In fact when the album was first released in 1969 it contained "House of the King" and "Sugar Island". I have a copy of the original album with both tracks on.

As FOCUS achieved success the "In and Out of Focus" album was re-released without the track "House of the king" and without "Sugar Island" as the band were touring the USA and it was deemed politically incorrect to criticise Cuba.

"House of the King" was added to the UK version of "FOCUS 3" and was NOT re-recorded but was the original version. The song was added as the last track even though neither Bert Ruiter nor Pierre van der Linden played on it as it was in fact the version recorded in 1969 for the "In and Out of Focus" album.

"FOCUS" album covers were never that accurate. On the US and CD versions "House of the King" was left off as it was correctly added to the "In and Out of Focus" album.

Some of the guitar solos were different between the US and UK versions. The track "Harem Scarem" had an added synth backdrop during Jan's main solo which was not present on the European version and the final solo on "Birth" is completely different. Dave Randall at Akkernet spoke to Mike Vernon who believed that it was done deliberately to get people to buy both albums but he could not remember exactly.

Tim Baugh

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