In Search of Eddie Riff is an album by British musician Andy Mackay, first released on Island Records in 1974. The album was released during a brief hiatus from Roxy Music's recording schedule. A first version came out in 1974, with nine tracks, the lead single being a jazz cover of "Ride of the Valkyries". Later the album was re-released with a different track listing; this is the version that was issued on all other vinyl and cassette reissues of the album. Three songs were added to the new version - the B-side "Time Regained" (edited), the 1975 single "Wild Weekend", and the new cover "The Long and Winding Road" - and two songs were removed, "Summer Sun" and "Four Legged Friend". A CD version released in 1999 contains all the songs (although the "Time Regained" B-side was not restored to its full five-minute length) with the addition of three live rehearsal tracks.

Background

Mackay has said that he intended for the album to showcase his different musical interests: "classical music, Motown, fifties rock and roll instrumentals, film music, electronic effects and partly for my wife Jane, who I had recently married, country and western."

Reception

Reviews were mixed, and the Trouser Press Record Guide has described it as "merely a display of his technical abilities." AllMusic, however, calls it "highly listenable" and "fun stuff from the artsy realm of serious U.K. musicians" which overall is "good background party music" with some moments of transcendent simplicity.

Track listings

First version Second version CD version (2003)

Personnel

Recorded and mixed and Island Studios in February 1974. Engineer: Phill Brown. Assistant engineers: Dave Hutchins, Richard Elen, Brian Pickering. Theo Bergstrom - photography Additional personnel listed on 1975 re-release: