Amateur Hour (song)

"Amateur Hour"
"Amateur Hour"
	German 7" single
Single by Sparks
from the album Kimono My House
B-side	"Lost and Found"
Released	1974
Genre	Bubblegum
Length	3:37
Label	Island
Songwriter(s)	Ron Mael
Producer(s)	Muff Winwood
Sparks singles chronology
Licensed audio
	"Amateur Hour" on YouTube

"Amateur Hour" is a song by Sparks. It was released as the second single, released by Island Records, from their 1974 album Kimono My House. Bassist Martin Gordon was requested to replace his original bass part (recorded using a Rickenbacker 4001 bass) with a Fender Precision bass, belonging to his subsequent replacement in the band.^[2]

A re-recording was produced in 1997 for the retrospective Plagiarism album. This new version was given a complete electronic synth-pop overhaul and was performed with Erasure.

On 25 June 2009, the song "Amateur Hour" was featured in a stunt when UK magician and mentalist Mark Cairns predicted that radio personality George Lamb would choose the Sparks song, in a free choice from a list of 100 tracks that had been recently played on Lamb's BBC Radio 6 Music show.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing

"Amateur Hour" – 3:37
"Lost and Found" – 3:21

Personnel

Russell Mael – vocals
Ron Mael – keyboards
Martin Gordon – bass
Adrian Fisher – guitar
Norman "Dinky" Diamond – drums

Chart positions

Chart	Peak position
UK Singles Chart	7
German Singles Chart	12
Irish Singles Chart	19

References

^ Shade, Chris (2005). "Sparks - Kimono My House". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. London: Cassell Illustrated. p. 324.
^ "Kimono My House Sessions * Martin Gordon". Martingordon.de. Archived from the original on 2016-11-14. Retrieved 2016-10-09.