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Five Great Gift Ideas from The Reels

Five Great Gift Ideas from the Reels is an extended play released by Australian band the Reels in November 1980. It was released during the recording sessions for the band's album Quasimodo's Dream. The EP consisted of 5 tracks: 4 covers and 1 original. It charted at #12 in Australia and was certified gold. "According to My Heart", a cover of the 1961 Jim Reeves song was also controversially included on their album Quasimodo's Dream.[1]

Five Great Gift Ideas from the Reels
EP by
The Reels
ReleasedNovember 1980
Recorded1980 at Albert Studios
GenreSynthpop, new wave
Length14:53
LabelMercury
ProducerColin Newham, David Mason
The Reels chronology
The Reels
(1979) 		Five Great Gift Ideas from the Reels
(1980) 		Quasimodo's Dream
(1981)

The EP was produced by Bruce Brown and Russell Dunlop, featured mainly covers, including Jim Reeves' "According to My Heart", and Freda Payne's "Band of Gold". "Neon Rainbow" was a song made popular by the Box Tops. "According to My Heart" featured a folksy music video filmed at the farm of Australian country music star Smokey Dawson.

The EP did, however, have one original; "The Bombs Dropped on Xmas", co-written by Mason, Newham and Ansel

Engineer Tony Cohen later said, "They were gentle, decent people and we got along well. The Reels didn't try to do anything shocking, they just puttered along in their own way. They thought it was a joke to hire the punk rock dude to record beautiful sounds.[2]

Track listing

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Side One

  1. "You Got Soul" (Johnny Nash) - 3:03
  2. "Neon Rainbow" (Thompson) - 3:00

Side Two

  1. "The Bombs Dropped on Xmas" (Mason-Newham-Ansel) - 3:13
  2. "According to My Heart" (Jim Reeves) - 3:12
  3. "Band of Gold" (Wayne-Dunbar) - 2:25

Charts

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Weekly charts

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Weekly chart performance for Five Great Gift Ideas from The Reels
Chart (1981) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[3][4] 12

Year-end charts

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Year-end chart performance for Five Great Gift Ideas from The Reels
Chart (1981) Position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[3] 94

References

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  1. ^ Studio Connections - Quasimodo's Dream Archived 2009-09-13 at the Wayback Machine,
  2. ^ Tony Cohen with John Olson (2023). Half Deaf, Completely Mad. Black Inc. Books. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-74382-308-8.
  3. ^ a b "National Top 100 Singles for 1981". Kent Music Report. 4 January 1982. p. 7. Retrieved 11 January 2022 – via Imgur.
  4. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 249. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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