Cold Fact

Cold Fact is the debut album from American singer-songwriter Rodriguez. It was released in the United States on the Sussex label in March 1970. The album sold very poorly in the United States (Rodriguez was himself an unknown in the U.S.), but managed to sell well in both South Africa and Australia,[8] with Rodriguez touring Australia in 1979.[9]

Cold Fact
Studio album by
Rodriguez
ReleasedMarch 1970
RecordedAugust–September 1969
StudioTera Shirma Studios, Detroit
Genre
Length32:23
LabelSussex
Producer
Rodriguez chronology
Cold Fact
(1970)		 Coming from Reality
(1971)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
The Austin Chronicle[3]
Pitchfork8.0[4]
The New Zealand Herald[5]
PopMatters8/10[6]
Rolling Stone Germany[7]

In 1971 the album was released in South Africa by A&M Records. In 1976, several thousand copies of Cold Fact were found in a New York warehouse and sold out in Australia in a few weeks. It went to No. 23 on the Australian album charts in 1978, staying on the charts for fifty-five weeks. In 1998 Cold Fact was awarded a platinum disc in South Africa, and was five-times platinum in Australia. Rodriguez has since toured South Africa and Australia with much success, but remained relatively unknown in his native country of the US.[8] This began to change after the reissues of his albums in the US by Light in the Attic Records in 2008 and 2009, and even further in 2012 with the Academy Award winning documentary film Searching for Sugar Man, which soon led to appearances on major American television shows like 60 Minutes and The Late Show with David Letterman.

Cold Fact has sold 201,000 since Nielsen SoundScan started tracking in 1991, 173,000 of those after the film opened, 98,000 in the wake of the Oscar win. Coming from Reality has moved 105,000 albums, 99,000 since the movie hit, 60,000 post-Academy Awards. And the soundtrack album (which was picked up by Sony’s Legacy catalog division) boasts 152,000 in sales.[10]

Track listing

All songs written by Sixto Rodriguez, except (5, 10) by Gary Harvey, Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey.

No.TitleLength
1."Sugar Man"3:45
2."Only Good for Conversation"2:25
3."Crucify Your Mind"2:30
4."This Is Not a Song, It's an Outburst: Or, the Establishment Blues"2:05
5."Hate Street Dialogue"2:30
6."Forget It"1:50
7."Inner City Blues"3:23
8."I Wonder"2:30
9."Like Janis"2:32
10."Gommorah (A Nursery Rhyme)"2:20
11."Rich Folks Hoax"3:05
12."Jane S. Piddy"2:54

Personnel

There were no musicians credited on the original album sleeve, but Rodriguez and Mike Theodore have filled in the gaps:[8]

  • Rodriguez – vocals, acoustic guitar
  • Dennis Coffey – electric guitar, bass
  • Mike Theodore – keyboards, brass and string arrangements
  • Andrew Smith – drums
  • Bob Pangborn – percussion
  • Bob Babbitt – bass
  • Detroit Symphony (Leader Gordon Staples) – strings
  • Leader Carl Reatz – horns (trombones, baritone sax)
  • Friends and family of Joyce Vincent and Telma Hopkins – children's choir on "Gommorah"

Technical
  • Recorded in Detroit in August and September 1969.
  • Arranged and produced by Mike Theodore and Dennis Coffey.
  • Engineering by Mike Theodore at Tera-Shirma Studio, Detroit.
  • Ray Hall at R.C.A. New York – remix
  • Ransier and Anderson – photography
  • Nancy Chester (See / Hear! & How!) – cover design

Samples and features

"Sugar Man" was sampled in "You're Da Man", from the 2001 Nas album Stillmatic.

In 2014, the French Deep House and Electro music producer Tristan Casara featured "Hate Street Dialogue" on his album for a new release credited to "The Avener Feat. Rodriguez". The release The Wanderings of the Avener charted in France.[11]

Compilations

"Sugar Man" was the opening track on David Holmes' 2002 compilation Come Get It I Got It.

Chart performance
Chart (1978) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[12] 23
Chart (2013–2014) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[13] 11
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[14] 50
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[15] 180
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[16] 4
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[17] 54
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[18] 18
French Albums (SNEP)[19] 81
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[20] 20
South African Albums (RISA)[21] 16
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[22] 17
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[23] 10
Chart (2017) Peak
position
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[24] 78
Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[25] Platinum 50,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[26] Silver 60,000*

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. Delingpole, James (August 11, 2009). "Sixto Rodriguez interview: the rock'n'roll Lord Lucan". The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
  2. Allmusic review
  3. "Rodriguez: Cold Fact Album Review". www.austinchronicle.com.
  4. "Cold Fact". Pitchfork Media. 17 September 2008.
  5. - Cold Fact. The New Zealand Herald review
  6. "Rodriguez: Cold Fact". PopMatters. September 18, 2008.
  7. "Rodriguez: Cold Fact". Rolling Stone.
  8. "The Official Rodriguez Website: Cold Fact". Sugarman.org. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  9. Watt, Andrew (February 28, 2013). "International man of mystery". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  10. "Rodriguez Label Chief: 'Our Dealings with Clarence Avant Were Always Positive'". Billboard. 13 June 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  11. "lescharts.com - The Avener feat. Rodriguez - Hate Street Dialogue". lescharts.com.
  12. "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 4 March 2013" (PDF) (1201). Pandora Archive. March 19, 2013: 2. Retrieved 19 August 2014. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. "Australiancharts.com – Rodriguez – Cold Fact". Hung Medien.
  14. "Ultratop.be – Rodriguez – Cold Fact" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  15. "Ultratop.be – Rodriguez – Cold Fact" (in French). Hung Medien.
  16. "Danishcharts.dk – Rodriguez – Cold Fact". Hung Medien.
  17. "Dutchcharts.nl – Rodriguez – Cold Fact" (in Dutch). Hung Medien.
  18. "Rodriguez: Cold Fact" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  19. "Lescharts.com – Rodriguez – Cold Fact". Hung Medien.
  20. "Charts.nz – Rodriguez – Cold Fact". Hung Medien.
  21. "South African Top 20 Albums Chart". RSG (Recording Industry of South Africa). Archived from the original on March 15, 2013.
  22. "Spanishcharts.com – Rodriguez – Cold Fact". Hung Medien.
  23. "Swedishcharts.com – Rodriguez – Cold Fact". Hung Medien.
  24. "Offiziellecharts.de – Rodriguez – Cold Fact" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  25. Irvin, Jim and Phil Alexander (2007-11-01). Mojo collection: the ultimate music companion; brought to you by the makers of Mojo magazine. Canongate.
  26. "British album certifications – Rodriguez – Cold Fact". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Cold Fact in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
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