From Langley Park to Memphis

In contrast to Prefab Sprout's previous work, most of the new album's songs were written on keyboard.[15] Perhaps as a result, the album has described as more "sonically soft" than previous works by the band.[16] McAloon's home recording and composing setup at the time included a Roland JX-3P, a Roland JX-10, a Yamaha DX7, an Ensoniq Mirage and a Casiotone. McAloon was most comfortable with the JX-3P for composing. A Fostex B16 was used for recording demos.[10] McAloon deliberately aimed to write more accessible songs than those on the band's earlier records, stating "I've realised that a good simple song is better than a half-successful complicated one".[9] McAloon sought to expand the band's sound to incorporate his favourite elements of popular music, including Gospel music and Broadway, and to reach an audience "seduced by the overall glamour and romanticism".[17] According to Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork, From Langley Park to Memphis includes an eclectic mix of styles including alternative rock ("The Golden Calf"), standards ("Nightingales") and Broadway-style singalong ("Hey Manhattan").[18] Several songs feature American themes, reflected in the album's title.[16] McAloon explained in a 1988 interview that he often drew inspiration from America for his songs because "America remains an inexhaustible source of myths and the extreme".[19]

Stevie Wonder and Pete Townshend appear on the album

Of the album's ten tracks, Thomas Dolby produced "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", "I Remember That", "Knock on Wood" and "The Venus Of The Soup Kitchen". "The King of Rock 'n' Roll" was written in 1985.[20] The lyrics are written from the perspective of a washed-up singer who had a one-hit wonder in the 1950s with a novelty song featuring the chorus “Hot dog, jumping frog, alberquerque”. McAloon was aware of the song's commercial potential early on, and felt it would surprise fans used to the band’s earlier, more cerebral material.[21] When released as the lead single from the album, it became Prefab Sprout’s biggest hit and gave them their only showing on the UK Singles Chart top 10, peaking at number 7.[22] Musically, "I Remember That" is, according to Nils Johansson of Sweden's NSD, a gospel ballad.[23] McAloon considered the song's nostalgic mood a lighter lyrical theme than that of a love song, with the title phrase being "close to romanticism without actually being sloppy".[20] He tried to sing the song with a "lightness of feeling".[24] "I Remember That" was later released as a single in 1993 to promote the greatest hits album A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout.[3] In a 1997 interview, McAloon named "I Remember That" "the best song I've ever written".[25] "Knock on Wood" has been described by Melody Maker's David Stubbs as a "song about breakdown, how the man who jilts will himself be jilted, couched in a beautifully adhesive reggae lilt."[21] The album's closer is "The Venus of the Soup Kitchen". McAloon wanted the song's melody to be far-reaching and resonant, with the chorus expressing "the emotional participation of everyone listening to it". He described the song's meaning in a 1988 interview "Venus travels along the road from Langley Park to Memphis. I have imagined it full of troubled people, people who need a Venus who can cook soup for them".[26] The song features the Andraé Crouch Singers, whose contribution was recorded in Stevie Wonder's studio in Los Angeles.[27]

Jon Kelly produced "Cars and Girls", "Enchanted", "Nightingales" and "Nancy (Let Your Hair Down for Me)". "Cars and Girls" was written in 1985, and played by the band during live appearances that year. Lyrically, the song is a comment on Bruce Springsteen's use of romantic metaphors in his songs.[19] It is often seen as indicating a personal distaste for Springsteen, but McAloon elaborated on the lyrics in a 1992 interview; "The point of the parody is this: not that I think Bruce Springsteen is crap, it's that I think a lot of his audience get into him on a patriotic level that he doesn't intend. They misinterpret him, their enjoyment of him is inaccurate, all very imperialist American. I wanted to write a song about someone who was thick white trash, listening to Springsteen, and saying 'But our lives aren't like that'".[20] "Cars and Girls" was released as the album's lead single but flopped, only reaching number 44.[22] Nevertheless, it has become one of the band's best-known songs. Paddy McAloon has described "Enchanted" as being about "finding something to be excited about, year after year".[28] Thomas Dolby suggested Prince should produce the track, but the album's sound engineer David Leonard failed to find Prince at Sunset Sound Recorders to approach him.[19] McAloon sampled the opening bass run of Glen Campbell's recording of "Wichita Lineman" for the song's bassline.[29]

Barbra Streisand and Bruce Springsteen inspired songs on the album

McAloon wrote "Nightingales" with Barbra Streisand – whose The Broadway Album he was engrossed by – in mind.[30][31] He described it as "the purest song we've done since When Love Breaks Down".[32] McAloon originally envisioned the song featuring a horn solo, but ultimately composed a complex harmonica solo and wrote a letter to Stevie Wonder asking for him to play it.[33] Wonder hadn't heard of Prefab Sprout but nevertheless obliged, adding his own melodic lines to the song.[34] McAloon would later describe his contribution as "so breathtakingly good and precise, even though he said himself it was quite complicated".[13] "Nightingales" was released as the album's fourth single, charting at number 78 in the UK.[22] McAloon has described "Nancy (Let Your Hair Down for Me)" as "a modern love story". The song is about a married couple who work together, with the wife being the husband's boss.[7] "Nancy (Let Your Hair Down for Me)" was among the ten tracks listed in NME's "Alternative Best of Prefab Sprout" in 1992.[20]

Andy Richards produced "Hey Manhattan!", a song McAloon wrote on piano.[34] McAloon originally wanted an American, Isaac Hayes, to sing it.[20] The proposed collaboration was quashed when Hayes' manager wanted more than was offered.[35] The song is about an enthusiastic teenager who arrives in a big city, and McAloon has described the song as not about Manhattan or the United States specifically, but "dreams and ambitions much more than that".[14][9] Pete Townshend provided acoustic guitar for the song during the mixing stage at his studio.[36][14] McAloon was nervous about the song's production during recording, having not worked with Andy Richards before, but ultimately approved of his work.[12] Nevertheless, he'd describe "Hey Manhattan!" as "the one song I'm dissatisfied with the way we realised it. It's pretty but it's a failure.".[20] The song was released as the album's third single, reaching number 72 on the UK Singles Chart.[22]

"The Golden Calf" was self-produced by Paddy McAloon. It is one of the earliest-written songs Prefab Sprout have released, having been composed in 1977 when the band was a guitar-based trio who made music McAloon would describe as "Heavy Metal meeting Disco".[7] McAloon described recording the song for the album as "like doing a cover version because I don’t remember what it was about".[37] McAloon sings in a less breathy tone than usual on the track, which he felt Thomas Dolby would not have allowed and was more in line with his vocals from Swoon.[10] "The Golden Calf" has been described by Andreas Hub of Fachblatt as "a real rocker"[13] and has garnered comparisons to the work of Pete Townshend,[38] Marc Bolan[37] and Del Amitri.[39] The song was offered to American album-oriented rock radio stations by Epic in advance promotion of the album.[8] "The Golden Calf" was released as the album's fifth and final single, and promoted by the band with a performance on the children's television programme Get Fresh.[40] It charted at number 82 in the UK.[22]