin, some guitar, percussion, backing vocals
• Martin Smith
  Martin Smith (musician)
  Martin Smith , was a drummer for Gentle Giant and Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. He played on the first two Gentle Giant albums, Gentle Giant and Acquiring the Taste, before being replaced by Malcolm Mortimore...
  
   – drums, percussion, xylophone
• Leonard Stogel manager

Additional Musicians:

• Paul Cosh – tenor horn on "Giant"
• Claire Deniz – cello on "Isn't It Quiet And Cold?"

Production

• Roy Baker
  Roy Thomas Baker
  Roy Thomas Baker is a multiple award-winning Anglo-American music producer, songwriter, arranger and Recording Academy Governor, who has produced Platinum and Gold certified pop and rock records from the 1970s to the present.- Career :Baker began his career at Decca Records in England at the age...
  
   - Recording Engineer
• George Underwood - Cover Artist
• Tony Visconti
  Tony Visconti
  Anthony Edward Visconti is an American record producer and sometimes a musician or singer.Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers; his lengthiest involvement with any artist is with David Bowie: intermittently from Bowie's 1969 album Space Oddity to 2003's Reality, Visconti...
  
   - Producer

Releases

Since the LP was not originally released in North America, the cover illustration was available, and it first appeared in the United States and Canada as the cover of Three Friends

Three Friends

Three Friends is a concept album by the British progressive rock band Gentle Giant. The group's third album was also their first American release to chart, peaking at #197 on the Billboard 200...

.

Legacy

American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 duo Madvillain

Madvillain

Madvillain is a hip hop group consisting of MF DOOM and Madlib . Their debut album Madvillainy was met with wide critical acclaim for its unique approach—short songs, obscure lyrics, few choruses and a sound which was generally unfriendly to commercial radio.In 2006, Madvillain was featured on...

, a group consisting of MF DOOM

MF Doom

Daniel Dumile is a hip hop artist who has taken on several stage names in his career, most notably MF DOOM, where the "MF" stands for metal face, and for tracks he has produced, metal fingers...

 (MC

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

) and Madlib

Madlib

Otis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...

 (producer

Hip hop production

Hip hop production is the creation of hip hop music. Though the term encompasses all aspects of hip hop music, it's most commonly used to refer to the instrumental, non-lyrical aspects of hip hop. This means that hip hop producers are the instrumentalists involved in a work...

), sampled "Funny Ways" on "Strange Ways" from their album Madvillainy

Madvillainy

Madvillainy is the debut album by American hip hop duo Madvillain, a group consisting of MF DOOM and Madlib . It was released on March 23, 2004 on Stones Throw Records to overwhelmingly positive reviews...

and was subsequently featured in an episode of the animated television show The Boondocks

The Boondocks (TV series)

The Boondocks is an American animated series created by Aaron McGruder on Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim, based on McGruder's comic strip of the same name...

.