Burlesque

Family's 13th UK single, horn-led B-side a Bandstand outtake. Peaked at UK #13 on 28 October — second-highest UK chart placing after In My Own Time (July 1971, #4) — finally delivering the daytime Radio 1 airplay the band had otherwise struggled for, with Tony Blackburn and Jimmy Young rotating the record.

Boucher on US Burlesque traction — by the Elton John US-tour period (Oct–Nov 1972), Caroline Boucher reported in Disc ('Family at Peace', c. November 1972) that the single was doing real American work: "They are well pleased with the success 'Burlesque' is having here and it is beginning to do well in America. It was written by Roger and Charlie Whitney and is probably one of the most commercial things yet to come from the band. That has also done much to bolster their flagging egos." Chapman noted that Reprise's US promotion machine was behind the push: "Their American record company is really promoting them well. It's really necessary in America to have the whole machine working with you or you may as well forget the whole thing."

Nik Logan identified Burlesque as the debut of Poli Palmer's Moog synthesiser on a Family record — "the Moog makes its debut discreetly on the previously mentioned Burlesque, the opening cut, where Chapman's vocal — bluesier than it's previously been heard — rides out of the careening rhythms and insidious riffs." (Phonograph Record Magazine, September 1972; full Olympic-Studios feature on the Bandstand LP entry.)

US review — Rob Houghton in Phonograph Record Magazine (October 1972) called Burlesque "a perfect single for the radio stations, which, with its vicious neanderthal beat could provide the airwaves with the most excitement since Hendrix." With the caveat: "Outside of the fact that it is impossible to understand what the hell Chapman is saying without the lyrics kindly provided on the sleeve, Burlesque is one of his best performances." (See Press Archive: Bandstand (Phonograph Record review).)