History Trivia / SellingEnglandByThePound

* The original US CD release of the album in 1987 is a popular novelty among both Genesis fans and CD collectors due to it being made by Sonopress, a West German plant that Creator/WarnerMusicGroup didn't typically hire. Other US-oriented Genesis [=CDs=] before and during this time were typically made by [=PolyGram=] and PDO in West Germany and JVC in Japan[[note]]plus a couple additional one-off discs by Japanese plants Sanyo and Daio Kosan, who made [=CDs=] for various other Warner artists[[/note]]. Since Sonopress was actually one of Creator/VirginRecords' go-to plants for the European market, they simply took a preexisting CD edition of ''Selling England by the Pound'' that they made and changed the disc label for Creator/AtlanticRecords (who in turn printed the paper inserts). The Sonopress US CD was quickly replaced later in 1987 with discs made by Warner's in-house plant, Specialty Records Corporation, which had just become equipped to manufacture [=CDs=] for widespread commercial distribution.

** At 53 minutes and 50 seconds, the album had an unusually long running time by the standards of the era as a result of a compromise between the band members, and some of the band members thus consider the album to be a case of this trope as a result. Gabriel and Banks argued about the length of "The Cinema Show" and had little interest in Hackett's neoclassical instrumental "After the Ordeal". The band compromised by not excising anything, resulting in an unusually long B-side (almost twenty-nine minutes, resulting in some extra groove packing being needed to fit it on the disc thanks to it exceeding the standard 26-minute limit) and thus a higher noise floor on vinyl. However, this may not be noticeable to most casual listeners; the vinyl arguably still sounds a lot better than some of the remastered editions.

* The original US CD release of the album in 1987 is a popular novelty among both Genesis fans and CD collectors due to it being made by Sonopress, a West German plant that Creator/WarnerMusicGroup didn't typically hire. Other US-oriented Genesis [=CDs=] before and during this time were made by [=PolyGram=] in West Germany and JVC in Japan. Since Sonopress was actually one of Creator/VirginRecords' go-to plants for the European market, they simply took a preexisting CD edition of ''Selling England by the Pound'' that they made and changed the disc label for Creator/AtlanticRecords (who in turn printed the paper inserts). The Sonopress US CD was quickly replaced later in 1987 with discs made by Warner's in-house plant, Specialty Records Corporation, which had just become equipped to manufacture [=CDs=] for widespread commercial distribution.

** "The Battle of Epping Forest" was originally intended to be a straightforward recounting of the actual gang wars that took place in the titular forest, and he scoured through library archives in an attempt to research the conflicts. However, he turned up empty-handed, leading him to create an original story loosely inspired by his recollection of the news story that inspired the song.

* ReferencedBy: The ''Seconds Out'' live performance of "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" is prominently featured in the India Special of ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'', where Creator/JeremyClarkson (a known fan of Genesis who wrote essays for some of their reissues) blares it to annoy Creator/RichardHammond (who notoriously detests Genesis) as a RunningGag.

* ReferencedBy: "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" is prominently featured in the India Special of ''Series/{{Top Gear|UK}}'', where Creator/JeremyClarkson (a known fan of Genesis who wrote essays for some of their reissues) blares it to annoy Creator/RichardHammond (who notoriously detests Genesis) as a RunningGag.

* WorkingTitle: "Disney" for the suite that ultimately got split up to bookend the album.

* BigNameFan: The album has several, though the biggest is probably Music/JohnLennon; the band felt greatly encouraged by his praise of the album at the time. Others include Music/{{Rush}}'s Neil Peart, Music/{{Marillion}}'s Fish, Music/GuidedByVoices' Robert Pollard, and perhaps most oddly, Jeremy Clarkson of ''Series/TheGrandTour'' (and formerly ''Series/TopGear''). Meanwhile, Clarkson's co-star Richard Hammond notoriously '''dis'''likes the album and Genesis as a whole, to the point where Clarkson would occasionally blare "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" to annoy him on ''Top Gear''.

