From Langley Park to Memphis

Thomas Dolby could not commit to the whole album because he was working on the soundtrack to Howard the Duck. He produced the four tracks he liked most out of 16 demos McAloon sent him: The King of Rock 'n' Roll, I Remember That, Knock on Wood and The Venus of the Soup Kitchen. Jon Kelly produced Cars and Girls, Enchanted, Nightingales and Nancy (Let Your Hair Down for Me), Andy Richards produced Hey Manhattan!, and McAloon produced The Golden Calf alone. Recording was spread over about a year in Newcastle, London and Los Angeles, and most songs were written on keyboards.

Stevie Wonder played harmonica on Nightingales after McAloon wrote to him, and he had not heard of the band. Pete Townshend added acoustic guitar to Hey Manhattan!, and the Andrae Crouch Singers recorded their parts in Wonder's Los Angeles studio. The title comes from a line in The Venus of the Soup Kitchen. Langley Park is a village in County Durham, and Memphis is where Elvis Presley began.

It entered the UK chart at number 5 and stayed 23 weeks, and the BPI certified it gold in April 1988. Reviews at the time were mixed. Rolling Stone found it overreaching and NME called it cluttered, while Q thought it probably their best yet. Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky wrote in 2019 that it is as catchy and complex as its best-known songs. The singles were Cars and Girls (44), The King of Rock 'n' Roll (7), Hey Manhattan! (72), Nightingales (78) and The Golden Calf (82). A remaster was issued by Sony on 27 September 2019.