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 on "Madman Across the Water" by Elton John, and "Changes", "Oh! You Pretty Things", and "Life on Mars?" for Bowie's album "Hunky Dory". Bowie invited Wakeman to his home and played the outline of the tracks for him to learn; Wakeman later called them "the finest selection of songs I have ever heard in one sitting in my entire life". He also developed music for the 1972 film, "Zee and Co." In late 1971, an album compiled of pop tunes played by Wakeman on the piano was released as "Piano Vibrations" by Polydor Records. Wakeman did not receive any royalties