* BigNameFan: The album has several, though the biggest is probably Music/JohnLennon; the band felt greatly encouraged by his praise of the album at the time. Others include Music/{{Rush}}'s Neil Peart, Music/{{Marillion}}'s Fish, Music/GuidedByVoices' Robert Pollard, and perhaps most oddly, Jeremy Clarkson of ''Series/TheGrandTour'' (and formerly ''Series/TopGear''). Meanwhile, Clarkson's co-star, Richard Hammond, notoriously '''dis'''likes the album and Genesis as a whole, to the point where Clarkson would occasionally blare "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" to annoy him on ''Top Gear''.

** The album had an unusually long running time by the standards of the era as a result of a compromise between the band members, and some of the band members thus consider the album to be a case of this trope as a result. Gabriel and Banks argued about the length of "The Cinema Show" and had little interest in Hackett's neoclassical instrumental "After the Ordeal". The band compromised by not excising anything, resulting in an unusually long B-side (almost twenty-nine minutes) and thus a higher noise floor on vinyl. However, this may not be noticeable to most casual listeners; the vinyl arguably still sounds a lot better than some of the remastered editions.

* BigNameFan: The album has several, though the biggest is probably Music/JohnLennon; the band felt greatly encouraged by his praise of the album at the time. Others include Music/{{Rush}}'s Neil Peart, Music/{{Marillion}}'s Fish, Music/GuidedByVoices' Robert Pollard, and perhaps most oddly, Jeremy Clarkson of ''Series/TheGrandTour'' (and formerly ''Series/TopGear'').

* BlackSheepHit: "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)" was this for the band in the U.K. at the time; it was one of their first singles to hit the charts there. It's arguably still one even by the band's standards, as it's unusually quirky compared to their later hits, and it's certainly still one in the context of the album, as only it and "More Fool Me" really qualify as pop songs (while several of the other songs are quite catchy, they're really too complex to qualify as pop music).

** The album had an unusually long running time by the standards of the era as a result of a compromise between the band members, and some of the band members thus consider the album to be a case of this trope as a result. Gabriel and Banks argued about the length of "The Cinema Show" and had little interest in Hackett's neoclassical instrumental "After the Ordeal", which meant that the album wound up being rather long by the standards of the era, resulting in a higher noise floor on vinyl (the B-side wound up being nearly twenty-nine minutes long), although this may not be noticeable to most casual listeners; the vinyl still sounds better than some of the remastered editions.
** The band also initially intended "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "The Cinema Show", and "Aisle of Plenty" to be a single song before splitting it up to avoid comparisons with "Music/SuppersReady". This explains the ending of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", which seems to build up tension for a release that never comes. (The release was to be the opening of "The Cinema Show".) The songs are arguably stronger if listened straight through; a possible solution is to place "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" between "After the Ordeal" and "The Cinema Show" in one's playlist, then place "Firth of Fifth" at the start, since it's the strongest alternate opening for the album.[[note]]However, it should be noted how similar in structure both albums would have been had they gone with this running order: both albums would open with lengthy Banks solos, and both albums' B-sides would be comprised of a neoclassical instrumental followed by a twenty-minute epic. Perhaps the band themselves considered this running order and rejected it for exactly this reason.[[/note]]

** The band also initially intended "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", "The Cinema Show", and "Aisle of Plenty" to be a single song before splitting it up to avoid comparisons with Music/SuppersReady. This explains the ending of "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", which seems to build up tension for a release that never comes. (The release was to be the opening of "The Cinema Show".) The songs are arguably stronger if listened straight through; a possible solution is to place "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" between "After the Ordeal" and "The Cinema Show" in one's playlist, then place "Firth of Fifth" at the start, since it's the strongest alternate opening for the album.[[note]]However, it should be noted how similar in structure both albums would have been had they gone with this running order: both albums would open with lengthy Banks solos, and both albums' B-sides would be comprised of a neoclassical instrumental followed by a twenty-minute epic. Perhaps the band themselves considered this running order and rejected it for exactly this reason.[[/note]]