Trivia / Tubular Bells

• Breakthrough Hit: The album's success propelled both Oldfield and Virgin Records into the mainstream.
• Referenced by...: American Synth-Pop band Book of Love recorded a Cover Version of the introduction section, simply called "Tubular Bells", as the opening track on their sophomore album, Lullaby. The song additionally includes Lauren Roselli mimicking Linda Blair in The Exorcist, referencing the introduction's use as the film's theme song.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When Trevor Key submitted his portfolio to Richard Branson after being contacted to provide the album's cover art, Branson spotted a work depicting a bleeding hard-boiled egg, liking it so much that he wanted to make it the album cover. Oldfield, however, pushed back, resulting in Key instead designing the final bent bell design. A modified version of the bleeding egg cover would be used for Heaven's Open, Oldfield's final album with the original incarnation of Virgin Records.
  • Oldfield and Richard Branson shopped Tubular Bells around to various labels at the 1973 MIDEM conference, only for everyone there to reject it. Branson then considered releasing the album through his preexisting mail-order service before instead deciding to form his own record label, Virgin Records, to get it on store shelves.
• Working Title: Richard Branson originally intended to call the album Breakfast in Bed; Oldfield shot down the title, instead calling it Tubular Bells after the instruments prominently featured at the end of part one.

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