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Destroyer (Kiss album)

2025-07-01T13:07:18Z

74.221.2.5:

{{Use mdy dates
| date = August 2021}}

{{Infobox album
| name = Destroyer
| type = [[Album]]
| artist = [[Kiss (band)|Kiss]]
| cover = Kiss-Destroyer.jpg
| caption = Cover art by [[Ken Kelly (artist)|Ken Kelly]]
| alt =
| released = {{start date|1976|3|15}}
| recorded = September 3–6, 1975; January 4 – February 5, 1976<ref>{{cite web | url=https://kisstimeline.com/timeline/kiss-enters-electric-lady-studios-to-start-recording-destroyer/ | title=3. September 1975: Kiss enters Electric Lady Studios to start recording "Destroyer" - Kiss Timeline }}</ref>
| studio = [[Electric Lady Studios|Electric Lady]] and [[Record Plant]], New York City
| genre = *[[Hard rock]]
*[[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]]
| length = {{duration
| m = 34
| s = 28}}
| label = [[Casablanca Records|Casablanca]]
| producer = [[Bob Ezrin]]
| prev_title = [[Alive! (Kiss album)|Alive!]]
| prev_year = 1975
| next_title = [[Rock and Roll Over]]
| next_year = 1976
| misc = {{Singles
| name = Destroyer
| type = studio
| single1 = [[Shout It Out Loud (Kiss song)|Shout It Out Loud]]
| single1date = March 1, 1976
| single3 = [[Flaming Youth (song)|Flaming Youth]]
| single3date = April 30, 1976
| single4 = [[Detroit Rock City]]
| single4date = July 28, 1976
| single5 = [[Beth (song)|Beth]]
| single5date = August 1976
}} {{Extra album cover
| header = Alternative cover
| type = studio
| cover = Destroyerresurrected.jpg
| border =
| alt = The 4 members of Kiss in a fiery background displaying fire and smoke.
| caption = Original album cover before it was redesigned. It would be used for the 2012 remix release.}}}}

'''''Destroyer''''' is the fourth studio album by American [[hard rock]] band [[Kiss (band)|Kiss]], released on March 15, 1976, by [[Casablanca Records]] in the US. It was the third successive Kiss album to reach the top 40 in the US, as well as the first to chart in [[Germany]] and [[New Zealand]]. The album was certified gold by the [[Recording Industry Association of America|RIAA]] on April 22, 1976, and platinum on November 11 of the same year, the first Kiss album to achieve platinum.{{Certification Cite Ref|region=United States|type=album|artist=Kiss|title=Destroyer|access-date=March 14, 2025}} The album marked a departure from the raw sound of the band's first three albums.

==Background==
After attaining modest commercial success with their first three studio albums, Kiss achieved a commercial breakthrough with the 1975 concert album ''[[Alive! (Kiss album)|Alive!]]'' It was the first album by the band to be certified gold.<ref>Leaf and Sharp, ''Behind the Mask'', pp. 67–68.</ref> The success of ''Alive!'', which spent 110 weeks on the charts, benefited not only the struggling band but also their cash-strapped label [[Casablanca Records]].<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', p. 178.</ref><ref>Lendt, ''Kiss and Sell'', pp. 40–41.</ref> Kiss signed a new contract with Casablanca in late 1975, partly because the label had been very supportive from the start of the band's career. The contract was for two albums, an indication that Casablanca was unsure if the group could duplicate the accomplishments of ''Alive!''<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', p. 181.</ref>

==Songwriting and recording==
{{listen | filename = KISS Beth.ogg | title = "Beth" | description = "Beth" marked a musical departure for Kiss, with its heavy use of an orchestral section. The song became a No. 7 hit for the group. | format = [[Ogg]] | filename12 = KISS Shout It Out Loud.ogg | title12 = "Shout It Out Loud" | description12 = This song, with its call-and-response verses and anthemic chorus, is typical of the hard rock songs on ''Destroyer''. | format12 = [[Ogg]]}}

