Tuesday, September 29, 1992

Alice in Chains released Dirt

First posted 3/27/2011; updated 9/13/2020.

Dirt

Alice in Chains


Released: September 29, 1992


Peak: 6 US, 42 UK, 25 CN, 13 AU


Sales (in millions): 4.0 US, -- UK, 5.0 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: grunge rock


Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.)

  1. Them Bones (10/17/92, 24 AR, 30 MR, 26 UK)
  2. Dam That River
  3. Rain When I Die
  4. Down in a Hole (10/2/93, 10 AR, 36 UK)
  5. Sickman
  6. Rooster (3/13/93, 7 AR)
  7. Junkhead
  8. Dirt
  9. God Smack
  10. Iron Gland
  11. Hate to Feel
  12. Angry Chair (1/30/93, 34 AR, 27 MR, 33 UK)
  13. Would? (8/8/92, 19 AR, 19 UK)


Total Running Time: 57:37


The Players:

  • Layne Staley (vocals)
  • Jerry Cantrell (guitar)
  • Mike Starr (bass)
  • Sean Kinney (drums)

Rating:

4.149 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings)


Awards:

About the Album:

Dirt is Alice in Chains’ major artistic statement and the closest they ever came to recording a flat-out masterpiece. It’s a primal, sickening howl from the depths of Layne Staley’s heroin addiction, and one of the most harrowing concept albums ever recorded.” AMG While recording the album, Staley checked out of rehab and quickly returned to using heroin. WK Drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr were also struggling with addiction. In their case, it was alcohol. WK

Staley said the album was semi-conceptual, “dealing with…personal anguish and turmoil, which turns into drugs to ease that pain, and being confident that that was the answer in a way. Then later on the songs start to slip down closer and closer to hell, and then he figures out that drugs were not, and are not, the way to ease that pain.” WK

“Not every song on Dirt is explicitly about heroin, but Jerry Cantrell’s solo-written contributions (nearly half the album) effectively maintain the thematic coherence – nearly every song is imbued with the morbidity, self-disgust, and/or resignation of a self-aware yet powerless addict.” AMG Pop Matters’ Michael Christopher said, “the record wasn’t celebratory by any means – but you’d be hard pressed to find a more brutally truthful work laid down – and that’s why it will always be one of the greatest records ever made.” WK

“Cantrell’s technically limited but inventive guitar work is by turns explosive, textured, and queasily disorienting, keeping the listener off balance with atonal riffs and off-kilter time signatures. Staley’s stark confessional lyrics are similarly effective, and consistently miserable. Sometimes he’s just numb and apathetic, totally desensitized to the outside world; sometimes his self-justifications betray a shockingly casual amorality; his moments of self-recognition are permeated by despair and suicidal self-loathing.” AMG The album was led by the single Would?, which first appeared on the soundtack for Cameron Crowe’s 1991 film Singles. The soundtrack boasted a slate of Seattle-based musicians and was one of the significant albums in introducing grunge to the mainstream. Cantrell wrote the song as a tribute to Andrew Wood, his friend and singer of Mother Love Bone, who died of a drug overdose in 1990. WK

Them Bones was, as Cantrell said, about “mortality, that one of these days we’ll end up a pile of bones.” WK He wrote Dam That River after a fight with Kinney in which Kinney broke a coffee table over his head. WK Cantrell and Staley wrote Rain When I Die about their girlfriends. WK Sickman grew out of a challenge from Staley to Cantrell to “write the sickest, darkest, most fucked up and heaviest thing he could write.” WK

Cantrell wrote Down in a Hole to his longtime girlfriend, Courtney Clarke. He said it’s one of his top three favorites. He said, “It’s the reality of my life, the path I’ve chosen and in a weird way it kind of foretold where we are right now. It’s hard for us both to understand…that this life is not conducive to much success with long-term relationships.” WK

“Even given its subject matter, Dirt is monstrously bleak, closely resembling the cracked, haunted landscape of its cover art. The album holds out little hope for its protagonists (aside from the much-needed survival story of Rooster, a tribute to Cantrell’s Vietnam-vet father), but in the end, it’s redeemed by the honesty of its self-revelation and the sharp focus of its music.” AMG

Resources and Related Links:

Monday, September 21, 1992

Abba released Gold compilation

First posted 3/27/2008; updated 9/7/2020.

