Solar Fire

Solar Fire is the fourth studio album by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, released in 1973. It spent 15 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts, peaking at number 96 on 11 May 1974. It was initially intended to be a full adaptation of The Planets suite but Gustav Holst's heir, who had previously given permission for the adaptation of "Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity" in the hit single "Joybringer", did not allow this to happen, so the band made their own "cosmic" album using mostly original themes, although the most well-known song is the Bob Dylan composition "Father of Day, Father of Night", which is in the Earth Band's live set to this day and remains a popular song on rock radio. "Pluto the Dog" and the two-part "Saturn, Lord of the Ring/Mercury, the Winged Messenger" are instrumentals, and "Earth the Circle Part 2" features only two lines of sung vocals. The album is often considered to be the peak of the early Earth Band line-up and, for a lot of progressive rock reviewers, the pinnacle of Mann's career in general.