Rehearsals for ''Destroyer'' began in August 1975, while the group was embarking on their supporting tour for ''Alive!'' [[Bob Ezrin]], who had previously worked with [[Alice Cooper]], was brought in to produce the album. The band felt that Ezrin was the right person to help them take their sound to the next level and to maintain the commercial success they had achieved with ''Alive!''<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', pp. 183–184.</ref> Before meeting with Ezrin, the band had written and recorded a 15-song demo in the Magna Graphics Studio in August 1975. The first [[Demo (music)|demo]] recorded during the ''Destroyer'' sessions was "Ain't None of Your Business"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kissfaq.com/multimedia/audio/noneofyourbusiness.mp3|format=MP3|title=Sound file|website=Kissfaq.com|access-date=June 22, 2022}}</ref> featuring [[Peter Criss]] on vocals. The plodding, heavy song, written by [[country music|country]] songwriters [[Becky Hobbs]] and [[Lew Anderson]], was rejected by the band and later appeared on the 1977 debut album by [[Detective (band)|Detective]]. Although this song was rejected, other outside songs and suggestions were accepted by the band. In particular, [[Kim Fowley]] and Mark Anthony became important contributors during the songwriting process,<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', pp. 185–189.</ref> bringing in the title and basic structure of the song "King of the Night Time World" from their previous band [[Hollywood Stars (band)|The Hollywood Stars']] then-unreleased 1974 album ''Shine Like a Radio'' (which also featured the original version of the Alice Cooper song "Escape" from ''[[Welcome to My Nightmare]]'').<ref>{{cite web| url = http://lightintheattic.net/releases/978-shine-like-a-radio-the-great-lost-1974-album| title = Shine Like A Radio: The Great Lost 1974 Album | Light In The Attic Records| publisher = Lightintheattic.net| date = October 29, 2013| access-date = June 13, 2014| archive-date = November 23, 2021| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211123012102/https://lightintheattic.net/releases/978-shine-like-a-radio-the-great-lost-1974-album| url-status = dead}}</ref>

Ezrin flat out rejected most of the material, as only heavily re-worked versions of "God of Thunder" and "Detroit Rock City" made it to the album, and another song "Mad Dog" was pilfered for lyrics to "Sweet Pain" and a riff for "Flaming Youth". Other songs from this demo were re-worked for the following album ''[[Rock and Roll Over]]'' and [[Gene Simmons]]' [[Gene Simmons (album)|1978 solo album]] while others remained unreleased until the 2021 release<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://michaelcavacini.com/2021/11/16/review-kiss-destroyer-45th-anniversary-super-deluxe-edition/ | title=Review: KISS Destroyer 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition | date=November 16, 2021 }}</ref> of ''Destroyer'' as a 2CD set and Super Deluxe box set.<ref>{{Cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LXsZCgAAQBAJ&q=kiss+%22magna+graphics%22+1975&pg=PT81| title = Kiss - den osminkade sanningen| isbn = 978-9-187-30189-6| last1 = Linnaeus| first1 = Carl| year = 2014| publisher = Bokfabriken}}</ref>

The first recording sessions for the album took place on September 3–6, 1975 at [[Electric Lady Studios]] in [[New York City]], during a brief break between the ''[[Dressed to Kill (album)|Dressed to Kill]]'' and ''Alive!'' tours. The basic album tracks were recorded during this time.<ref>Gooch and Suhs, ''Kiss Alive Forever'', p. 64.</ref> The majority of the recording sessions for ''Destroyer'' took place in January 1976, after the conclusion of the ''Alive!'' tour.<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', p. 185.</ref> Ezrin introduced to Kiss sound effects, strings, screaming children, reversed drums (on "God of Thunder") and a children's choir. The song "Great Expectations" uses the first phrase of the main theme from the second movement of [[Beethoven]]'s [[Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)|Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13]] (known as ''Sonata Pathétique''), but the songwriting is credited to Simmons and Ezrin.

