The Birthday Party (The Idle Race album)

The Birthday Party was the first album by The Idle Race, a psychedelic pop band, released in 1968 (see 1968 in music).

The Birthday Party
Studio album by The Idle Race
Released	October 1968 Re-Issues 1976, 2014
Recorded	1967-68 Advision Studios London, UK
Genre	Psychedelic pop
Length	31:36
Label	Liberty Records Sunset (Re-Issue) Parlophone (Re-Issue)
Producer	Eddie Offord & Gerald Chevin
The Idle Race chronology
The Birthday Party (1968) Idle Race (1969)

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Allmusic	link

This quasi-concept album was the first to be composed almost entirely of songs by a young Birmingham guitarist/singer named Jeff Lynne. The LP came in a gatefold sleeve, the first of its kind since the Beatles' Sgt Pepper and the Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request albums. The inside sleeve art included a mock birthday feast attended by many British celebrities, including most of the Radio 1 disc jockeys, the Beatles, the Duke of Windsor, actor Warren Mitchell in his role as Alf Garnett, and group leader Jeff Lynne as an eight-year-old schoolboy. In the U.S. the cover art was different with a rather psychedelic-styled paisley pattern behind the band.

While warmly received by critics, the record failed to chart in the U.K. or the U.S.

The album was re-issued in 1976 by Liberty on their budget-price label Sunset, although in a non-gatefold sleeve with different design, to capitalise on Electric Light Orchestra's success. A further re-issue came in 2014 by Parlophone, as the Liberty back catalogue had long since been acquired by EMI Records, for Record Store Day, in a limited edition on gold vinyl.