Released: 10th February 2023. After discreetly having pre-release album cuts played on the UK's pirate jazz-funk and soul stations, Imagination, with their charismatic lead singer Leee John, burst onto the scene in May 1981, when their debut single 'Body Talk' peaked at #4 in the UK Singles Chart, having gained momentum after a momentous and unforgettable debut performance on BBC One's 'Top of the Pops' on 4th June 1981. In the period 1981-1983, Imagination had hits in almost 30 countries around the world, with very high popularity across Europe, especially in France, Italy, the Benelux countries and Germany, whilst also appearing in the Billboard US Dance and R&B Charts on a regular basis in the throughout the '80s. They really were an internationally successful British group, earning numerous Platinum, Gold and Silver discs, for hit singles 'Flashback', In and Out of Love', the much-sampled 'Just an Illusion', 'Music and Lights', 'New Dimension', 'State of Love', 'Looking at Midnight' and 'Thank You My Love', and albums 'Body Talk', 'In the Heat of the Night', 'Scandalous', 'Night Dubbing', 'Closer' and 'Like It Is'. Imagination worked with legendary producers Tony Swain, Steve Jolley, Arthur Baker, Nigel Wright, Preston Glass, Nick Martinelli and Ron 'Have Mercy' Kersey, and had tracks remixed by David Morales, Frankie Knuckles, Mike Pickering, Graeme Park, Victor Simonelli and Larry Levan. '40 Years' is a career-encompassing retrospective of Imagination's and Leee John's recorded music output, with 189 tracks across 17 CDs, including all of their studio albums from 1981's 'Body Talk', up until 2016's 'Retropia'. '40 Years' also features a 2-disc collection of 'Unreleased Trax, Mixes & Demos', a 2-disc collection of alternate and unreleased mixes from 'Closer' in 'Closer Revisited', a 'Live Trax' disc from several shows spanning the decades and a disc of extended versions in '12' Singles Selection'.
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