The lyrics of the opening song "Detroit Rock City" tells the story of a fan who died in a car crash on the way to a Kiss show. Various dates and events have been mentioned but journalist James Campion managed with the help of a Kiss roadie from the era to link the event that inspired the song and a handful of candidates to the November 30, 1974 show in [[Fayetteville, North Carolina|Fayetteville]], NC.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Detroit Free Press Subscription Offers, Specials, and Discounts |url=https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/10/24/detroit-rock-city-kiss-fan-death-mystery-new-book/74405434/ |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=subscribe.freep.com}}</ref>

During the recording sessions, Ezrin resorted to numerous tactics designed to increase the quality of music Kiss recorded. Because none of the group were trained musicians, Ezrin halted the sessions at one point to provide lessons in basic [[music theory]].<ref>Leaf and Sharp, ''Behind the Mask'', pp. 253–254.</ref> To instill a sense of discipline, he wore a whistle around his neck and exhorted the band with sayings such as, "Campers, we're going to work!"<ref>Leaf and Sharp, ''Behind the Mask'', p. 255.</ref> When Simmons stopped playing during the recording of an [[Conclusion (music)|outro]], Ezrin yelled at him, saying, "Don't you ever stop a take unless I tell you!"<ref>Leaf and Sharp, ''Behind the Mask'', p. 256.</ref>

[[Paul Stanley]] later compared the experience of working with Ezrin as "musical [[Recruit training|boot camp]]" but said that the group "came out a lot smarter for it."<ref>Leaf and Sharp, ''Behind the Mask'', p. 252.</ref> Simmons echoed the sentiment by stating, "It was exactly what we needed at the time."<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', p. 188.</ref>

''Destroyer'' is the first Kiss album to prominently feature outside musicians, such as members of the [[New York Philharmonic]]. One musician not credited was [[Dick Wagner]], from Alice Cooper's band, replacing [[Ace Frehley]] on the track "Sweet Pain". Wagner also played the acoustic guitar found on the song "Beth".<ref>Leaf and Sharp, ''Behind the Mask''</ref> The success of ''Alive!'' and ''Destroyer'' enabled the band to embark on their first tour of [[Europe]].

==Artwork==
The cover art for ''Destroyer'' was painted by fantasy artist [[Ken Kelly (artist)|Ken Kelly]]. Kelly was invited to a show and given a [[backstage pass]]. He said of the performance, "It blew me away."<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.cloud9recording.com/pages/kenkelly.html| title = Ken Kelly & Kiss| access-date = August 6, 2007| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213219/http://www.cloud9recording.com/pages/kenkelly.html| archive-date = September 27, 2007 }}</ref> Kelly was later commissioned by the band to draw the cover for 1977's ''[[Love Gun]]''.

Kelly's original version of the album cover was rejected by the record company because they felt the scene was too violent looking with the rubble and flames. Also, the original version had the members of Kiss wearing the ''Alive!'' costumes. The front cover shows the group striding on top of a pile of rubble, and a desolate background spotted with destroyed buildings, some of which are engulfed in flames. The back cover shows a similar scene, but with more buildings on fire. The front of the inner sleeve featured a large Kiss logo and the lyrics to "Detroit Rock City". The other side displayed the lyric "Shout it out loud", as well as an advertisement for the [[Kiss Army]] fan club.

