129: Sparks - Plagiarism (1997) - Album history

After their unexpected European comeback, Sparks were asked to release a greatest-hits collection. Naturally, they refused to do it the conventional way.Instead, Plagiarism became Sparks covering Sparks: sixteen older songs completely re-recorded through electronic, rock, orchestral and choral arrangements, with collaborators including Faith No More, Erasure and Jimmy Somerville. We explore why Ron and Russell Mael resisted becoming a nostalgia act, how catalogue licensing helped shape the project, and whether these radical reconstructions illuminate the original songs or merely make us miss them.We also discuss Tony Visconti’s dramatic orchestral arrangements, the album’s brilliantly fake cover, its abandoned collaborations, the arrival of longtime Sparks musicians Dean Menta and Tammy Glover, and its curious place between Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, Balls and the future orchestral reinvention of Lil’ Beethoven.Part greatest-hits album, part tribute record and part act of musical self-plagiarism, this is one of the strangest retrospective projects in Sparks’ catalogue.