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I don't linger on the fact that Dawn Fraser was a great swimmer 40 years ago. That was in the past. I did break 41 world records, but I don't live on that today.

I wanted to make a record that people could put on year after year after year, and it would never feel dated.

Records became much cruder in the last 20 years. Let's put it that way.

Things began to pick up for me record-wise when in 1971 I wrote 'She's a Lady' for Tom Jones.

After 'Real Live Woman,' I wasn't sure I'd ever want to make another record.

Back then I thought if you cut a record, you were automatically a star.

When 'Play' first came out, journalists didn't review it; it didn't get radio play. And then it became this big successful record and, I hate to admit this, I found myself liking the fame. I bought into it.

When the first record came out, I'd go down to radio stations pretty much every day to get the record played, and I would walk in and they'd tell us how much they loved the record, but they weren't sure how much they could play it because they were already playing a girl.

In the '80s, the way radio was programmed, if you didn't have a hit record you weren't going to be able to make any more records. That was it, period.