1978 Poco – Legend

Legend is the eleventh studio album by the American country rock band Poco, released in 1978.

After ABC Records cancelled the release of Poco’s planned 13th album The Last Roundup. the three remaining members of the band agreed to take a break. Rusty Young and Paul Cotton formed a new group called the Cotton-Young Band and prepared this album as a duo. However, ABC acquired the album and then decided to continue to use the name “Poco” for the band. When the album became successful, Poco drummer George Grantham found himself forced out of Poco without ever having quit the group.

“Crazy Love” and “Heart of the Night”, written and sung by Young and Cotton respectively, became the group’s two biggest hits to date. After “Crazy Love” was released as a single, ABC Records was acquired by MCA Records, and the record’s stunning commercial success was attributed by some to the efforts of ABC’s promotional staff to prove their value to MCA. Meanwhile, the band started to stray from its distinct country rock sound, heading towards a more mainstream, commercially applauded soft rock and pop sound. Other noteworthy album cuts were “Spellbound,” “Little Darlin’,” “Legend,” and “Barbados,” the latter being the inspiration for the (at the time) yet to be released Beach Boys comeback hit “Kokomo”.

The cover art for Legend was done by Phil Hartman, the brother of Poco manager John Hartmann; Phil Hartman worked as a graphic designer creating album covers for his brother’s clients (including America) while attempting to break out as a comic.