Lyle Lovett released I Love Everybody

I Love Everybody Lyle Lovett

Released: September 27, 1994 Peak: 26 US, 54 UK, 40 CN Sales (in millions): 0.5 US Genre: alt-country/Americana

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Skinny Legs [2:42] (single, --) Fat Babies (Lyle Lovett, Eric Taylor) [2:54] I Think You Know What I Mean [3:05] Hello Grandma [2:35] Creeps Like Me [2:14] Sonja [2:00] They Don’t Like Me [2:34] Record Lady [4:11] Ain’t It Somethin’ [2:14] Penguins [2:31] The Fat Girl [2:00] La to the Left [3:20] Old Friend [3:13] Just the Morning [4:23] (single, --) Moon on My Shoulder [2:20] I’ve Got the Blues [3:34] Good-Bye to Carolina [3:28] I Love Everybody [3:39] All songs written by Lyle Lovett unless noted otherwise. Total Running Time: 52:41

Rating: 4.023 out of 5.00 (average of 15 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “Lyle Lovett’s 1992 album, Joshua Judges Ruth, was a highly ambitious project for the Texas-born singer/songwriter – perhaps too ambitious, since despite the album’s beautiful surfaces, the results simply weren’t especially absorbing.” AMG “I Love Everybody is a return to Lovett’s early Texas-cowboy-poet style. In fact, it’s a return to those earlier songs” AZ as “Lovett has raided his attic trunk and has found a surprising number of lost treasures.” AZ “While all 18 tracks on the album are previously unreleased, most of them date from the 1980s when he was writing far more high-quality material than anyone was interested in recording.” AZ “For a set of tunes that were apparent leftovers, the writing on I Love Everybody is startlingly strong, from the saucy Hello Grandma and Record Lady to the stark and edgy storytelling of I Think You Know What I Mean and The Fat Girl.” AMG “Skinny Legs kicks things off with a confession of jealousy. If he only had skinny legs, a new Toyota and a cute rear end, the singer laments, he’d have a girlfriend like that boy over there. Lovett’s dry, deadpan drawl falls on the bouncy, catchy melody with enchanting ease, and he refuses to use a single word more than he needs.” AZ While Joshua Judges Ruth had largely discarded some of Lovett’s fun style, Lyle’s “wry humor (They Don’t Like Me), playful surrealism (Penguins) and disturbing frankness (Creeps Like Me)” WK make comebacks here. The latter was originall song was originally intended to be the title song “and it’s hard to decide if one should laugh or frown in disgust while listening to it.” AMG “The lightly swinging arrangements are as simple as the songs.” AZ “Like Joshua Judges Ruth, I Love Everybody is dominated by clean, stripped-down arrangements and transparent production, but the players bring a lot more spirit and swing to these sessions (top honors go to bassist John Leftwich and drummer Russ Kunkel, a superb and soulful acoustic rhythm section).” AMG Kenny Aronoff also appears on drums. Also, “cellist John Hagen is added to five cuts, fiddler Mark O’Connor to six, the Tower of Power Horns to one, a gospel quartet to three, and a choir featuring Rickie Lee Jones and Julia Roberts [his wife at the time] to two others.” AZ “The dynamics bring more drama to the performances rather than weighing them down.” AMG “For the most part it succeeds where Joshua Judges Ruth disappoints, largely because the songs offer enough changeups to keep the listener engaged at all times.” AMG “At least half a dozen songs are slight one-liners which didn’t deserve revival, and they dilute the album’s impact. Nonetheless this is a welcome reward for all those who believe the funny Lyle Lovett is the best Lyle Lovett.” AZ “I Love Everybody is just eccentric enough to be best recommended to folks already familiar with Lovett’s work, but anyone attuned to his sensibility will find plenty to enjoy here – and a little to make you a shade uncomfortable.” AMG

Resources and Related Links: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Lyle Lovett AMG All Music Guide review by Mark Deming AZ Amazon.com review by Geoffrey Himes WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 1/12/2010; last updated 5/18/2022.

