Flash and the Pan is the debut album by Australian musical group Flash and the Pan, released in 1978. It was released by Albert Productions in Australia, Ensign Records in Europe, and Epic CBS/Sony in the United States. The album covers differed between the Australian, the international and United States, and United Kingdom releases (UK pictured). The track "And the Band Played On (Down Among the Dead Men)" — about the sinking of the Titanic — was released as a UK single, reaching No. 54 in September 1978. "Hey, St. Peter" was released as a single in the United States in 1979, and reached number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Walking in the Rain" was later covered by Grace Jones on her 1981 album Nightclubbing. The song was also recorded by South African icon Johannes Kerkorrel, who included it on his album Die Ander Kant in 2000. "California" is the only song ever released by Flash and the Pan that was not written by Harry Vanda and George Young. It was written by George's brother Alex, under the pseudonym of his wife Monika James. Critical reception Reviews of Flash and the Pan’s 1978 self-titled album are ambivalent about the vocal style and lyrics, fascinated by the weirdness, but upbeat and sometimes glowing in their overall assessment. Alan Niester in The Globe and Mail calls the album “surrealistic in its detachment at times”, and “one of the strangest but ultimately finest records to surface in the seventies”. Niester concludes that the album is "the closest thing to a masterpiece we're likely to get this year, and you have to have it". David Fricke in Rolling Stone notes unfavourably the “rampant punning” and “mind games” of the lyrics, but says that the songwriters, Vanda & Young, “never underestimate the simple joy of a good hummable tune”. The same reviewer goes on to say that the album is a “flawlessly executed operetta of applied rock & roll knowledge”. Steve Simels in Stereo Review calls the album a “minor pop masterpiece” but says that the synthesiser sound “verges on Eurodisco, with some tacky New Wave organ”. Simels describes the lyrics as “frankly melodramatic […] declaimed (in the verses) more often than sung”. But Simels gives up trying to pigeonhole the record with, “Let’s just say that it’s excellent music and let it go at that.” Jon Pareles, writing for Creem says Flash and