Fifty years ago last week, a new record label debuted with an unusual offering — an LP that consisted of two side-long compositions by a 19-year-old guitarist, Mike Oldfield, who played all the instruments himself. And the only vocals were a couple of minutes of caveman-like grunts deep into side 2.
Though it was introduced with plenty of fanfare and was boosted by influential DJ John Peel when it was still in demo form, it sold slowly, only barely sneaking into the lower reaches of the UK album chart — until December 1973, when “The Exorcist” used the piano theme that opens side 1 to set the eerie mood for what became the most talked-about horror movie since “Psycho.” It entered the British top 10 in March and stayed there for a year, eventually selling 15 million copies and providing the funding for Virgin Records, the cornerstone of Richard Branson’s business empire.
Oldfield, having played with Kevin Ayers of Soft Machine, was involved in England’s experimental rock scene, which featured long-form jazz-influenced pieces that presaged the more commercial progressive rock movement. But he couldn’t find anyone who’d let him record two 25-minute pieces with no vocals until Simon Draper, Branson’s second cousin, was tasked with finding artists for the fledgling label. Draper had heard Oldfield’s demos, so that was the first artist he called.
Though Oldfield followed up his debut with several successful albums and landed a few songs on the singles charts in Britain, he’s technically a one-hit wonder in the U.S. After the breakout of the film, Atlantic Records stitched together a single from what was the de facto theme to “The Exorcist” that reached No. 7 on the Hot 100.
Fun fact: Oldfield couldn’t get the ringing sound he wanted out of the bells using the proper mallets, so he used a metal claw hammer, which cracked the rented instruments.