The Cranberries “Zombie” released

Zombie The Cranberries

Writer(s): Dolores O'Riordan (see lyrics here) Released: September 19, 1994 First Charted: October 1, 1994 Peak: 22 BA, 25 GR, 20 RR, 32 AR, 16 MR, 14 UK, 19 CN, 18 AU, 10 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- US, 1.8 UK, 3.42 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 2227.55 video, 1376.10 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: The Cranberries released their debut album, Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?, in 1993. It sold eight million copies worldwide on the strength of hit songs “Dreams” and “Linger.” A year later, the group was back with their second album, No Need to Argue. It was even more successful, reaching the top 10 on the Billboard album chart and selling 17 million copies worldwide. The album was supported by four singles, the first of which was “Zombie.” It was a #1 hit on the Billboard modern rock chart and reached #3 in the band’s native Ireland. The song was written by Dolores O’Riordan, the lead singer, about the Northern Ireland conflict that lasted from the late 1960s through 1998 during which the paramilitary organization known as the IRA (Irish Republican Army) led an effot to overthrow British rule in Northern Ireland. Author Dave Thompson said, “The struggle that the English press euphemistically called the Irish Troubles was nearing its end when this was released, after a quarter century of violence.” DT In 1993, there were two bombings in Warrington, England. The second killed 56 people, including two children. After O’Riordan visited the town, she decided to write a song about it. She explained, “We were on a tour bus and I was near the location where it happened, so it really struck me hard – I was quite young, but I remember being devastated about the innocent children being pulled into that kind of thing.” SW The band’s label, Island, was leary about releasing such a politically-charged single WK but the subject matter “didn’t dent the power of the song.” DT It went to #1 in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and Iceland. WK James Linderman told Songwriting magazine “This is a song that completely exemplifies the tricky balancing act of caring very deeply about people, but at the same time, not caring one bit about what they think of your art and so being able to express yourself honestly.” SW Resources: SW SongwritingMagazine.co.uk (9/19/2019). “How I wrote ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan” by Aaron Slater DT Dave Thompson (2011). 1000 Songs That Rock Your World. Krause Publications: Iola, WI. Page 151. WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 1/18/2025.

Boyz II Men II hit #1

II Boyz II Men

Released: August 30, 1994 Peak: 15 US, 12 RB, 17 UK, 3 CN, 4 AU Sales (in millions): 12.0 US, 0.1 UK, 21.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: R&B

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Thank You (2/7/95, 21 BB, 11 CB, 16 GR, 17 RR, 26 UK, 32 CN, 33 AU) All Around the World U Know Vibin’ (with Method Man) (9/2/95, 56 BB, 55 CB, 27 RB, 27 CN) I Sit Away Jezebel Khalil (Interlude) Trying Times I'll Make Love to You (7/26/94, 114 BB, 112 BA, 113 CB, 19 GR, 14 RR, 13 AC, 19 RB, 5 UK, 13 CN, 12 AU, 9 DF) On Bended Knee (11/1/94, 16 BB, 111 BA, 111 CB, 18 GR, 16 RR, 8 AC, 2 RB, 20 UK, 13 CN, 7 AU, 14 DF) 50 Candles Water Runs Dry (4/11/95, 2 BB, 11 BB, 15 CB, 11 GR, 2 RR, 3 AC, 4 RB, 24 UK, 4 CN, 36 AU, 18 DF) Yesterday (11 DF) Total Running Time: 57:38 The Players: Michael McCary (bass) Nathan Morris (baritone) Wanyá Morris (tenor) Shawn Stockman (tenor)

Rating: 4.324 out of 5.00 (average of 22 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

