Crime of the Century by Supertramp

Crime of the Century, Supertramp's third album, came out on A&M in 1974, and it's the one where everything clicked. After two flops, founders Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson rebuilt the band around drummer Bob Siebenberg (billed back then as Bob C. Benberg), bassist Dougie Thomson and John Helliwell on sax, clarinet and vocals, and brought in Ken Scott to co-produce.

The result is prog rock with the fat trimmed off: grand, cinematic, meticulously recorded, but built on songs you can hum, with the two writers' voices pulling in different directions. "School" became an album-rock radio favorite, and American listeners flipped the "Dreamer" single to champion its B-side, "Bloody Well Right", which reached 35 on the Hot 100. At home and in Canada and Germany it went top 5, it was their first to chart in the US, and in Canada it eventually went diamond. The dedication, "To Sam", nods to the Dutch millionaire who bankrolled the band from 1969 to 1972.

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