#4: Living In A Fantasy by Leo Sayer

City: Saskatoon, SK
Radio Station: CKOM
Peak Month: April 1981
Peak Position in Saskatoon ~ #3
Peak Position in Vancouver ~ #7
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #23
YouTube: “Living In A Fantasy”
Lyrics: “Living In A Fantasy”

Gerard Hugh “Leo” Sayer was born in 1948 in Sussex, England. He left school in 1964 and went to an art college. Sayer also learned to play the harmonica and joined several bands. He moved to London and worked as an illustrator for several magazines and designed record covers. In 1970, he was still known to his friends as Gerry. Sayer was brought to the attention of former English pop star Adam Faith, who by the 70’s was a manager in the music business. He cowrote “Giving It All Away”, which became at Top 5 UK hit for Roger Daltrey in 1973. The song was credited to Leo Sayer. In late 1973, Leo Sayer appeared on stage dressed in a Pierrot costume – recalling the sad clown of 17th century Comédie-Italienne. Such was the reaction to his performance, the entire UK music business noted that a new star was born. Leo went on a British and European tour supporting Roxy Music, now appearing on stage dressed as the Pierrot. The following year, his song “The Show Must Go On”, climbed to #2 in the UK, #3 in Ireland, #10 in Australia and #11 in South Africa.  “The Show Must Go On” was successfully covered by Three Dog Night, peaking in the Top Ten in Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the USA.

His second Top Ten hit in the UK and Ireland, “One Man Band”, was also a Top 20 hit in South Africa and West Germany. A third international Top Ten hit for Sayer was “Long Tall Glasses (I Can Dance)”. The song was covered by the Canadian band Shooter. And in 1975, Leo Sayer had another international hit with “Moonlighting” which peaked at #1 in Ireland, #2 in the UK, #3 in Rhodesia, #6 in Norway, #7 in Sweden, and Top 20 in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Leo Sayer toured across the USA as an opening act for Hall & Oates.

Leo Sayer on Dutch television in 1974

In 1976, Leo Sayer released his fourth studio album titled Endless Flight. The lead single, “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”, climbed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, in Canada and New Zealand. It was also a Top Ten hit in a half a dozen other countries. The single received a Grammy Award for Best R&B Single, beating out “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by Thelma Houston, “Best Of My Love” by the Emotions, and “Easy” by the Commodores. The song was notable in featuring Sayer’s falsetto vocals.

A second single release from Endless Flight was “When I Need You”.  The ballad topped the pop charts in Canada, Ireland, the UK and USA. It also peaked in the Top Ten in Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and South Africa. A line from “When I Need You” – “(When I) need you, I just close my eyes and I’m with you, and all that I so want to give you, is only a heart beat away” – was identical to a line from Leonard Cohen’s “Famous Blue Raincoat”. This is where Cohen sings “Jane came by with a lock of your hair, she said that you gave it to her that night, that you planned to go clear”. A lawsuit ensued, but musicologists deemed the melody public domain dating back to Austrian composer Franz Schubert.

A third single release from Endless Night was “How Much Love”. Internationally, “How Much Love” peaked at #4 in Canada and Ireland, and #10 in New Zealand and the UK. It stalled at #17 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1978, Sayer also wrote a song recorded by Cliff Richard titled “Dreamin’”. Later that year “I Can’t Stop Loving You (Though I Try)” was a #6 hit in the UK and cracked the Top 20 in South Africa.

A followup to Endless Flight was Thunder In My Heart. The title track was a Top Ten hit in South Africa, and climbing to #11 in Australia, Belgium, and Ireland, and #12 in the Netherlands.

In 1980, Leo Sayer had his last huge international hit with “More Than I Can Say”. It was the debut single from the album Living In A Fantasy. “More Than I Can Say” peaked at #1 in Australia, Denmark and Zimbabwe, #2 in Austria, Ireland, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK and USA, #4 in Belgium, #5 in New Zealand, #6 in the Netherlands and Spain, #7 in Canada, and #8 in West Germany. The song was a cover of a minor 1959 hit by Buddy Holly’s backing band, The Crickets.

The next four tracks from Living In A Fantasy failed to get much attention. The sixth track from the album released as a single was the title track, “Living In A Fantasy”.

