“Sebastian” by Cockney Rebel

"Sebastian" was Cockney Rebel's opening shot, the 1973 debut single from The Human Menagerie, and it made for a grand entrance even by glam rock's standards. Steve Harley wrote it before there was any band to play it: after three years training as a journalist, he had worked the open mics of London's folk clubs and then taken to busking, and "Sebastian" was one of the songs he tried out on passers-by. He later remembered it as six minutes of gothic poetry that earned him absolutely nothing.

Once Cockney Rebel had formed and signed with EMI, they cut it at Air Studios in London in the summer of 1973 with Neil Harrison producing, and they didn't do it by halves: the band is joined by an orchestra of more than 50 players and a choir, with orchestral arrangements by Andrew Powell.

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