A Foot In Coldwater

A nice  clean album with a smart stippled cover.

A Foot in Coldwater is a Canadian rock band composed of Alex Machin (vocals), Bob Horne (keyboard), Paul Naumann (guitar), Danny Taylor (drums), and Hughie Leggat (bass and vocals). They are best known for the song "(Make Me Do) Anything You Want" which was a Canadian hit single in 1972 and again in 1974.

A Foot in Coldwater was formed in Toronto in 1970 from three bands. Leggat, Taylor, and Horne had been members of Nucleus, and the Lords of London. Machin and Naumann were in the band Island. Together, they signed with Frank Davies of Daffodil Records, who coined the group's name.

The band's first album, A Foot in Coldwater, was released in 1972 with their first single "(Make Me Do) Anything You Want" which reached the top 25 on the Canadian charts. In 1973, they released their second album The Second Foot in Coldwater which included moderately successful singles "(Isn’t Love Unkind) In My Life" (#34) and "Love is Coming" (#27). In 1974, the band released a third album, All Around Us, which included a shorter version of "(Make Me Do) Anything You Want" which again made the Canadian singles chart. The song was later covered by the heavy metal band Helix in 1984.^[1] It is described as "a sleepy ballad" by AllMusic.^[2]

The band released one more single, "Midnight Lady" before Daffodil Records filed for bankruptcy in 1975, leaving them without a label. Horne left the group and the remaining members recorded a single, "Breaking Through" for Anthem in 1977, but it was not a success and the band folded.

The following year, Hughie Leggat teamed up with his brother Gordon and assembled a new band, calling themselves Private Eye. Their eponymous debut album was released in 1979 and featured the hit 'Your Place or Mine' (#51). The album peaked at No. 59. In early 1980, a second single "Changes" reached No. 93. With a lack of support from their label, the band called it quits in 1981 and the Leggat brothers, along with Rob Sagar, Phil Sullivan and Danny Taylor, formed a new project called Leggat. This union produced one album, Illuminations which was released in 1982. The song "White Flags" received airplay but the album was generally poorly received due to the length of the songs (most were over 4 minutes). White Flags was covered by Blue Öyster Cult in 1986.

A Foot in Coldwater regrouped in 1988 for short tours, and in 1998 Unidisc reissued their first three albums plus a two-disc compilation The Very Best of a Foot in Coldwater.