{"id":482023,"date":"2026-03-18T10:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/482023\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T10:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T10:57:12","slug":"forty-five-hundred-times-by-status-quo-the-story-behind-the-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/482023\/","title":{"rendered":"Forty-Five Hundred Times by Status Quo: The story behind the song"},"content":{"rendered":"

It may not have been a hit, but Forty-Five Hundred Times is one of Status Quo<\/a>\u2019s best songs. Recorded for 1973\u2019s Hello!<\/a> album, it rapidly became a cornerstone of their live shows in a much-expanded form. But it\u2019s also the track that effectively ended the songwriting partnership of Francis Rossi<\/a> and Rick Parfitt<\/a> \u2013 the former has even said that he hates the song. But despite its turbulent beginnings, today it stands as a Quo connoisseur\u2019s favourite, and the musical embodiment of the classic Frantic Four line-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By 1973 the band had put their faux-psychedelic beginnings far behind them, and had established themselves as one of Britain\u2019s pre-eminent rock bands. The previous year\u2019s Piledriver album found Quo perfecting their no-nonsense boogie, though they weren\u2019t averse to stretching their wings when the mood took them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Forty-Five Hundred Times was one such occasion. Rossi and Parfitt had begun work on the track during pre-production for Hello! \u2013 in an unusual location.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was first worked on at my first mother-in-law\u2019s house,\u201d Rossi recalls. \u201cWe were trying to write a song with three movements, like we later did with Slow Train [from the following year\u2019s Quo album], among others.\u201d But the pair soon discovered a tendency to over-complicate matters.<\/p>\n

As a result, Forty-Five Hundred Times would be the last time just the two of them worked together on songs \u2013 they would collude in future, but always with another writer as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach time we thought we\u2019d got something right, Rick would try to improve it and we\u2019d lose track of where we were. It was like pulling teeth. Which is among the reasons why we stopped writing together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forty-Five Hundred Times – YouTube
\n\"Forty-Five<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

A triumph of light and shade, the song begins with a gentle intro before accelerating into a no-holds-barred dandruff-shaker. The lyrics bemoan the lonely existence of an individual who craved to be seated at \u2018a table for two\u2019.<\/p>\n

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\u201cRick and I were in a Yankee phase at he time, hence the song\u2019s title,\u201d says Rossi. \u201cIn real English it would\u2019ve been called Four Thousand Five Hundred Times. Which doesn\u2019t quite work, does it?\u201d<\/p>\n

The song was hammered out at top volume in the band\u2019s old haunt of IBC Studios in London\u2019s Portland Place, with the band \u2013 Rossi and Parfitt plus bassist Alan Lancaster<\/a> and drummer John Coghlan<\/a> \u2013 sitting in a circle around the amps. With the band themselves producing it, no one batted an eyelid when the finished song ended up running close to the 10-minute mark.<\/p>\n

Parent album Hello! gave Quo their first No.1, but it was live that Forty-Five Hundred Times took on a life of its own. If ever a song summed up the band\u2019s \u2018take it or fuck off\u2019 appeal, this was it, and it quickly became a fan favourite. On stage it was often jammed out to twice its original length, sometimes more; when the Coghlan-less band played it at Birmingham NEC (in front of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, no less) it was almost 22 minutes long.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first part of the song was the song, but we\u2019d make the extra bits up,\u201d Parfitt told us. \u201cNight after night we would just read one another; there was almost a sense of telepathy between us. You\u2019d just know when to get softer and then take it somewhere heavier. It was incredible. You\u2019d be swept away by this roller-coaster of music. The only way to end it was to nod: \u2018Shall we finish it here?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On some nights the band got a little too carried away and messed things up. \u201cThere were subtle changes, so we would have to discipline ourselves to sit on the groove,\u201d Alan Lancaster told us. \u201cI always enjoyed the sense of danger, it\u2019s what makes a live concert. If you go to a tennis game, then you look out for unforced errors, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1991 Status Quo re-recorded Forty-Five Hundred Times during the sessions for their Rock Til You Drop album, this time with an extra verse and four additional minutes of music (the results later appeared on an expanded edition).<\/p>\n

Forty-Five Hundred Times – YouTube
\n\"Forty-Five<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were trying to make the song current for that incarnation of the band,\u201d says Rossi. \u201cWhether or not we were successful in that\u2026 well, probably not. Musically speaking, it will have been tidier than the original \u2013 the playing would have improved. But, as we discovered on the reunion tour, that\u2019s not really what it\u2019s all about. After doing it live again three years later we went: \u2018What the fuck\u2019s this extra verse all about?\u2019 And we got rid of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alan Lancaster was the song\u2019s biggest cheerleader within the band, and the bassist regretted that on their reunion tour the Frantic Four cut the song down and segued into Rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t like doing it that way because those two songs have different grooves,\u201d he told us. \u201cShould we do it again, then I\u2019d rather we play the full-length version.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, Rossi agreed. Before the reunion tour, he told Classic Rock that there was \u201cabsolutely no fucking chance\u201d of the band playing an extended version of the song. Today he\u2019s mellowed on the subject.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it was first written, protracted arrangements were hip, man,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe ended up cutting it down because today people want a three-minute fix. Or so we thought. I\u2019d love to do the full version of Forty-Five Hundred Times \u2013 completely indulge myself and play guitar all night and bore the pants off people.”<\/p>\n

This feature was originally published in Classic Rock 189, published in October 2013. Rick Parfitt died in 2016, Alan Lancaster in 2021. <\/p>\n

Status Quo – Forty Five Hundred Times, Milton Keynes Bowl | 21st July 1984 (AI Enhanced) – YouTube
\n\"Status<\/p>\n

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