Following the success of her 1980 album, but relative failure of her next album, Epic Records decided to take no chances with this release and included four of her past hits on the collection and backed it up with a TV advertising campaign. This resulted in All for a Song becoming the most successful album of Dickson's career. The album peaked at No.3 in the UK and spent most of the year in the charts, eventually selling over 600,000 copies in the UK alone.[1]
Past singles included on the album were "Answer Me", "Another Suitcase in Another Hall", "Caravan Song" and "January February", while contemporary singles released from the album were "Run Like the Wind", "Take Good Care" and "I Believe in You".[2] This was the first album to include "Caravan Song", which had been released in 1979 and was one of Dickson's most well-known songs. "Run Like the Wind" had originally been written by Mike Batt for the film Watership Down, but was replaced by "Bright Eyes".[3]
The album cover proved to be a problem when, on doing research, the record company decided that cover photographs with a lot of blue did not tend to sell well and despite the fact that the album sleeves had already been printed, they were rejected in favour of an alternative shot with warmer shades (see illustrations, right). The rejected covers were instead sold in Scotland and Ireland.[4]
All for a Song was released twice in the Netherlands under different titles, first as I Believe in You and shortly after as Run Like the Wind.[6] The latter reached No.42 in the Dutch album charts.[7] To date, the album has never been released on Compact disc, although many of the tracks have appeared on compilations.[8]
In April 2022, 'All For A Song' was released on CD for the first time as a two-disc remastered Special Edition, featuring 21 bonus tracks. The CD was available only via Barbara's official website.[9]
