Blue Magic's debut single "Spell" was released in November 1972 and work on the album began in early 1973. Two more singles, "Look Me Up" and "
Stop to Start" were released during 1973; all performed respectably on the R&B chart with "Stop to Start" also crossing over into the lower reaches of the pop chart. The album was released on January 9, 1974, followed shortly thereafter by a fourth single, "
Sideshow", the lush, dreamy and loss-filled atmosphere of which immediately caught on and became a major hit, topping the R&B chart and reaching No. 8 on the
Billboard Hot 100. Another track on the album was the lengthy "
Just Don't Want to Be Lonely", which
Ronnie Dyson had taken into the R&B top 30 in July 1973, then became a bigger hit for
New York group
The Main Ingredient, whose version reached both the R&B and pop top 10 at around the same time Blue Magic was released. Blue Magic peaked at No. 4 on the R&B album chart and No. 45 on the pop chart.
Music for the album was provided by
Sigma Sound Studios' legendary
house bandMFSB. Bobby Eli, co-composer of "Sideshow" and "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely", who worked as a guitarist on the album, stated in the liner notes of the 2007 reissue of the album that he believed that Harris was equally at home with uptempo material as with ballads and, citing the tracks "Look Me Up" and "Welcome to the Club" as classic examples of the proto-
disco sound of 1973-74, expressed his opinion that Harris' expertise in this field gave Blue Magic the ability to deliver convincing uptempo tracks in a way which largely eluded other
Philadelphia soul groups with whom they are usually bracketed, notably
The Stylistics and
The Delfonics.
Blue Magic was reissued by
Rhino Records in 2007, including two
B-sides previously unavailable on CD and a remix of "Look Me Up"
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