Rick Wakeman said: "It's just one of those decisions a manager has to make." Wakeman described the record as "the album Yes should have made instead of "Topographic Oceans"." Released in July 1977, the album spent two weeks at No. 1 in the UK and spawned the No. 7 single, "Wonderous Stories". Wakeman considered its fifteen-minute track "Awaken" as one of the band's best. During the "Going for the One" tour, Wakeman released "Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record", a solo album loosely based on criminality with Squire on bass, Alan White on drums, Frank Ricotti on percussion, and Bill Oddie on lead vocals
Rick Wakeman Wakeman left from the Ronnie Smith group and for several months, played in a pub band named the Spinning Wheel. In 1970, Wakeman performed on "Seasons" by Magna Carta, and records by Brotherhood of Man, Paper Bubble, Shawn Phillips, and White Plains. He soon became disillusioned with session work, "I was getting good bread, but I wasn't getting a chance to be part of the music". Wakeman's prominence rose during his tenure with the folk rock group Strawbs from 1969 to 1971. He first played the piano for them as a session on "Dragonfly", the first album released with Wakeman's