These Foolish Things is the debut solo studio album by Bryan Ferry, who at the time was still Roxy Music's lead vocalist. The album was released in October 1973 on Island Records in the United Kingdom and Atlantic Records in the United States. It is considered to be a departure from Roxy Music's sound, being made up of far more 'straight' versions of standards. Additionally, where Roxy Music's albums were of songs composed by the band, These Foolish Things was a covers album. It was a commercial and critical success, peaking at number five on the UK Albums Chart. It received a gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry in May 1974.[2]
Most of the tracks on the album were personal favorites of Ferry's, and spanned several decades from 1930s standards such as the title track through 1950s Elvis Presley to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.[3]
"A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" was released as a single and reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart in September 1973[4][5]
Speaking about the album in 1973, Ferry said: "It's a very catholic selection, I've given up trying to please all of the people all of the time. Some will like it for one reason, some for another. And some will presumably dislike it for the wrong reasons though I hope the general point of it will be understood. It's amusement value. I think."[6]
Robert Christgau found that Ferry "both undercuts the inflated idealism of [Bob Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall'] and reaffirms its essential power", establishes Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" as a protest song, and with his cover of "These Foolish Things", "reminds us that pop is only, well, foolish things, many of which predate not only Andy Warhol but rock and roll itself."[8] In 1983's The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, Dave Marsh wrote:
These Foolish Things pits Lesley Gore against Bob Dylan, and not just for effect. Ferry views pop as a kind of continuum, extending through all sorts of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building craftsmanship and incorporating visions as radical as Dylan's and as banal as Gore's. Within such a sensibility discerning what deserves to be dismissed as "trash" and what deserves elevation as "art" is not a simple problem. And such designations are so often determined by context that their order can be reversed almost at will. By altering tempos and singing every song with the deadpan emotional blankness he largely avoids with Roxy, Ferry exposes these issues as effectively as any pop singer in history.[12]
In AllMusic, critic Ned Raggett said that throughout These Foolish Things, "Ferry's instantly recognizable croon carries everything to a tee, and the overall mood is playful and celebratory", calling the album "one of the best of its kind by any artist."[7] Rob Sheffield, in 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, praised it as a "conceptual and musical tour de force".[11] In 2010, Rhapsody listed These Foolish Things as one of the best covers albums.[13]