Waterfall

The first song 10cc recorded following the quartet's decision to abandon session work and form its own band instead, Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman's "Waterfall" was demoed at the band's own Strawberry Studios in early 1972. The group had recently completed work on Neil Sedaka's latest album and, when Stewart traveled to London to master the tapes at the Beatles' Apple studios, he took an acetate of "Waterfall" with him, hoping to persuade Apple to release it as a single. Months later, he received a rejection slip saying that the song wasn't commercial enough to be released -- by which time, bandmates Kevin Godley and Lol Crème had come up with another song which was "Donna." That became 10cc's first single -- "Waterfall" would remain unreleased until early the following year, when it backed the group's "Rubber Bullets" smash hit. A haunting, West Coast-flavored power ballad more suited to Stewart, Godley, and Crème's earlier incarnation as Hotlegs than to the wildly inventive 10cc, "Waterfall" was passed over for inclusion on the band's debut album, finally making its LP debut on the 1975 100cc collection. It then reappeared on the 1977 Live and Let Live live album, recorded in London following Godley/Crème's departure, by which time it had metamorphosed into an eight-minute concert anthem, highlighted by some characteristically excellent Stewart guitar work and a disconcerting mid-section reggae break.