Nursery Cryme is the third studio album by the English rock band Genesis, released on 12 November 1971 on Charisma Records.

The album received a mixed response from critics and was not initially a commercial success; it did not enter the UK chart until 1974, when it reached its peak at No.

Following the recruitment of Collins and Hackett, the band extensively toured in support of their previous album Trespass (1970), and then began writing and rehearsing for a follow-up in Luxford House, East Sussex, with recording following at Trident Studios.

Nursery Cryme saw the band take a more aggressive direction on some songs, with substantially improved drumming and new guitar techniques, such as tapping and sweep picking.

Genesis recorded their first album as a professional outfit, Trespass in July 1970, but immediately afterwards, founding member and guitarist Anthony Phillips quit owing to increased stress and unhappiness in touring.

[2] The other founders—singer Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks and bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford—almost split up the group, but decided to carry on and replace drummer John Mayhew with someone who was of equal stature to the others.

In November 1970, Mick Barnard joined the group on recommendation from Friars Aylesbury's David Stopps, and "The Musical Box" was added to the live set.

[9] Genesis recruited Steve Hackett after Gabriel spotted an advert he placed in Melody Maker in December 1970, which read "Imaginative guitarist/writer seeks involvement with receptive musicians, determined to drive beyond existing stagnant music forms."

[6] Hackett quickly developed a rapport with Rutherford, sharing their love of twelve-string guitars and new musical ideas, and joined the band in early 1971.

[13] Early attempts to work on material for their next studio album in what Hackett described as "the odd day in a windy church hall" while on tour were unproductive, causing the group to dedicate time.

[15] The five moved to Charisma owner Tony Stratton Smith's residence, Luxford House, a 16th-century Grade II listed building in Crowborough, East Sussex.

Hackett recalled some difficulty in understanding what Banks and Rutherford were talking about, as the two had devised their own sayings; for instance, a passage that they had played was referred to as a "nice guy".

[30] An earlier version of the song, entitled "Manipulation", was performed with Phillips in 1970 for the soundtrack of an unreleased BBC documentary on painter Michael Jackson.

[22] He realised that neither member had made a sound that resembled an actual musical box, so he took the opportunity to record a guitar lick that is heard before the lyric "Here it comes again".

[31] Gabriel, a big fan of The Who at the time, pushed for Rutherford to come up with "an arm waving, ballsy attacking" section in a similar style to their guitarist Pete Townshend.

[33] Collins was inspired to play a rolling drum part during the middle section from hearing "The Weaver's Answer" by Family, and put it to the rhythm.

[32] Despite all these additions, Genesis biographer Mario Giammetti reckoned that the original composition written by Rutherford and Phillips in September 1969 amounted to "a good two thirds of this track".

[39] Hackett was inspired by "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles to write a straightforward song about a relationship, to which Collins suggested one about two old women who had lost their husbands.

The bulk of the song was written during Genesis's time as a four-piece of Banks, Collins, Gabriel, and Rutherford, though Hackett wrote the introduction after joining the band.

He theorised that the old man addressed in the lyric is expressing his "profound belief that the secret of success and good fortune is based purely on random events and chance".

[53] Hackett particularly enjoyed the time he came up with his ending guitar solo, which occurred around midnight at Luxford House during a rare moment when the group were up for recording.

The group felt discouraged by the general indifference from the record company, and believed songs like "The Musical Box" could have been as popular as "Stairway to Heaven", released at the same time.

[65] From November 1971 to August 1972, Genesis toured to support the album, which included further visits to Belgium, and Italy for the first time, where they played to enthusiastic crowds.

Richard Cromelin of Rolling Stone summarised that its "main problem lies not in Genesis' concepts, which are, if nothing else, outrageously imaginative and lovably eccentric, nor with their musical structures—long, involved, multi-movemented frameworks on which they hang their narratives—nor even with their playing, which does get pretty lethargic at points.

It's the godawful production, a murky, distant stew that at best bubbles quietly when what is desperately needed are the explosions of drums and guitars, the screaming of the organ, the abrasive rasp of vocal cords."

[74] In a full-page advert published in Melody Maker, keyboardist Keith Emerson wrote a positive summary: "This is not the start for Genesis neither is it the end.

BBC Music praised the two new members of the band as fundamental to Genesis's artistic success, remarking "Collins' snappy drums were augmented by his uncanny ability to sound not unlike Gabriel ... Hackett's armoury of tapping and swell techniques really broadened the palette of the band, giving Tony Banks more room for his Delius-lite organ filigrees, not to mention their newly purchased Mellotron", and gushed that "Genesis had virtually invented their own genre, Edwardian rock".