Liner Notes
'Today' (Chapman / Weider / Whitney) b/w 'Song For Lots' (Chapman / Whitney) on Reprise RS 27005 in the UK on 1 May 1970; the US issue was Reprise 0930. The single did not chart — a disappointing performance given the A Song For Me LP's UK #4 peak earlier in the year — but kept Family's Reprise profile visible on the chart-watcher pages through the April promotional cycle. 'Today' had been recorded at Olympic Studios during the A Song For Me sessions with Glyn Johns engineering, but didn't make the LP; 'Song For Lots' was a new recording put together specifically for the single's B-side.
"Released in May 1970, 'Today,' backed by 'Song For Lots,' was a great single, but it failed to do very much as far as the charts were concerned… one of their most memorable ballads; John Weider's influence in particular being noticeable on the A-side." Both sides were restored as bonus tracks on the 1998 Essential! CD reissue of Anyway. (See Press Archive: Anyway — sleeve notes by Robert M. Corich, Essential! CD reissue ESMCD615, 1998.)
The single was plugged on BBC-2's Disco 2 (the Saturday-night precursor to The Old Grey Whistle Test) on 9 May 1970 — Family performed 'Today' alongside the Groundhogs on that episode. No video or off-air recording of the broadcast survives; like most of the Disco 2 1970 run, the master tape was wiped from the BBC archive.
Album Reviews1
Reviews gathered with this release and kept on the album page rather than in the general Press Archive.
Today — Melody Maker single review
Contemporary single review. Melody Maker was struck by how quietly Family approached “Today.” Roger Chapman sings with unusual restraint while the instrumental phrasing remains intricate, with a slide-guitar sound giving the arrangement an almost sitar-like colour.
The reviewer saw no attempt to chase the charts or soften the band’s identity. Instead, the record’s charm lay in its difference: it might become enormous or be ignored altogether, but either way it ranked among Family’s most lyrical and beautiful recordings to that point.
Read the preserved review in the Family Bandstand Press Archive ↗
All Pressings3
Every known issue, variant, reissue, and repress across all countries and formats. Identical catalogue entries with multiple Discogs listings are grouped into a single row.
Gallery13 images
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