Cold Fact by Rodriguez

Cold Fact, Rodriguez's debut album, came out on Sussex in March 1970 and died in America almost on arrival. Somewhere else, though, it took on a life of its own: South Africa got it through A&M in 1971, and in 1976 a stash of several thousand copies turned up in a New York warehouse and sold out in Australia within weeks. It reached 23 on the Australian chart in 1978 and hung around for fifty-five weeks; Rodriguez toured there in 1979.

The songs deserve the cult: hazy folk rock with a psychedelic tint and a cool, detached voice, with "Sugar Man" the eerie, shimmering centerpiece. It went platinum in South Africa and five times platinum in Australia, yet stayed a secret at home until the Light in the Attic reissues and the Oscar-winning 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man finally brought him to 60 Minutes and David Letterman. Coming from Reality followed.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.