Boyz II Men’s Early Years The R&B vocal harmony group Boyz II Men formed in 1985 in Philadelphia. They were signed to Motown and released their first album, Cooleyhighharmony, in 1991. It featured two top-five hits (“Motownphilly” and “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye”) that propelled the album to nine time platinum. In 1992 they landed atop the pop charts for a whopping 13 weeks with “End of the Road” from the Boomerang soundtrack. It was the biggest pop hit in 45 years. At that point, only the Francis Craig Orchestra had topped the charts longer – 17 weeks with the 1947 hit “Near You.” It wasn’t a record that would stand long. Just a week after “End of the Road” was dethroned, Whitney Houston began a 14-week run at #1 with “I Will Always Love You.” The next year they covered “In the Still of the Nite (I’ll Remember)” for the TV miniseries The Jacksons: An American Dream and took the song to #3. That same year they released a Christmas album. The Next Album The anticipation for Boyz II Men’s second non-seasonal studio album was through the roof. I mean, they couldn’t possibly match the 13-week reign of “End of the Road,” could they? The group launched their new album with the single I’ll Make Love to You. It wasn’t that surprising that the song ascended to #1. What was astonishing, however, is that it outdid “End of the Road” and matched “I Will Always Love You” by spending 14 weeks atop the chart. Interestingly, Boyz II Men stopped their own run when the album’s second single, On Bended Knee, knocked “I’ll Make Love to You” from #1. The song wasn’t quite as big, spending a mere six weeks at the pinnacle. However, Boyz II Men would top themselves yet again – the very next year their duet with Mariah Carey, “One Sweet Day,” would land atop the charts for an astonishing 16 weeks. With three monster smashes in just a few years’ time, Boyz II Men assured themselves of a place in pop music history. “If ever a second album consolidated a band’s reputation, this was it.” AB “Working with some of the hottest talent around, including Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the band turned out” AB “a carefully constructed crowd pleaser, accentuating all of the finest moments from their hit debut. While there are some high-energy dance tracks, the album’s main strength is its slower numbers, where the group's vocals soar.” AM The group’s “vocal prowess is displayed to most stunning effect on the closing track – an audacious ‘ a cappella’ rendition of Paul McCartney’s Yesterday.” AB

Resources: AM AllMusic.com review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine AB Michael Spilling (editor) (2015). Best-Selling Albums: From Vinyl Records to Digital Downloads. Amber Books Ltd.: London, United Kingdom. Page 158. Related DMDB Links: First posted 3/26/2008; last updated 12/7/2024.

Eric Clapton released From the Cradle, his first blues album

From the Cradle Eric Clapton

Released: September 13, 1994 Peak: 11 US, 11 UK, 2 CN, 6 AU, 11 DF Sales (in millions): 3.0 US, 0.1 UK, 6.5 world (includes US and UK) Genre: blues

Tracks: Song Title (Writers) [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Blues Before Sunrise (Carr) [2:58] Third Degree (Boyd/Dixon) [5:07] Reconsider Baby (Fulson) [3:20] Hoochie Coochie Man (Dixon) [3:16] Five Long Years (Boyd) [4:47] I’m Tore Down (Thompson) [3:02] (9/10/94, #5 AR) How Long Blues (Carr) [3:09] Goin’ Away Baby (Lane) [4:00] Blues Leave Me Alone (Lane) [3:36] Sinner’s Prayer (Fulson/Glenn) [3:20] Motherless Child (traditional) [2:57] (10/22/94, #23 AR) It Hurts Me Too (James) [3:17] Someday After a While (King/Thompson) [4:27] Standin’ Round Crying (Waters) [3:39] Driftin’ (Brown/Moore/Williams) [3:10] Groaning the Blues (Dixon) [6:05]

