By the time Gilbert O’Sullivan’s debut album Himself was released in August 1971, the UK record-buying public were already quite familiar with this singular composer-singer-pianist thanks to his debut single, Nothing Rhymed (October 1970).

However, as interesting as ‘Nothing Rhymed’ was, the public’s alertness to Gilbert O’Sullivan was largely due to his image. With his flat cap, pudding-basin haircut and Charlie Chaplin jacket, Gilbert was simply unforgettable. The music press was understandably wary of such blatant publicity-seeking but the public, on the other hand, was amused, intrigued and baffled by this plaintive, piano-thumping Buster Keaton character, but most importantly, it was aware of him.

When Himself finally appeared in August 1971, the public’s anticipation and appetite was stoked; the LP reached number 5 and stayed in the UK album charts for 86 weeks. Listening again forty years on to this ambitious, thoughtful, varied and intensely musical record, it’s not hard to hear why the Melody Maker’s Michael Watts called Gilbert, “the only genuinely interesting and original new talent to appear in the Britain in the seventies.”

-    The first in Salvo’s Gilbert O’Sullivan `The Singer And His Songs’ reissue programme of expanded original albums, compilations and box sets.  

-    Himself features the original album plus 8 bonus tracks including singles, B sides and Gilbert’s remarkable first two demos (never released on CD before)

-    Digipack presentation recreates the original gatefold sleeve and continues the Victoriana theme throughout the booklet    

-    - Gilbert is touring in the UK in the autumn of 2011 and in the UK and Europe in spring 2011 – full details on www.gilbertosullivan.net

1.    Intro
2.    January Git
3.    Bye-Bye
4.    Permissive Twit
5.    Matrimony
6.    Independent Air
7.    Nothing Rhymed
8.    Too Much Attention
9.    Susan Van Heusen
10.    If I Don’t Get You (Back Again)
11.    Thunder And Lightning
12.    Houdini Said
13.    Doing The Best I Can
14.    Outro

Bonus Tracks

15.    Disappear (original demo)
16.    What Can I Do (original demo)
17    Mr Moody’s Garden (B side `I Wish I Could Cry’)
18. Everybody Knows (B side `Nothing Rhymed’)
19. Underneath The Blanket Go (Single)
20.    We Will (Single)
21. I Didn’t Know What To Do (B Side `We Will’)
       22. No Matter How I Try (Single)