Gold: Greatest Hits

Abba


Buy Here:


Recorded: 1974-1982


Released: September 21 1992


Peak: 25 US, 18 UK, 4 CN, 14 AU


Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 5.1 UK, 34.4 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: dance pop


Tracks: (Click for codes to singles charts.)

  1. Dancing Queen (8/21/76, #1 US, #1 UK, gold single)
  2. Knowing Me, Knowing You (2/26/77, #14 US, #1 UK, #7 AC)
  3. Take a Chance on Me (2/4/78, #3 US, #1 UK, #9 AC, gold single)
  4. Mamma Mia (12/13/75, #32 US, #1 UK, #12 AC) G1
  5. Lay All Your Love on Me (7/18/81, #7 UK)
  6. Super Trouper (11/15/80, #45 US, #1 UK, #14 AC)
  7. I Have a Dream (12/15/79, #2 UK)
  8. The Winner Takes It All (8/2/80, #8 US, #1 UK, #1 AC)
  9. Money, Money, Money (11/20/76, #56 US, #3 UK, #38 AC)
  10. S.O.S. (8/9/75, #15 US, #6 UK, #19 AC) G1
  11. Chiquitita (2/3/79, #29 US, #2 UK, #15 AC)
  12. Fernando (3/27/76, #13 US, #1 UK, #1 AC) G1
  13. Voulez-Vous (7/14/79, #80 US, #40 AC)
  14. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man after Midnight) (10/20/79, #3 UK)
  15. Does Your Mother Know (5/5/79, #19 US, #4 UK, #41 AC)
  16. One of Us (12/12/81, #3 UK, #33 AC)
  17. The Name of the Game (10/22/77, #12 US, #1 UK, #9 AC)
  18. Thank You for the Music (11/12/83, #33 UK)
  19. Waterloo (4/20/74, #6 US, #1 UK) G1

Rating:

4.568 out of 5.00 (average of 14 ratings)


Awards:

About the Album:

In the U.K., Abba released two majorly successful #1 greatest hits compilations during their career. First up was 1976’s Greatest Hits, which was one of the country’s top 10 best-selling albums ever according to the 2007 report by the Official U.K. Charts Company. The first collection had only six charted hits, including #1 U.K. songs Waterloo, Mamma Mia, and Fernando.

1979’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 was a much more solid compilation that represented Abba’s heyday. It featured ten songs that went top 10 in the U.K., four of which went to #1 – Dancing Queen, Take a Chance on Me, Knowing Me, Knowing You, and The Name of the Game. ‘Dancing Queen’ was also a U.S. chart topper.

However, the best compilation didn’t appear until 1993. The “19-song Gold collection was the first hits compilation prepared specifically for the CD format by the 1970s supergroup.” AMG “Appearing after a period of several years in which their music had been off the market, [it] was a welcome addition to the catalog.” AMG It weeded out non-charting and unnecessary album cuts from the first two greatest hits sets and added material released after the second collection, most notably the U.K. #1 hits The Winner Takes It All and Super Trouper. “It is still the simplest and most straightforward collection of the group's material that it is possible to buy.” AMG

Resources and Related Links:

Monday, September 14, 1992

The Music of Disney box set released

First posted 11/17/2020.

The Music of Disney: A Legacy in Song

Various Artists


Released: September 14, 1992


Recorded: 1928-1991


Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK, 1.0 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: soundtrack


Tracks:

Song Title Movie/Show (year) – Act Recorded By (chart date, peaks) Click for codes to singles charts.

Disc 1:

  1. “Turkey in the Straw“ Steamboat Willie (1928) - Traditional (12/25/26, 14 US)
  2. “Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?“ Three Little Pigs (1933) - Pinto Colvig/Mary Moder/Dorothy Compton/Billy Bletcher
  3. “Heigh-Ho“ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - The Dwarf Chorus (2/12/38, 3 US)
  4. “Whistle While You Work“ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - Adriana Caselotti (2/12/38, 2 US, 2 HP)
  5. “Someday My Prince Will Come“ Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - Adriana Caselotti (2/19/38, 10 US)
  6. When You Wish Upon a StarPinocchio (1940) - Cliff Edwards (2/17/40, 10 US, 1 HP)
  7. “Give a Little Whistle“ Pinocchio (1940) - Cliff Edwards/Dickie Jones (3/2/40, 16 US)
  8. “Dance of the Reed Flutes” Fantasia (1940) - The Philadelphia Orch/Leopold Stokowski
  9. “Baby Mine“ Dumbo (1941) - Betty Noyes
  10. “Love Is a Song” Bambi (1942) - Donald Novis
  11. “Little April Shower” Bambi (1942) - Amy Lou Barnes/Sally Mueller/Mary Moder/Alice Sizer/Betty Bruce
  12. “Saludos Amigos” Saludos Amigos (1943) - Disney Studio Chorus
  13. “You Belong to My Heart” The Three Caballeros (1944) - Dora Luz
  14. “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah“ Song of the South (1946) - James Baskett
  15. “Ev’rybody Has a Laughing Place” Song of the South (1946) - James Baskett/Jesse Cryor/Johnny Lee/Nicodemus Stewart
  16. “The Lord Is Good to Me” Melody Time (1946) - Dennis Day
  17. “Lavender Blue (Dilly, Dilly)“ So Dear to My Heart (1946) - Burl Ives (2/12/49, 16 US, 1 AU)
  18. “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes“ Cinderella (1950) - Ilene Woods
  19. “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo“ Cinderella (1950) - Verna Felton/Ilene Woods/James McDonald (1/14/50, 22 US, 3 HP)
  20. “I’m Late” Alice In Wonderland (1951) - Bill Thompson/Kathryn Beaumont
  21. “The Unbirthday Song” Alice in Wonderland (1951) - Jerry Colonna/Ed Wynn/Kathryn Beaumont
  22. “The Second Star to the Right” Peter Pan (1953) - The Jud Conlon Chor
  23. “You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!” Peter Pan (1953) - Bobby Driscoll/Kathryn Beaumont/Paul Collins/Tommy Luske
  24. “Bella Notte” Lady and the Tramp (1955) - Bill Hamlin/Oliver Wallace
  25. “Once Upon a Dream“ Sleeping Beauty (1959) - Mary Costa/Bill Shirley
  26. “Cruella De Vil” 101 Dalmatians (1961) - Bill Lee/Lisa Davis/Ben Wright
  27. “Higitus Figitus” The Sword in the Stone (1963) - Karl Swenson/Ricky Sorenson

Disc 2:

  1. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious“ Mary Poppins (1964) - Julie Andrews/Dick Van Dyke/The Pearlie Chorus (4/24/65, 66 US, 80 CB, 73 HR, 14 AC)
  2. “A Spoonful of Sugar“ Mary Poppins (1964) - Julie Andrews
  3. “Chim Chim Cher-ee“ Mary Poppins (1964) - Dick Van Dyke/Julie Andrews/Karen Dotrice/Matthew Garber
  4. “Winnie the Pooh“ Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (1966) - Disney Studio Chorus
  5. “The Bare Necessities“ The Jungle Book (1967) - Phil Harris/Bruce Reitherman
  6. “I Wan'na Be Like You“ The Jungle Book (1967) - Louis Prima/Phil Harris/Bruce Reitherman
  7. “The Aristocats” The Aristocats (1970) - Maurice Chevalier
  8. “Ev'rybody Wants to Be a Cat” The Aristocats (1970) - Phil Harris/Scatman Crothers/Thurl Ravenscroft/Liz English
  9. “The Age of Not Believing“ Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) - Angela Lansbury
  10. “Nobody's Problems“ Bedknobs And Broomsticks (1971) - Angela Lansbury
  11. “Oo-De-Lally” Robin Hood (1973) - Roger Miller
  12. “Someone's Waiting for You” The Rescuers (1977) - Shelby Flint
  13. “Candle on the Water“ Pete's Dragon (1977) - Helen Reddy (12/24/77, 27 AC)
  14. “Best of Friends” The Fox and the Hound (1981) - Pearl Bailey
  15. “Perfect Isn't Easy” Oliver & Company (1988) - Bette Midler
  16. “Part of Your World“ The Little Mermaid (1989) - Jodi Benson
  17. “Under the Sea“ The Little Mermaid (1989) - Samuel E. Wright
  18. “Kiss the Girl“ The Little Mermaid (1989) - Samuel E. Wright
  19. “Be Our Guest“ Beauty and the Beast (1991) - Jerry Orbach/Angela Lansbury
  20. “Beauty and the Beast“ Beauty And The Beast (1991) - Angela Lansbury