Leo Sayer and Alan Tarney cowrote “Living In A Fantasy”. Tarney was born in northwest England in Workington in 1945. Tarney was part of the influx of British migrants who settled in Elizabeth, Australia, during the height of the 1960s pop music boom. His first major group in Australia was James Taylor Move, a four-piece outfit regarded as one of Australia’s first psychedelic rock bands. In 1968-69, Tarney was part of the Kevin Peek Trio. The trio moved to the UK, and added a fourth member and renamed themselves Quartet. In 1973, “Power to All Our Friends” was recorded by Cliff Richard – including Alan Tarney on bass guitar – and became the third ranked song in that years’ Eurovision Song Contest. He was a session musician on guitar for The Shadows 1975 recording of “Let Me Be the One”. That song was also the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest that year and ranked #2. Also, in 1975, Alan Tarney was one half of the Tarney-Spencer Band.

In 1979, Alan Tarney wrote and arranged “We Don’t Talk Anymore” which became an international Top Ten hit for Cliff Richard. It topped the pop charts in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, the UK, and West Germany; #2 in South Africa, #3 in Australia and the Netherlands, #4 in Canada and Sweden, #5 in New Zealand, and #6 in Spain.

Tarney went on to write, produce and play guitar on Cliff Richard’s hit singles “A Little in Love”, “Dreamin'”, “Some People”, and “My Pretty One”, and wrote “Wired For Sound”. Over the years Alan Tarney has produced many hit records. These include “More Than I Can Say” for Leo Sayer, “Take On Me” and “The Sun Always Shines On TV” by A-ha, and “The Love Parade” by The Dream Academy. Over the years Alan Tarney produced nine songs by A-ha in the 1980s and nine singles for Cliff Richard. He has also produced records for Bow Wow Wow, Oliva Newton-John, The Drifters, The Hollies and Squeeze.

“Living In A Fantasy” describes a man so overwhelmed by new romantic attachment, that he’s lost touch with reality. He is floating in a dreamlike state where his amour has become his entire world. The narrator has surrendered completely to romantic obsession, describing his experience as drowning in luxury rather than simply being happy. He sings, “Oh you’re too much, too soon.” He’s not ready for whatever love is being offered to him. And he seems ungrounded: “You are my reason to live…and when I think of you I keep drifting away.”

“Living In A Fantasy” reached #2 in Tacoma (WA), #3 in Saskatoon (SK), and Seattle, #6 in Phoenix, #7 in Vancouver (BC), Boston, #8 in Denver, Cleveland, and Lewiston (ME), and #9 in Regina (SK), Las Vegas, and Atlanta. Internationally, “Living In A Fantasy” reached #18 in Canada and #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1982 Sayer’s “Have You Ever Been In Love” was a Top Ten hit in the UK. It won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. And his 1983 release of “Orchard Road” was a notable hit in over a half dozen countries, though not in North America.

In 1985, Sayer got divorced. In the midst of the divorce, Leo Sayer learned that his manager, Adam Faith, had badly mishandled his business affairs and that much of the millions of pounds he had earned over the previous decade had been lost through Faith’s questionable investments and business expenses. Subsequently, Sayer sued Faith for mismanagement. The case was eventually settled out of court in 1992, with Sayer receiving a reported payout of £650,000.

Leo Sayer’s final number-one hit was in the UK in 2006 with “Thunder In My Heart Again”. This was a remix of his 1977 hit by British DJ Craig Meck.

In 2009, Leo Sayer became a citizen of Australia. In 2022 Leo Sayer released the studio album titled Northern Songs.  This was followed in 2024 with his seventeenth studio album titled 1992. Over the decades, Leo Sayer also released more singles that were covers. These include “Raining In My Heart” originally by Buddy Holly; The Beatles “Let It Be”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Eleanor Rigby” and “Girl”; The Chi-Lites “Oh Girl”; Don Gibson’s 1961 hit “Sea of Heartbreak”; “Unchained Melody” which was a number-one hit in 1955 variously for Al Hibbler, Les Baxter, and Roy Hamilton, and in 1965 for the Righteous Brothers; and Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas”.

July 8, 2026
Ray McGinnis

References:
“Leo Story So Far 1948-2010,” Leo Sayer.com.
“Seventies singer Leo Sayer becomes an Australian citizen,” Telegraph, January 26, 2009.
“Songs Written by Alan Tarney,” Music VF.com.

CKOM 1250-AM Saskatoon (SK) Top Ten | April 22, 1981