==Reception==
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref name="allmusic">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/destroyer-mw0000190665 |title=Kiss - Destroyer review |last=Prato |first=Greg |work=[[AllMusic]] |accessdate=2022-01-26 }}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>[http://www.blender.com/guide/back-catalogue/52637/drestroyer-l.html] {{Dead link| date = August 2011}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[Martin Popoff|Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal]]''
| rev3Score = 8/10<ref name="martin" >{{cite book | last = Popoff | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Popoff | title = The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 1: The Seventies | publisher = [[Collector's Guide Publishing]] | date = October 2003 | location = [[Burlington, Ontario]], Canada | isbn = 978-1894959025 | page=162}}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
| rev4Score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite book| last = Larkin| first = Colin| author-link = Colin Larkin (writer)| year = 2006| publisher = [[Muze]]| title = [[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]| volume = 4| edition = 4| page = 875| isbn = 0195313739}}</ref>
| rev5 = [[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]
| rev5score = 9.0/10<ref name="Pitchfork">{{cite web| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030219080544/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/k/kiss/destroyer.shtml| url = http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/k/kiss/destroyer.shtml| archive-date = February 19, 2003| title = Kiss: Destroyer: Pitchfork Review| work = pitchforkmedia.com| access-date = August 8, 2011}}</ref>
| rev6 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev6Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref name="Sheffield"/>
| rev7 = ''[[Spin Alternative Record Guide]]''
| rev7score = 7/10<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Kiss|first=Jason|last=Cohen|title=Spin Alternative Record Guide|title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide|editor1-first=Eric|editor1-last=Weisbard|editor2-first=Craig|editor2-last=Marks|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|year=1995|isbn=0-679-75574-8|page=212}}</ref>
| rev8 = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev8Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Kulkarni |first=Neil |author-link=Neil Kulkarni |date=December 1997 |title=Made up for it |magazine=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |page=100 |issue=7}}</ref>
| rev9 = ''[[The Village Voice]]''
| rev9score = C+<ref name="Christgau">{{cite news| last = Christgau| first = Robert| author-link = Robert Christgau| date = June 14, 1976| url = http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv6-76.php| title = Christgau's Consumer Guide| newspaper = [[The Village Voice]]| location = New York| access-date = May 27, 2013}}</ref>
}}

''Destroyer'' sold well upon its release on March 15, 1976, and was certified gold on April 22. Although exact sales figures are not known, Stanley stated that the album initially sold 850,000 copies in the US, well over any of Kiss's first three studio albums.<ref name="behind258">Leaf and Sharp, ''Behind the Mask'', p. 258.</ref> After peaking at No. 11 on the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] album chart on May 15, ''Destroyer'' quickly fell and by August was at No. 192.<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', p. 202.</ref> The first three singles—"Shout It Out Loud", "Flaming Youth" and "Detroit Rock City"—failed to ignite sales any further, though "Shout It Out Loud" did give the band their first No. 1 record, in Canada. The band and Ezrin cited fan backlash as the reason ''Destroyer'' did not meet sales expectations. Ezrin also stated that the "grassroots rock press" was particularly critical of the album.<ref name="behind258"/> ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' referred to "bloated ballads", "pedestrian drumming" and "lackluster performances" in its review.<ref>{{cite magazine| first = John| last = Milward| title = ''Destroyer'' album review| url = https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kiss/albums/album/114730/review/5944204/destroyer| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070527171814/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/kiss/albums/album/114730/review/5944204/destroyer| url-status = dead| archive-date = May 27, 2007| magazine = [[Rolling Stone]]| date = June 3, 1976| access-date = August 9, 2007}}</ref> [[Robert Christgau]], writing in ''[[The Village Voice]]'', felt that it was Kiss's "least interesting record" and criticized producer Ezrin for adding "only bombast and melodrama".<ref name="Christgau"/>

It was not until radio stations started playing the [[A-side and B-side|B-side]] of the "Detroit Rock City" single "[[Beth (song)|Beth]]", that the album started to sell as expected. The ballad, which according to Simmons was deliberately put on the B-side to force stations to play "Detroit Rock City", started receiving numerous listener requests and became an unexpected hit. "Beth" (co-written and sung by Peter Criss) was re-released as the fourth single in late August, and it peaked at No. 7 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]] singles chart on September 25. It was the group's first Top 10 song in the US and reignited sales of the album.

On November 11, 1976 ''Destroyer'' became the first Kiss album to be certified platinum.<ref>Gill, ''Kiss Album Focus'', pp. 203–204.</ref> The album was re-certified at the double platinum level on September 9, 2011 and is the band's best selling in the post-1991 [[Soundscan]] era, selling 726,000 copies in the United States from 1991 to March 4, 2012.<ref>{{Cite web |title=KISS Concert History Online - Interviews - Paul Grein |url=https://www.kissconcerthistory.com/interviews/interview_grein.php |access-date=2022-10-01 |website=www.kissconcerthistory.com}}</ref>

