Luxury You Can Afford

{{Refimprove|date=February 2024}}

{{EngvarB|date=January 2014}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2014}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Luxury You Can Afford

| type = album

| artist = Joe Cocker

| cover = Luxury You Can Afford.jpg

| alt =

| released = August 1978

| recorded =

| venue =

| studio = *Criteria, Miami, Florida

| genre = Blues rock, soft rock, pop rock

| length =

| label = Asylum

| producer = Allen Toussaint

| prev_title = Joe Cocker's Greatest Hits

| prev_year = 1977

| next_title = Sheffield Steel

| next_year = 1982

}}

Luxury You Can Afford is the seventh studio album by Joe Cocker, released in 1978 on Asylum Records, his only release for that label.

Critical reception

{{Album ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r4243|first=Steve|last=Leggett}}

|rev2 = Christgau's Record Guide

|rev2Score = C+{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=Ticknor & Fields|isbn=089919026X|chapter=Consumer Guide '70s: C|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_chap.php?k=C&bk=70|accessdate=February 23, 2019}}

|rev3 = High Fidelity

|rev3Score = (favourable){{cite magazine|url=http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Audio/Archive-High-Fidelity-IDX/IDX/70s/High-Fidelity-1978-11-OCR-Page-0146.pdf#search=%22emotions%20sunbeam%22|title=Joe Cocker: Luxury You Can Afford|page=158|volume=28|date=November 1978|publisher=High Fidelity Magazine|website=Americanradiohistory.com}}

}}

In 1994, The Independent wrote that Cocker "reveals the self-disgust at ['A Whiter Shade of Pale']'s heart ... his rawness is thrown into stark relief by Allen Toussaint's too-slick production."{{cite news |last1=Butler |first1=Mike |title=Lives of the Great Songs |work=The Independent |date=18 Sep 1994 |department=Sunday Review Page}}

Track listing

  1. "Fun Time" (Allen Toussaint) – 2:39
  2. "Watching the River Flow" (Bob Dylan) – 3:16
  3. "Boogie Baby" (Phil Driscoll) – 3:51
  4. "A Whiter Shade of Pale" (Gary Brooker, Keith Reid, Matthew Fisher) – 5:27
  5. "I Can't Say No" (John Bettis, Daniel Moore) – 2:51
  6. "Southern Lady" (Phil Driscoll) – 3:16
  7. "I Know (You Don't Want Me No More)" (Barbara George) – 3:08
  8. "What You Did to Me Last Night" (Bettye Crutcher) – 3:28
  9. "Lady Put the Light Out" (Guy Fletcher, Doug Flett) – 4:46
  10. "Wasted Years" (Phil Driscoll) – 4:49
  11. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong) – 4:29

Personnel

Production

  • Producers – Barry Beckett and Allen Toussaint
  • Engineers – Bill Gazecki, Skip Godwin, Gregg Hamm, Jerry Masters, Steve Melton and Alex Sadkin.
  • Assistant Engineers – Bob Gore, Roberta Grace, Sheila Taylor and David Yates.
  • Recorded at Criteria Studios (Miami, Florida); Sea-Saint Studios (New Orleans, Louisiana); Muscle Shoals Sound Studios (Sheffield, Alabama); Elektra Sound Recorders (Los Angeles, CA).
  • Mixing on Tracks 2, 5, 6, 7 & 10 – Barry Beckett
  • Mastered by Terry Dunavan
  • Mixed and Mastered at Elektra Sound Recorders.
  • Design – Johnny Lee
  • Photography – Gary Heery

Chart performance

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Chart

!Position

rowspan=5|1978

|Australia

|align="center"|12

New Zealand

|align="center"|25

Netherlands

|align="center"|47

Canada

|align="center"|61

US Billboard

|align="center"|76

References