"In For a Penny" is a single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 from rock band Slade

Slade

Slade are an English rock band from Wolverhampton, who rose to prominence during the glam rock era of the early 1970s. With 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones, the British Hit Singles & Albums names them as the most successful British group of the 1970s based on sales of singles...

 which appeared on the album Nobody's Fools

Nobody's Fools (album)

Nobody's Fools is the 5th studio album by the British rock group Slade. It was released in March, 1976 and reached position #14 on the UK album charts....

. It was written by lead singer Noddy Holder

Noddy Holder

Neville John "Noddy" Holder MBE is an English musician and actor. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist with the rock band Slade....

 and bassist Jim Lea

Jim Lea

Jim Lea , is an English musician, most notable for playing bass guitar, keyboards, violin, guitar, and singing backing vocals in Slade.-Career:...

. The single was released in 1975 and peaked at #11 in the UK, spending 8 weeks on the chart. The track itself is notable for being the only track in Slade's career to feature accordion

Accordion

The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....

.

The single peaked at #263 for 1975 on rateyourmusic.

Record Mirror magazine voted the single #6 on the top 10 best singles in February 1976.

The first 30,000 copies of the single had a picture sleeve.

Background

The track was chosen as a single because it was reminiscent of the rhythm of Coz I Luv You

Coz I Luv You

"Coz I Luv You" is a song by Slade, written by Noddy Holder and Jim Lea and produced by Chas Chandler. It was the band's second hit single in the UK and the first of six number one singles. It was released on 30/10/1971 and was last seen on the charts on 05/02/1972 at #44...

. Around the time of this track, Slade manager and producer Chas Chandler

Chas Chandler

Bryan James "Chas" Chandler was an English musician, record producer and manager of several successful music acts....

 was mixing tracks in the studio while John Lennon

John Lennon

John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

 poked his head around the door and said "The singer's good. He sounds like me".

The track was recorded at New York's Record Plant along with the rest of the Nobody's Fools album. The track features the longest guitar solo any Slade single has.

Just before the second solo in the track, Holder shouts the line "Ee, they got a band" which was taken from a British TV advert in which a female character mistakes the entrance of threatening gangsters carrying violin cases for the arrival of a music combo.

The track did not have a promotional video but was performed on Top of The Pops and Supersonic.

"In For a Penny" has featured on many Slade compilations including Slade Smashes

Slade Smashes!

Slade Smashes was a compilation album by the British glam/hard rock group Slade. It was released November 1, 1980 and reached number 21 on the UK charts....

, Slade's Greats

Slade's Greats

Slade's Greats was a compilation album by the British glam/hard rock group Slade. It was released May 12, 1984 and reached number 89 on the UK charts....

, Wall of Hits

Wall Of Hits

Wall of Hits was a compilation album by the British glam/hardrock group Slade. It was released November 11, 1991 and reached number 34 in the UK charts. It also included the last two singles recorded by the original lineup...

, Greatest Hits

Feel The Noize- Greatest Hits

Feel The Noize- The Very Best of Slade was a compilation album by the British glam/hardrock group Slade. It was released in 1997 and reached number 19 in the UK charts, encouraging other Glam rockers to jump on the band wagon and release their own 'Greatest Hits' packages.A huge resurgence in...

, The Very Best of Slade

The Very Best Of Slade

-Chart performance:-Personnel:*Noddy Holder - lead vocals, rhythm guitar*Dave Hill - lead guitar*Jim Lea - bass guitar*Don Powell - drums...

 and The Slade Box. The title of the single was also used for an American compilation released "In For a Penny: Raves & Faves".

In a early 1986 Slade fan club magazine interview, guitarist Dave Hill spoke of the song. "Yeah, that seemed a mistake! When we came back from touring in the States and released that, I think a lot of fans were disappointed, though I personally liked the track. They thought we'd come back with something heavy, so it may have seemed lightweight to them. It was recorded at the Record Plant, New York, as part of the "Nobody's Fools

Nobody's Fools (album)

Nobody's Fools is the 5th studio album by the British rock group Slade. It was released in March, 1976 and reached position #14 on the UK album charts....

"/America project."

"In For a Penny" was voted #3 of the top three Slade single sleeves in the Slade Fan Club Poll of 1979.

Promotion

No promotional video was created for the single. At the time, Slade had started their two year exile to the United States. Bassist/co-writer Jim Lea remembered the band returning to Britain to film Top of The Pops, and watching the finished results the following day at Freddie Mercury's

Freddie Mercury

Freddie Mercury was a British musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range...

 flat. Apparently on the same show, Queen

Queen (band)

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

 were appearing with their single "Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera...

" video for the first time. Lea recalled being totally knocked out watching the Queen film - whilst Mercury didn't realise what a tremendous achievement his group had made.

Critical reception

Upon release, Record Mirror magazine reviewed the single and gave an overall thumbs up, symbolising a hit. "A good Beatles-ish kind of tune, written of course by Jimmy and Noddy, with a good lyric. The arrangement is modest, featuring some nice melodic guitar breaks and the harmonies are perhaps the best thing Slade have ever done. This shows the group breaking new territory and doing it very well."

Melody Maker wrote a negative review of the single. "Much of Slade's recent work has been afflicted by a definite paucity of ideas, and this single does nothing to arrest their decline. The song is not particularly ambitious, is handled with no great enthusiasm and is weakly constructed. Noddy Holder, never one of rock's more versatile singers, is at his most uncomfortable here with a throat scrapping vocal set against a background of limited musical intelligence. There are, no doubt enough Slade loyalists left in the country to ensure that this will make an appearance in the charts, but it promises little for the future of the band."

Chart performance

Chart (1975)	Peak position	Total weeks
Irish Singles Chart	12	5
Swedish Singles Chart	14	1
UK Singles Chart	11	8

Personnel

• Noddy Holder: Lead vocals and guitar
• Jim Lea: Bass guitar and accordion
• Dave Hill: Lead guitar
• Don Powell: Drums