Dandy in the Underworld
Marc Bolan & T Rex
Introduction
T Rex's 'Dandy In The Underworld' album was released on the 11th March 1977 and featured 11 new songs along with the inclusion of the hit single 'I Love To Boogie' from the previous year. A week after the release of the album the single 'The Soul Of My Suit', which had been performed at all of the Dandy concerts, was released.
Bolan would release only one more single from the album, the title track 'Dandy In The Underworld, though in truth this was a significantly different version with the addition of strings and a reworked vocal line which replaced the reference to 'cocaine nights' with 'T Rex nights'. EMI would later issue 'Crimson Moon' and 'Jason B Sad' as a double 'A' sided posthoumous single in 1978.
The Dandy album was issued in 6 countries outside of the UK, and with the exception of West Germany, all were issued on the EMI label with the T Rex branding. All versions of the album had the same track listing and running order. Some countries followed the style of the UK release with a die cut sleeve showing the inner sleeve inside however other countries simply placed the picture on the front cover (Australia and France) and, bizarrely, the Danish copy has neither a die cut sleeve or a picture on the front cover but just the group name and album title.
Singles from the Dandy album were released in 8 countries outside of the UK. More countries issued 'I Love To Boogie' as a single than any of the other singles. It is likely that most countries released the single once it had established itself as a hit single in the UK. Both 'I Love To Boogie' and 'The Soul Of My Suit' were issued in plain white sleeves in the UK - the familiar red and blue T Rex branded single bags seem to have dried up around the time of 'Light of Love'. It is likely that EMI kept a small supply of T Rex bags as promo singles continued to be issued in T Rex bags (unconfirmed).
Singles released outside of the UK used a wide selection of images of Marc, with some dating back as far as 1971 such as the Danish 'I Love To Boogie'. The French release of a 12" version of 'I Love To Boogie' is unique as it was the only 12" T Rex single released in Marc's lifetime, though sadly the promise of a 'Special Disco Mix' is not fulfilled with the song being the standard released version of little more than 2 minutes.