Bed-Sitter Images

Bed Sitter Images is the debut studio album of folk artist Al Stewart, released in 1967, and again in a revised edition with a new cover picture in 1970. The songs were orchestrated by Alexander Faris. The cover of the first 1967 edition spells "Bed Sitter" without a hyphen, as do many reviews and Al Stewart's official website. The album and its title track are both named on the record label as Bedsitter Images, with neither hyphen nor space between 'Bed' and 'sitter'.

Bedsitter Images
Original album cover - 1967
Studio album by Al Stewart
Released	6 October 1967
Recorded	September 1967
Genre	Folk[1] baroque folk[2]
Length	41:28 (1967 release)
Label	CBS
Producer	Roy Guest
Al Stewart chronology
Bedsitter Images (1967) Love Chronicles (1969)
Alternative cover
Alternate 1970 UK release

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]

The album is commercially available as part of a 2-CD box set To Whom It May Concern, which contains Stewart's first three albums as well as both sides of his first single and the tracks added to the 1970 re-release, which also featured a new cover, and was known as The First Album (Bed-Sitter Images). A new CD reissue in 2007 (Collectors' Choice Music) contains all tracks from both versions of the album, plus bonus tracks.

The album has also been released in Japan as The News from Spain (The First Album), with the addition of some later recordings by Stewart.

Track listing

1967 release

Side 1

1. "Bedsitter Images" – 3:20
2. "Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres" – 3:59
3. "The Carmichaels" – 2:52
4. "Scandinavian Girl" – 2:35
5. "Pretty Golden Hair" – 3:39
6. "Denise at 16" – 3:18

Side 2

1. "Samuel, Oh How You've Changed" – 4:00
2. "Cleave to Me" – 2:53
3. "A Long Way Down from Stephanie" – 3:27
4. "Ivich" – 4:24
5. "Beleeka Doodle Day" – 6:57

1970 UK Re-release

All songs written by Al Stewart except where noted

Side 1

1. "Lover Man" (Mike Heron) – 2:31
2. "Swiss Cottage Manoeuvres" – 3:59
3. "The Carmichaels" – 2:52
4. "Clifton in the Rain" – 2:41
5. "Bed Sitter Images" – 3:20

Side 2

1. "Denise at 16" – 3:18
2. "Samuel, Oh How You've Changed!" – 4:00
3. "A Long Way Down from Stephanie" – 3:27
4. "Ivich" – 4:24
5. "Beleeka Doodle Day" – 6:57

2007 Collectors' Choice Music edition bonus tracks

• "Go Your Way" – 1:51
• "My Contemporaries" – 0:30

Personnel

• Al Stewart – guitar, vocals
• Alexander Faris – conductor, orchestral arrangements

Technical

• Mike Claydon – engineer
• Sophie Litchfield – photography

Notes

1. Larkin, Colin (1999). All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books. p. 172. ISBN 0-7535-0354-9. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021.
2. Unterberger, Richie. Al Stewart - The Bedsitter Images (1967) Review at AllMusic. Retrieved March 30, 2024.

References

• AlStewart.com: Bedsitter Images
• AlStewart.com: The First Album (Bedsitter Images)