The American version of
Reality Effect included three songs previously released only in the U.K. -- the British singles "Blind Among the Flowers" and "The Loneliest Man in the World" and the album track "Fool's Paradise" -- as well as songs released on the U.K. version of the album, which had been released the previous fall. The new songs found the group rocking harder for the most part and incorporating such influences as
Jefferson Airplane, with lead singers
Annie Lennox and
Peet Coombes playing the parts of
Grace Slick and
Marty Balin. But the standout track was
Lennox's reading of
Dusty Springfield's 1964 hit "I Only Want to Be with You," which made the U.S. singles chart after being a British Top Ten hit. Also included was its U.K. Top Ten follow-up, the
Coombes/
Lennox duet "So Good to Be Back Home Again." [Originally released in October 1979 in the U.K. as Logo 1019,
Reality Effect was released in the U.S. in an altered version containing songs from
The Tourists in April 1980 as Epic 36386.]
–
William Ruhlmann, Rovi