Rating: 3.896 out of 5.00 (average of 26 ratings) Quotable: “One of Clapton’s finest moments” – Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: Eric Clapton’s 1992 Unplugged gave him the most successful album of his career. It won the Grammy for Album of the Year and has sold more than 20 million copies. Instead of stressing him, however, Clapton felt free to do whatever he wanted. He opted to record an all-blues cover album, the first in his career, despite long being associated with the genre. Reviews were mixed. All Music Guide’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine said “If it wasn't for Clapton's labored vocals, everything would be perfect.” STE “When he sings, Clapton loses that sense of originality, choosing to mimic the vocals of the original recordings. At times, his overemotive singing is painful; he doesn’t have the strength to pull off Howlin’ Wolf’s growl or the confidence to replicate Muddy Waters’ assured phrasing.” STE Entertainment Weekly’s Tom Sinclair considered the recordings “flawless” but boring, WK but Erlewine said “the album manages to re-create the ambience of postwar electric blues, right down to the bottomless thump of the rhythm section.” STE He asserted it was easy to overlook Clapton’s “vocal shortcomings,” STE saying “as long as he plays his guitar, he can't fail – his solos are white-hot and evocative, original and captivating.” STE Clapton once again received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. While he didn’t win that, he did take home the Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. He subsequently recorded more blues albums, including Riding with the King with B.B. King, Me and Mr. Johnson (a collection of Robert Johnson covers), and The Road to Escondido with J.J. Cale.

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Eric Clapton STE Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide WK Wikipedia Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 3/31/2008; last updated 3/19/2024.

The Notorious B.I.G. Ready to Die released

Ready to Die The Notorious B.I.G.

Released: September 13, 1994 Peak: 15 US, 3 RB, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): 6.0 US, 0.3 UK, 6.64 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rap

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts. Intro Things Done Changed Gimme the Loot Machine Gun Funk Warning Ready to Die One More Chance/Stay with Me (6/6/95, 2 BB, 2 CB, 19 RB, 34 UK, 7 CN) #!*@ Me (Interlude) The What Juicy (8/9/94, 27 BB, 14 RB, 72 UK) Everyday Struggle Me & My Bitch Big Poppa (12/24/94, 6 BB, 4 RB, 63 UK) Respect Friend of Mine Unbelievable Suicidal Thoughts Total Running Time: 69:05

Rating: 4.560 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings) Quotable: “The album that reinvented East Coast rap for the gangsta age.” – Steve Huey, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

