Spiral Staircase is 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...

 folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 musician Ralph McTell

Ralph McTell

Ralph McTell is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s....

's second album. Produced by Gus Dudgeon

Gus Dudgeon

Angus Boyd Dudgeon , most commonly known as Gus Dudgeon was an English record producer, most notable for production of many of Elton John's recordings.-Early career:...

 and released in the UK in 1969, its opening track, "Streets of London

Streets of London (song)

"Streets of London" is a song written by Ralph McTell. It was first recorded for McTell's 1969 album Spiral Staircase but was not released in the United Kingdom as a single until 1974...

", has become McTell's signature tune.

Track listing

All titles by Ralph McTell except where stated.

1. "Streets of London
   Streets of London (song)
   "Streets of London" is a song written by Ralph McTell. It was first recorded for McTell's 1969 album Spiral Staircase but was not released in the United Kingdom as a single until 1974...
   
   "
2. "Mrs Adlam's Angels"
3. "Wino and the Mouse"
4. "England 1914"
5. "Last Train and Ride"
6. "The Fairground"
7. "Spiral Staircase"
8. "Kind Hearted Woman Blues
   Kind Hearted Woman Blues
   "Kind Hearted Woman Blues" is a blues song recorded on November 23, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas by legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. The song was originally released on 78 rpm format as Vocalion 03416 and ARC 7-03-56. Johnson performed the song in the key of A, and recorded two takes, the first...
   
   " (Robert Johnson)
9. "Bright and Beautiful Things"
10. "Daddy's Here"
11. "Rizraklaru (Anag.)"
12. "(My) Baby Keeps Staying Out all Night Long" (Buddy Moss
    Buddy Moss
    Eugene "Buddy" Moss was, in the estimation of many blues scholars, one of two the most influential East Coast blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's debut in 1935...
    
    )
13. "Terminus"

Personnel

• Ralph McTell - guitar, vocals
• Brian "Brock" Brocklehurst - double bass
• Mick "Henry VIII" Bartlett - jug
• "Whispering Mick" Bennett - washboard
• Peter Berryman - second guitar
• Mike Vickers - orchestral arrangements
• Brian Gascoigne - musical direction

Production credits

• Producer: Gus Dudgeon for Tuesday Productions
• Engineer: Tom Allom
  Tom Allom
  Tom Allom is an English sound engineer and record producer, mainly active in the 1970s and 1980s. Allom is known for his work on seminal albums by Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, KIX, and Rough Cutt...
  
   at Regent Sound
• Sleeve design: Peter Thaine
• Liner notes: Ben Klein

Awards and accolades

• McTell's song "Streets of London" won the Ivor Novello Award for songwriting in 1974.
• A re-recorded version of "Streets of London" became a world-wide hit single in 1975.
• During his 60th birthday concert at the Royal Festival Hall in November, 2004, McTell was presented with a Gold Disc of "Spiral Staircase".

Release history

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalogue	Notes
United Kingdom	1969	Transatlantic	LP	TRA177
France	1978	Transatlantic	LP	TRA89554/5	Record 2 of 2LP set. Record 1 is "Eight Frames a Second Eight Frames a Second Eight Frames a Second is the debut album by British folk musician Ralph McTell. Released in the UK in 1968, it is notable for being the first record produced by Gus Dudgeon, and the first arranged by Tony Visconti.-Track listing:... "
Australia	1980	Transatlantic/ 7 Records	LP	MLF227
Japan	1980	Transatlantic	LP	YS-7057-LA
Israel		Logo/Transatlantic	LP	TRA177
Germany	1988	Titan	LP CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...	577/3001-1 577/3001-2
United Kingdom	1990	Ariola Express	CD	295945	Released as "The Streets of London"
United Kingdom	1996	Wooden Hill	CD	HILLCD5
United Kingdom	2007	Transatlantic	CD	TRRCD401	'Expanded Edition' with four bonus tracks taken from "Revisited Revisited (Ralph McTell album) Revisited is an album of remixed or re-recorded tracks from British folk musician Ralph McTell's albums Spiral Staircase and My Side of Your Window... ".

Many of the tracks on this album also feature in the "Spiral Staircase - Classic Songs

Spiral Staircase - Classic Songs

Spiral Staircase - Classic Songs is a double CD compilation of tracks from Ralph McTell's early Transatlantic LPs Eight Frames a Second, Spiral Staircase, My Side of Your Window and Revisited. It was released in 1997...

" compilation

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

.

Track variations

The UK 2007 CD release includes four bonus tracks that were re-mixed or re-recorded in 1970 for "Revisited":

14. "Spiral Staircase"

15. "Last Train and Ride"

16. "The Fairground"

17. "Terminus"