'Shine' was released in 1986 as a single by Mike Oldfield, featuring Jon Anderson on vocals. It barely scraped the UK singles chart, reaching number 100, but peaked at number 31 in the German singles chart.
If you know anything about Eighties pop music, you will remember Donna Summer's hit single 'State of independence' from 1982. Jon and Vangelis, who wrote the song, recorded the song in 1981 on their album 'Friends of Mr. Cairo', but it turns out they also released it as a single in 1984.
'Outside of this (Inside of that)' was a single taken from Jon & Vangelis' 1981 album 'The friends of mr. Cairo'. The track was edited from 5 minutes to 4 minutes and 10 seconds for the single.
Jon Anderson released 'Animation' in 1982 during the Yes hiatus following the release of their album 'Drama'. At the time, Anderson was collaborating with Vangelis and Mike Oldfield and exploring new age and electronic pop.
In December 1985, Jon Anderson released 'Three ships', an album featuring versions of old Christmas carols and some original material. The single 'Easier said than done', composed by Vangelis, was released as a single almost at the same time.
'And when the night comes' was released as the second single from Jon & Vangelis' third album 'Private collection'. The single failed to make any chart impact.
'The friends of Mr. Cairo' is the title track of Jon & Vangelis' second album, released in 1981. On the album, the track lasts 12 minutes, but is edited down to a little more than 4 minutes for this single release. It is still a rather confusing track, which didn't have any commercial appeal.
Jon Anderson and Vangelis had their biggest hit together in 1982, when they released 'I'll find my way home'. It reached number 1 in Switzerland and number 4 in the Dutch Top 40, although it didn't chart in the UK.
Most people know the songs 'I'll find my way home' and 'I hear you now', recorded by Jon and Vangelis in the Eighties. The fact that they released another album together in 1991 is less wellknown. The album was called 'Page of life' and 'Wisdom chain' was the first single released from that album. The single flopped, and there were no further albums by the duo.
My wife went to a Kringloop store today and brought back a few singles for me. One of them was 'Surrender' by Jon Anderson. There were two problems with that: (1) I already had the singles and (2) the sleeve contained the wrong disc. And the latter was true for the other two singles as well. Well, at least the intention was good.
Jon Anderson, best known from his work with Yes, and the Greek synth wizard Vangelis worked together on a number of albums. 'He is sailing' is taken from their album 'Private collection', which contains eight lengthy tracks. It was nowhere near as successful as their 1981 singles 'I'll find my way home' and 'I hear you now', which is surprising as this track stands up well next to those two. This is probably also why no further singles were released: their next single was a re-release of 'State of independence', the song that was successfully covered by Donna Summer in 1982.