Disc 3:

  1. “A Whale of a Tale“ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) - Kirk Douglas
  2. “Old Yeller” Old Yeller (1957) - Jerome Courtland
  3. “Pretty Irish Girl” Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) - Sean Connery
  4. “The Parent Trap” The Parent Trap (1961) - Tommy Sands/Annette Funicello
  5. “Castle in Spain” Babes in Toyland (1961) - Ray Bolger
  6. “Enjoy It” In Search of the Castaways (1962) - Maurice Chevalier/Hayley Mills
  7. “On the Front Porch” Summer Magic (1963) - Burl Ives
  8. “The Monkey's Uncle” The Monkey's Uncle (1965) - Annette Funicello
  9. “That Darn Cat” That Darn Cat (1965) - Bobby Darin
  10. “Fortuosity“ The Happiest Millionaire (1967) - Tommy Steele
  11. “Mickey Mouse Club March“ The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) - The Mouseketeers
  12. “I'm No Fool” The Mickey Mouse Club (1956) - Cliff Edwards
  13. “You, the Human Animal” The Mickey Mouse Club (1956) - Cliff Edwards
  14. “Mickey Mouse Club Alma Mater” The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) - The Mouseketeers/Jimmie Dodd
  15. “Wonderful World of Color (Main Title)” Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1961) - The Wellingtons
  16. “The Spectrum Song” Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color (1961) - Paul Frees
  17. “The Ballad Of Davy Crockett” Davy Crockett (1955) - The Mellomen
  18. “The Swamp Fox” The Swamp Fox (1959) - Leslie Nielsen
  19. “The Wonderful World of Disney (Main Title)” The Wonderful World Of Disney (1968) - George Bruns
  20. “Zorro” Zorro (1957) - The Mellomen
  21. “Strummin' Song” Walt Disney's Walt Disney Wonderful World of Color (1961) - Annette Funicello
  22. “Mister Piano Man” The Golden Horseshoe Revie (1962) - Annette Funicello
  23. “Duck Tales Theme” DuckTales (1990) - Jeff Pescetto
  24. “Tale Spin Theme” TaleSpin (1990) - Jim Gilstrap
  25. “Meet Me Down on Main Street” Disneyland (1956) - The Mellomen
  26. “The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room“ Disneyland (1963) - Wally Boag/Fulton Burley/Thurl Ravenscroft/The Mellomen
  27. “It's a Small World (After All)“ New York World's Fair (1964) - The Disneyland Chorus
  28. “Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)“ Disneyland (1967) - The Mellomen
  29. “There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow“ New York World's Fair (1964) - Rex Allen
  30. “Golden Dream“ EPCOT Center (1982) - Richard Page/Marti McCall
  31. “Main Street Electrical Parade“ Disneyland (1979) - Jean Jacques Perrey/Gershon Kingsley

Rating:

4.646 out of 5.00 (average of 7 ratings)


Awards:

About the Album:

This is the reason box sets exist. This “beautifuly packaged three-CD box set” AMG gathers eight decade’s worth of songs from Disney movies, shorts, TV shows, and theme park music.

“Since the Disney catalog is in a state of constant change, this is the only place to get some songs that aren’t currently available; these days it’s a rare treat to hear Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations…and Annette’s theme from The Monkey's UncleAZ and all in one place.

There are an abundance of classic songs, including When You Wish Upon a Star from Pinocchio, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, from Song of the South, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins, and the earworm of all earworms which plays incessantly at Disney theme parks – It’s a Small World After All. There’s also music from a myriad of Disney movie favorites, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, and Cinderella up through modern classics like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.

The wide array of performers include Julie Andrews, Pearl Bailey, George Burns, Maurice Chevalier, Sean Connery, Kirk Douglas, Annette Funicello, Burl Ives, Angela Lansbury, Bette Midler, Roger Miller, Louis Prima, Helen Reddy, and Dick Van Dyke.

AZ “Disney buffs will love this set, although there are some popular songs missing.” AMG “Overall, The Music of Disney: A Legacy in Song proves how significant the music from Disney’s films and television shows were to popular music and popular culture in general.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: