Tracy Chapman’s debut album hit #1

Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman

Released: April 5, 1988 Peak: 16 US, 13 UK, 19 CN, 2 AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 2.4 UK, 20.4 world (includes US and UK) Genre: contemporary folk rock

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution [2:38] (7/30/88, 75 BB, 67 CB, 45 AC, 7 RB, 22 AR, 24 MR, 85 UK, 42 CN, 66 AU, 2 DF) Fast Car [4:58] (5/7/88, 6 BB, 4 CB, 8 GR, 8 RR, 7 AC, 19 AR, 1 CO, 5 UK, 1 CN, 4 AU, 1 DF) Across the Lines [3:22] (4 DF) Behind the Wall [1:46] (2 DF) Baby Can I Hold You [3:16] (11/5/88, 48 BB, 39 CB, 19 AC, 7 CO, 94 UK, 27 CN, 68 AU 16 DF) Mountains O’ Things [4:37] (10 DF) She’s Got Her Ticket [3:54] (11 DF) Why? [2:01] (4 DF) For My Lover [3:15] (12 DF) If Not Now… [2:55] (20 DF) For You [3:09] All songs written by Tracy Chapman. Total Running Time: 35:51

Rating: 4.524 out of 5.00 (average of 21 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Chapman’s Beginnings Folk-rock singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman was born in 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio. She began playing guitar and writing songs when she was eleven years old. TM In 1984, when she was a twenty-year-old student at Tufts University, she started playing at clubs around the Boston area. Producer David Kershenbaum and a Record Deal A friend introduced her to producer David Kershenbaum. TB Her acoustic-based music was a turn-off to many producers because of the popularity of snyth-driven, dance-pop music at the time but he embraced her musical direction. WK He was struck by her “plaintive songs and vocal range, which bore a strong resemblance to Joan Armatrading.” TB He recognized that, as he said, “there was a sense in the industry of a slight boredom with everything out there and that people might be willing to listen again to lyrics and to someone who made statements.” WK By the end of 1986, Chapman signed a deal with Elektra Records. Kershenbaum set about producing her debut album at his studio in Los Angeles. He’d recorded Joe Jackson’s Look Sharp! for less than $10,000 and with minimal overdubs. He used a similar approach for Chapman’s album. Her vocals and acoustic guitar “were recorded over a spare rhythm section consisting of drummer Denny Fongheiser and bassist Larry Klein.” TB Nelson Mandela Birthday Tribute Chapman’s career received a major boost via her performance at Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday tribute. The event, held at Wembley Stadium in London on June 11, 1988, was broadcast to 67 countries and more than 600 million viewers. Chapman’s appearance at the concert shot her to stardom. W-N “The global TV audience was won over by her bluesey folk ballads and stirring statements.” RD Prior to the concert, her album had sold about a quarter million copies. In the two weeks after the concert, she reportedly accrued sales of two million. W-N By August, the album “pushed its way through a sea of hair bands and hip-hop acts on its way to the #1 position” TB on the Billboard album chart. It “became one of the key records of the Bush era, providing a touchstone for the entire PC movement while reviving the singer/songwriter tradition” AM of the early 1970s. Reviving the Singer/Songwriter Era with Contemporary Themes Critics praised Chapman’s politically and socially-minded lyrics, as well as her vocal ability and the simplicity of the music. WK The subject matters “are clearly a result of the Reagan revolution.” AM “At a time when most African American women in music set out to be R&B divas” TM Chapman “sang quietly and thoughtfully about the lives of the disadvantaged. Her songs portrayed poverty in human terms, telling about dignified people pushed to the breaking point.” TM “The juxtaposition of contemporary themes and classic production precisely is what makes the album distinctive.” AM “The record continues to sound fresh because Chapman’s writing is so keenly observed and her strong, gutsy singing makes each song sound intimate and immediate.” AM “Fast Car” “Even the love songs and laments are underscored by a realized vision of trickle-down modern life – listen to the lyrical details of Fast Car for proof.” AM The song “belongs alongside ‘We Gotta Get Out of This Place’ and ‘Born to Run’ on the short list of great escape songs.” TM Chapman takes on the voice of a convenience store worker who “songs to get away from the mundane and actually begin living.” TM Kershenbaum said of the song, “It took a while to get to the chorus, which worried some people. It broke rules of great song construction, and I wouldn’t advise people to try it, but for some reason…when it hit…the large chorus, it blew you over.” TB Other Songs While “Fast Car” got the lion’s share of attention, the album also included Mountains o’ Things, “an inventory of a poor girl’s materialistic dreams.” TM On Talkin’ ‘Bout a Revolution, Chapman “envisions a time in the near future when the long oppressed seize a moment to change the world.” TM Meanwhile, “ballads such as Baby, Can I Hold You are so achingly tender, it is no wonder that millions were won over.” RD

Resources: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 593. TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 155-6. TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Pages 242-3. WK Wikipedia page about Tracy Chapman W-N Wikipedia page about Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday tribute Related DMDB Pages: First posted 2/26/2008; last updated 12/2/2024.

Guns N’ Roses hit #1 with Appetite for Destruction, more than a year after release

Appetite for Destruction Guns N’ Roses

Original Cover:

Released: July 21, 1987 Peak: 15 US, 5 UK, 7 CN, 7 AU, 5 DF Sales (in millions): 18.0 US, 1.95 UK, 30.4 world (includes US and UK) Genre: hard rock/metal

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Welcome to the Jungle (9/28/87, 7 US, 9 CB, 13 GR, 10 RR, 37 AR, 24 UK, 41 AU, 1 DF) It’s So Easy (6/15/87, 84 UK) Nightrain (10/29/88, 93 BB, 26 AR, 17 UK, 61 AU, 40 DF) Out ta Get Me Mr. Brownstone (6/15/87, B-side of “It’s So Easy,” 84 UK) Paradise City (11/30/88, 5 US, 4 CB, 9 GR, 4 RR, 14 AR, 6 UK, 10 CN, 48 AU, 15 DF) My Michelle (39 DF) Think about You Sweet Child O’ Mine (6/11/88, 1 BB, 1 CB, 1 GR, 1 RR, 7 AR, 6 UK, 7 CN, 11 AU, 1 DF) You’re Crazy Anything Goes Rocket Queen (4/89) Total Running Time: 53:52 The Players: W. Axl Rose (vocals, synthesizer, percussion) Slash (guitar, backing vocals) Izzy Stradlin (guitar, backing vocals, percussion) Duff McKagan (bass, backing vocals) Steven Adler (drums, percussion)

Rating: 4.574 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings) Quotable: “The best metal record of the late ‘80s.” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Return of Gritty Rock and Roll “First the Stones and then the Sex Pistols took rock & roll to the very edge.” EW’93 Guns N’ Roses arrived in the late ‘80s with their debut, Appetite for Destruction, and brought the grit back to rock and roll “after a decade where the genre had been detached and diluted.” CM “It was a dirty, dangerous, and mean record in a time when heavy metal meant nothing but a good time.” AM As guitarist Slash said, “When we had to go up against whatever was going on at the time, there were no gritty rock bands, and we were sort of a break-through rock band, sort of a fluke in a way.” GW On the surface, Guns N’ Roses may appear to celebrate the same things as their peers – namely, sex, liquor, drugs, and rock & roll.” AM Indeed, this is music “wallowing in a bluesy, metallic hard rock borrowed from Aerosmith, AC/DC, and countless faceless hard rock bands of the early ‘80s.” GW However, GNR were an “L.A. blend of surface glamour and nasty underbelly.” BL GNR embraced “the wasted rock star lifestyle with such earnest determination that you’d think they invented it.” GW They “played lacerating music that was tough, ugly.” GW “There is a nasty edge to their songs, since Axl Rose doesn’t see much fun in the urban sprawl of L.A. and its parade of heavy metal thugs, cheap women, booze, and crime.” AM Their music was built on a “sleazy sound that adds grit to already grim tales…[which made] Rose’s misogyny, fear, and anger hard to dismiss as merely an artistic statement; this is music that sounds lived-in.” AM “Listen to Axl Rose screaming ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ on this seminal explosion of punk-tinged hard rock. The whole world is on the edge, Axl seems to say, and there’s no escape.” EW’93 It was “a reminder of what rock and roll sounds like when delivered from the gut.” CS Best Selling Debut in History “The best rock debut ever” EW’12 is a mix of “exquisite pain, uncorked rage and pure rebellion meet[ing] in a full metal racket.” UT “Regardless of the lineup changes or the drama that came in the years following its release, Appetite for Destruction remains absolutely flawless. It’s the type of record every rock and roll band should aspire — or at least attempt — to create.” CQ Initially radio and MTV didn’t embrace it, but label honcho David Geffen finally convinced the video music channel to give the band a chance. “Once music fans got a look at Guns N’ Roses, they liked what they saw: five tough dudes who weren’t all gussied up like Cinderella” GW but made “raw, hard-driving, classic-sounding rock and roll.” GW It was “metallic enough for metalheads but melodic enough for the chicks. Glam Metal kids weren’t embarrassed to be seen with it, yet Bob Seger fans could drink beer to it.” GW “Whether it’s at a sports arena; at some teenager’s house party in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; or at a hipster dive bar in Brooklyn…people still can’t get enough of this album.” CQ It became the world’s best-selling debut album, CQ racking up more than 30 million sales worldwide. The Band The Los Angeles-based group formed in 1985, comprised of lead singer Axl Rose, guitarists Slash (Saul Hudson) and Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan and drummer Steve Adler. David Geffen signed the group to Geffen in March 1986 “after building a reputation for furious performances” CS and “a long courting period with a number of A&R representatitves.” CS They released the Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP before getting to work on their debut, Appetite for Destruction. The band’s sound is marked by “Axl’s wails about the awesome terribleness of life in the L.A. gutter.” EW’12 He “was a small town kid who didn’t deal well with authority and he channeled his rage into a condemnation of his surroundings.” CM “But as good as Rose’s lyrics and screeching vocals are, they wouldn’t be nearly as effective without the twin-guitar interplay of Slash and Izzy Stradlin, who spit out riffs and solos better than any band since the Rolling Stones.” AM “Slash was the archetypal lead guitarist, and his solos have a dazzling brevity and just enough grit to offset the flamboyance, while Stradlin was a Keith Richards devotee who held the line.” CM “That’s what makes Appetite for Destruction the best metal record of the late '80s” AM and Guns N’ Roses the “hardest-rocking outfit since Aerosmith.” BL The Songs Here’s thoughts on individual songs. “Welcome to the Jungle” “The charging Welcome to the Jungle” AM was the song which broke GNR. It was a “paean to the city’s seedy underbelly inspired by a homeless man who once screamed at a teenage Axl, ‘You know where you are? You’re in the jungle, baby. You’re gonna die!’” CS After the album stalled at sales of about 200,000 copies, David Geffen decided MTV’s avoidance of the band’s videos was to blame. He convinced them to give “Jungle” a chance and after it aired at 5 a.m. on a Sunday, it became MTV’s most-requested video within 24 hours. The song would eventually reach the top-ten on the Billboard Hot 100 when it was re-released after the success of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” “Sweet Child O’ Mine” This was the song that lifted the band to #1 status. On Sweet Child O’ Mine, Rose showed the band wasn’t just about being fast and loud. He showed he also was vulnerable. AM It was unique as power ballads went – it rocked out even as it went straight for the heart. “Paradise City” “Welcome to the Jungle” and the “turbo ‘70s boogie of Paradise City” CM showed that there was still a place in the top ten of the pop charts for rockers. These were gritty tales in which Rose was “conveying the fears and horrors of the decaying inner city.” AM Other Songs The classics—'Welcome to the Jungle,’ ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Paradise City’ – are classics for a reason, as they represent crystalline, anthemic benchmarks of hard rock.” PM But non-singles like Rocket Queen and “the tragic authenticity on the likes of My Michelle” CM “are brilliant and catchy.” PM There are also other cuts like “the propulsive Nighttrain,” CM“the high octane” CM ode to heroin Mr. Brownstone, and “the frenzied You’re Crazy.” CM Notes: In 2018, deluxe and super deluxe versions of the album were released which were two and four discs respectively. The bonus material includes B-sides, EP’s, and recording sessions for the album.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Guns N’ Roses AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine BL Blender (10/08). “100 Greatest American Albums” CQ Consequence.net (9/12/2022). “The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time” CM Toby Creswell & Craig Mathieson (2012). 100 Best Albums of All Time. Hardie Grant Books. Page 134. EW’93 Entertainment Weekly (10/29/1993). “100 Greatest CDs: A Love-It-Or-Loathe It Guide to the Essential Disc Library” EW’12 Entertainment Weekly (9/27/2012). “Top 100 Albums” GW Guitar World (2/19/2009). “50 Greatest Guitar Albums” PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” CS Chris Smith (2009). 101 Albums That Changed Popular Music. Oxford University Press. Pages 192-4. TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 235. UT USA Today (12/5/2003). “Top 40 Albums – the USA Today Way” Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 7/21/2013; last updated 7/25/2024.