Commercial Album is an album released by The Residents

The Residents

The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....

 in 1980. It is commonly considered a follow-up of Duck Stab/Buster & Glen

Duck Stab/Buster & Glen

Duck Stab redirects here. For the 1978 EP, see Duck Stab!Duck Stab/Buster & Glen is an album released in 1978 by The Residents. It is often called Duck Stab, after Duck Stab!, a seven-song EP released earlier in 1978 featuring shorter songs similar to the first side of Fingerprince...

. The album pares down the concept and structure of the average commercial pop song

Pop Song

Pop Song is the first single by the Drugs. It was released in 2000 and earned the Drugs some positive press. It has been described as "addictive". A live version was released on The Only Way Is Up...

 and reduces it to a one-minute redux. It contains a compilation of 40 such sixty-second vignettes. The album used several session musicians, including Chris Cutler

Chris Cutler

Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...

, Snakefinger

Snakefinger

Philip Charles Lithman , who performed under the stage name Snakefinger, was an English musician, singer and songwriter. A multi-instrumentalist, he was best known for his guitar and violin work and his collaborations with The Residents.-History:Lithman was born in Tooting, South London, and came...

 (who sings lead on "Ups and Downs") and Fred Frith

Fred Frith

Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...

 as well as two anonymous guest vocalists, Lene Lovich

Lene Lovich

Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...

 ("Picnic Boy") and Andy Partridge

Andy Partridge

Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he was raised.Partridge also...

 ("Margaret Freeman").

The faces on the album cover are John Travolta

John Travolta

John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...

 and Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

. The backside of the original LP labels listed the length as "1:00" after each of the 40 song titles. The first edition sleeve listed the tracks in the wrong order.

The liner notes

Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

 state that songs should be repeated three times in a row to form a "pop song". The Residents purchased 40 one-minute advertising slots on San Francisco's most popular Top-40 radio station at the time, KFRC, such that the station played each track of their album over three days. This prompted an editorial in Billboard magazine

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 questioning whether the act was art or advertising.

Track listing

All tracks by The Residents

The Residents

The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....

1. "Easter Woman" – 1:03
2. "Perfect Love" – 1:03
3. "Picnic Boy" – 1:01
4. "End of Home" – 1:04
5. "Amber" – 1:02
6. "Japanese Watercolor" – 1:02
7. "Secrets" – 1:03
8. "Die in Terror" – 1:03
9. "Red Rider" – 1:02
10. "My Second Wife" – 1:02
11. "Floyd" – 1:03
12. "Suburban Bathers" – 1:04
13. "Dimples and Toes" – 1:03
14. "The Nameless Souls" – 1:04
15. "Love Leaks Out" – 1:04
16. "Act of Being Polite" – 1:03
17. "Medicine Man" – 1:04
18. "Tragic Bells" – 1:03
19. "Loss of Innocence" – 1:04
20. "The Simple Song" – 1:02
21. "Ups and Downs" – 1:04
22. "Possessions" – 1:03
23. "Give It to Someone Else" – 1:03
24. "Phantom" – 1:04
25. "Less Not More" – 1:03
26. "My Work Is So Behind" – 1:04
27. "Birds in the Trees" – 1:04
28. "Handful of Desire" – 1:04
29. "Moisture" – 1:04
30. "Love Is..." – 1:03
31. "Troubled Man" – 1:04
32. "La La" – 1:04
33. "Loneliness" – 1:04
34. "Nice Old Man" – 1:04
35. "The Talk of Creatures" – 1:04
36. "Fingertips" – 1:04
37. "In Between Dreams" – 1:0
38. "Margaret Freeman" – 1:03
39. "The Coming of the Crow" – 1:04
40. "When We Were Young" – 1:02

• Bonus Tracks (1988 CD release only)

1. "Shut Up Shut Up"
2. "And I Was Alone"
3. "Theme for an American TV Show"
4. "We're a Happy Family/Bali Ha'i"
5. "The Sleeper"
6. "Boy in Love"
7. "Diskomo (Remix)"
8. "Jailhouse Rock"
9. "It's a Man's Man's Man's World"
10. "Hit the Road Jack"

Personnel

• Chris Cutler
  Chris Cutler
  Chris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
  
   – Drums
• Fred Frith
  Fred Frith
  Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
  
   – Musician
• Phil "Snakefinger
  Snakefinger
  Philip Charles Lithman , who performed under the stage name Snakefinger, was an English musician, singer and songwriter. A multi-instrumentalist, he was best known for his guitar and violin work and his collaborations with The Residents.-History:Lithman was born in Tooting, South London, and came...
  
  " Lithman – Guitar, Violin, Vocals
• Lene Lovich
  Lene Lovich
  Lene Lovich is an American singer based in England, who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her most popular hit single was "Lucky Number", first released in 1979.-Early years:...
  
   (vocals on "Picnic Boy")
• Don Preston
  Don Preston
  Donald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an American jazz and rock and roll musician.-Biography:Preston was born into a family of musicians and began studying music at an early age...
  
   – Synthesizer
• The Residents – Arrangers, Composers, Producers, Writers
• Andy Partridge
  Andy Partridge
  Andrew John "Andy" Partridge is an English singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He has been known as Sir John Johns and Melchior and rose to fame as a founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter of the pop/new wave band, XTC. He lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, where he was raised.Partridge also...
  
  - Vocals, Guitar on "Margaret Freeman" (as Sandy Sandwich)