Sid Sings is Sid Vicious's first and only solo album, released posthumously through Virgin Records in the same year of his tragic death, 1979. It's predominantly a Live Album, a Greatest Hits Album as well as a Cover Album, with Vicious's renditions of "My Way" and "Something Else" as the best-known hit singles.
While the album sold well due to Sid Vicious's rise in legend after his death it's generally not seen as a well-produced or good record for that matter. Apart from his deliberately bad vocals, there is only one song, "Belsen Was A Gas", where he had a hand in as co-writer. All other tracks are covers, many recorded live in bad sound quality. Many people who bought it seldom played it ever again. Still, Vicious himself is not entirely to blame, seeing this record was hastily cobbled together from whatever tracks the studio had lying around. And for people interested in his songs it is the most essential legacy available.
Tracklist
Side One- "Born to Lose" (3:08)
- "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (3:19)
- "Take a Chance on Me" (2:53)
- "Stepping Stone" (2:19)
- "My Way" (3:55)
Side Two
- "Belsen Was a Gas" (2:11)
- "Something Else" (2:07)
- "Chatterbox" (1:51)
- "Search and Destroy" (3:03)
- "Chinese Rocks" (2:43)
- "I Killed the Cat" (1:04)
I troped a cat, not in a gay way:
- Alliterative Title: "Sid Sings". Also the track "Stepping Stone".
- Cover Album: All songs are covers:
- "Born To Lose", "Chinese Rocks", and "Chatterbox" are covers by Johnny Thunders. "Chinese Rocks" would later be covered by The Ramones on End of the Century (1979).
- "I Wanna Be Your Dog" is a cover by The Stooges, from their debut The Stooges. "Search and Destroy" is another Stooges cover, but from their album Raw Power.
- "Take A Chance On Me" is a cover by The Heartbreakers.
- "My Way" is a cover by Frank Sinatra, in itself based on "Comme d'habitude" by Claude François.
- "Belsen Was A Gas" was originally recorded by The Sex Pistols, but is heard here in a solo version.
- "Something Else" and "C'mon Everybody" are Eddie Cochran covers.
- Covers Always Lie: It's debatable how far Sid actually sings...
- Dancing Is Serious Business: During his stage show Sid remarks: "It's nice to see someone dancing for a change."
- Dreadful Musician:
- Sid Vicious is not even trying to be a good singer or guitarist. He misses most of his pitches and his bass playing is awful. He is audibly drunk and/or high most of the time and the recordings are all very lo-fi.
- For some reason they wanted Sid to actually sing "My Way" in a Frank Sinatra style, and he wanted to 'sing' it in a punk style. They compromised on doing half each way, but Sid still purposefully did the Sinatra part as bad as humanly possible.
- Face on the Cover: Sid's sneering face.
- Greatest Hits Album: All tracks were just compiled from whatever recordings were available by Sid.
- "I Am Great!" Song: "My Way" has Sid Vicious lamenting over his life and how, despite what he did, he still did things in his personal way.
- Live Album: All of the tracks are live except "My Way". They were recorded between 28, 29 and 30 September 1978 in Max's Kansas City, New York.
- Ode to Intoxication: Sid poses with a beer bottle on the cover. He was also under the influence during all recordings.
- One-Word Title: "Chatterbox".
- Outsider Music: The album is close to being such a record.
- Punk Rock: The entire record is completely punk in the sense that nobody seemed to care how awful it sounded.
- Record Producer: John "Boogie" Tiberi, credited as "The Engineer".
- Referenced by...: The cover of "My Way" was later used in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas, an ad for Polish brew EB Beer
directed by Zack Snyder, and the finale of Pennyworth's Season 1. - Refuge in Audacity: The inclusion of "Belsen Was A Gas", a song that mocks the Holocaust. There was also a guitar swastika on the labels of the original UK pressings.
- Sarcastic Title: "Sid Sings". Yeah, right!
- Self-Titled Album: "Sid Sings".
- Siamese Twin Songs: "My Way" is featured twice on the album. The first version was recorded in the studio without strings, the second is a shorter live rendition.
- Special Guest: Sex Pistols members Paul Cook and Steve Jones perform drums, guitar, and backing vocals on "Born To Lose".
- Take That, Audience!: The concert tracks have Sid frequently insult the crowd from the stage.
- Three Chords and the Truth: All songs are very simple, but effective.