The Arrival of a Classic and a Star Ready to Die, an “East Coast rap classic,” EW’12 was “the first credible East Coast response to the gangsta rhetoric of N.W.A….and other Los Angeles hardcore rappers.” TM In fact, it can be considered “one of the greatest hardcore rap albums” AM of all time. It notably “reinvented East Coast rap for the gangsta age” AM by combining the “in-you-faceness [that] is pure New York” RD and “production…as sumptuous as anything Dr. Dre was cooking up in California.” RD It made Christopher Wallace, aka the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, a star. “It’s hard to find a first album that delivered a superstar more fully formed.” EW’12 “This is the true heavyweight champion.” RD “He changed rap forever.” 500 Sean “Puffy” Combs The album also vaulted Sean “Puffy” Combs, into the spotlight. He read “about the fledgling Brooklyn rapper in The Source magazine” 500 and signed him to Uptown Records, where he was an A&R man. That was 1992. Biggie was in the middle of recording Ready to Die when Combs was fired by Uptown. He then formed his own label, Bad Boy Records, and Biggie joined the label and completed his album. WK Combs’ production “gives the album an unparalleled sheen.” RD Biggie’s Talent “It was Biggie’s gift of gab, enormous personality, and sense of humor that made Ready to Die so wonderful.” 500 He “came off as a okester, but here he blossomed into the hip-hop epitome of brutal elegance.” TM He “established himself as one of the greatest storytellers in modern music.” PM Ready to Die features “hip hop’s clearest articulation of the human dilemma by its greatest narrator.” VB “The late, great Big man rhymes on the fine line between birth, death, struggle, triumph, poverty, and wealth with incomparable wit, insight, and drama.” VB “His raps are easy to understand” AM and “he has a loose, easy flow and a talent for piling multiple rhymes on top of one another in quick succession.” AM “No rapper ever made multi-syllabic rhymes (‘Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis / When I was dead broke man I couldn’t picture this’) sound as smooth.” TL He has “the most immediately likable voice in hip-hop history.” 500 “He’s blessed with a flair for the dramatic;” AM “yet, no matter how much he heightens things for effect, it’s always easy to see elements of Biggie in his narrators and of his own experience in the details; everything is firmly rooted in reality, but plays like scenes from a movie.” AM His Background He was, after all, “a Brooklyn drug dealer, and, if his early interviews are to be believed, not a very nice one.” AM He worked his real-life scenarios into “overblown taes of cruelty toward women, gang-member insecurity, and thug life under the constant threat of death.” TM Luckily, though, he filtered “his street corner experiences…through his considerable charm. The result was a record that mixed long stretches of menace…with romance…and lots of humor.” TL Biggie also “slips in and out of different contradictory characters with ease.” AM The Singles “Recognizing that they couldn’t offer a whole album of nonstop killing sprees, Wallace and…Combs added upbeat pop-leaning cuts.” TM “There are dream-sequence fantasies of a life spent enjoying opulence” TM such as on the lead single Juicy which samples Mtume’s “Juicy Fruit,” in which he announces his “stardom before even hitting the Billboard charts” PM The “ecstatically playful origin story” 500 is a “rags-to-riches tale…[that] chronicles a childhood spent in poverty, being young and dealing drugs, committing crimes and then, of course, tasting success for the first time.” PM It was “a flex that would turn into a lifetime and a legacy of adoration.” PM Paste magazine’s Matt Mitchell calls it “the greatest lead single from a hip-hop album ever.” PM Biggie followed up “Juicy” with “the equally brilliant” PM “party-up pop” 500 of Big Poppa. The song is an “overweight-lover anthem” AM which showcases a “silk-spun groove” PM that is “danceable to no end.” PM The song samples the Isley Brothers’ “Between the Sheets.” The third single, One More Chance, is a “graphic sex rap” AM that samples the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” The singles make for “a trio of tracks that go toe-to-toe with any three songs made by anyone in rap history.” PM Other Songs Beyond the singles, “a sense of doom pervades his most involved stories.” AM Gimme the Loot is about “fierce bandits” AM while Me & My Bitch is a “Bonnie and Clyde-style” 500 tale of a “a hustler’s beloved girlfriend.” AM Warning is about “robbers out for Biggie’s newfound riches.” AM “All die in hails of gunfire.” AM There’s also the “self-mythologizing of Machine Gun Funk and [the aforementioned] ‘Gimme the Loot.’” 500 “The album is also sprinkled with reflections on the soul-draining bleakness of the streets – Things Done Changed, Ready to Die, and Everyday Struggle are powerfully affecting in their confusion and despair.” AM “Producer Easy Mo Bee’s deliberate beats do get a little samey, but it hardly matters: this is Biggie’s show.” AM “By the time Suicidal Thoughts closes the album on a heartbreaking note, it’s clear why he was so revered even prior to his death.” AM His Death Sadly, Ready to Die was the only album released during Biggie’s lifetime, “but what an album to stake your claim on.” PM He was only 24 years old when he was shot and killed in March 1997. He had become embroiled in the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry two years earlier when rapper and former friend Tupac Shakur accused Smalls of knowing of a plot to have him shot. A second shooting in September 1996 left Shakur dead and escalated the tension between the two rival camps with more accusations that Smalls was in on the plot to kill Tupac. Biggie was right on the cusp of releasing his second album, Life After Death, in March 1997 when he was shot and killed in a car after leaving a Soul Train Awards after-party. The album was released sixteen days after his death. “As with Kurt Cobain, his tragic death while still in his twenties will always leave us wondering how far he might have gone.” 500

Reviews: AM AllMusic.com review by Steve Huey RD Robert Dimery (2006). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Quintet Publishing Limited: New York, NY. Page 743. EW’12 Entertainment Weekly (9/27/2012). “Top 100 Albums” TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY. Pages 555-6. PM PasteMagazine.com (6/3/2024). “The 300 Greatest Albums of All Time” 500 Rolling Stone (2020). 500 Greatest Albums of All Time TL Time Magazine (11/13/2006). “All-TIME 100 Albums” by Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light VB Vibe (Dec. 1999). “100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century,” pages 154-164. WK Wikipedia Related DMDB Links: First posted 5/22/2011; last updated 7/19/2025.