At first glance it’s hard to imagine less likely candidates for a lavish singles box set than Emerson Lake & Palmer. Yet here we are. Singles comprises 12 seven-inch singles, from 1972’s tender Greg Lake ballad Lucky Man (a Top 20 hit in Holland) to the 1993 version of I Believe In Father Christmas re-recorded for the The Return Of The Manticore collection. They’re packed into a sturdy box, they all have their original picture sleeve, and each is on different coloured vinyl. There are rather skimpy sleeve-notes, a briefer-still introduction from Carl Palmer, who informs us this was “an idea I had”, and each sleeve is re-presented as a seven-inch art print, so those who have long-desired a picture of the ELP-as-Bee-Gees Love Beach sleeve, which graced the splendid single version of Joaquin Rodrigo’s Canario, need desire no more.
Since ELP didn’t really do singles, the compilers have been creative, so global releases were trawled. The Japanese version of manages to get the song title wrong, but, splendidly, was an Angolan release, although what the upstanding folk of Luanda made of Lake’s plaintive, mostly acoustic strum must remain a mystery. Meanwhile, the US promo versionmakes the cut.