The album has received recognition in later years. In 1989, ''[[Kerrang!]]'' magazine listed the album at No. 36 among the "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time".<ref>{{cite book| last1 = Barton| first1 = Geoff| author-link1= Geoff Barton| title = [[Kerrang!]]| chapter = Kiss 'Destroyer'| volume = 222| publisher = Spotlight Publications Ltd.| date = January 21, 1989| location = London}}</ref> In ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]'' (2004), [[Rob Sheffield]] referred to ''Destroyer'' as "the inevitable arty concept album, from the drink-smoke-drive-die saga 'Detroit Rock City' to the touching 'Do You Love Me?'".<ref name="Sheffield">{{cite book| author = Sheffield, Rob| author-link = Rob Sheffield| editor1-first = Nathan| editor1-last = Brackett| editor1-link = Nathan Brackett| editor2-first = Christian| editor2-last = Hoard| title = [[The Rolling Stone Album Guide|The New Rolling Stone Album Guide]]| publisher = [[Simon & Schuster]]| edition = 4th| year = 2004| isbn = 0-7432-0169-8| pages = [https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/460 460–1]| display-authors = etal}}</ref> The album was also featured in ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]''.<ref>{{cite book| author1 = Robert Dimery| author2 = Michael Lydon| title = 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition| date = February 7, 2006| publisher = Universe| isbn = 0-7893-1371-5}}</ref> In 2006, it was placed at No. 60 on ''[[Guitar World]]'' magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time.<ref name="Rate Your Music">{{cite web| url = http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view?list_id=66329&show=25&start=25| archive-url = https://archive.today/20120715191951/http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/list_view?list_id=66329&show=25&start=25| url-status = dead| archive-date = July 15, 2012| title = Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Albums Of All Time| publisher = Rate Your Music| access-date = November 11, 2010 }}</ref>{{deprecated inline|certain=y|date=November 2024}} Greg Prato of [[AllMusic]] described ''Destroyer'' as "one of Kiss' most experimental studio albums, but also one of their strongest and most interesting."<ref name="allmusic"/> [[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'s Jason Josephes said that it is "easily one of the best albums in the Kiss canon" and credited Ezrin for ushering along "even more of an art/hard rock album than Kiss's previous efforts."<ref name="Pitchfork"/> Canadian journalist [[Martin Popoff]], described ''Destroyer'' as a "no party album, looming darkly, ponderous, almost haunting at times, basically uncommunicative and puzzling due to its stylistic over-extension" and judged it a "success of early no-chops metal".<ref name="martin"/> In 2012, ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' ranked it at No. 489 on its list of [[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|the 500 greatest albums of all time]], calling it "a ridiculously over-the-top party-rock album that just gets better with age".<ref name="500-greatest">{{cite web| url = https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/kiss-destroyer-48430/| year = 2012| title = 500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time| publisher = [[Rolling Stone]]| access-date = August 23, 2019}}</ref>

==''Destroyer: Resurrected''==
In anticipation of the 35th anniversary of the release of ''Destroyer'', producer Bob Ezrin approached Simmons and Stanley about doing a remix and re-release of the original album. With their approval, Ezrin acquired digital copies of the original 16-track analog master tapes. In addition to re-equalizing elements of each song, Ezrin also added in some parts of tracks that had been omitted from the original mix. These include some additional vocals on "Detroit Rock City" and "Beth", and the substitution of a guitar solo by Frehley on "Sweet Pain" for the one from the original that had been performed by Wagner (a version of "Sweet Pain" with Frehley's solo was included as track 6, while the original version with Wagner's solo is appended as a "bonus" track at the end of the new CD).<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.kissfaq.com/discography/resurrected.html| title = Discography – "Destroyer: Resurrected" (2012)| publisher = The KissFAQ| access-date = September 21, 2013| archive-date = October 25, 2012| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121025025257/http://www.kissfaq.com/discography/resurrected.html| url-status = dead}}</ref> Ezrin also used digital manipulation to fix an incorrect lyric (changing "down 95" to "doin' 95") on "Detroit Rock City". The resulting album, titled ''Destroyer: Resurrected'', was released on August 21, 2012.<ref name="Destroyer Deluxe Edition Release Date">{{cite web| url = http://ultimateclassicrock.com/kiss-destroyer-deluxe-edition-august-21-release/| title = KISS' 'Destroyer' Deluxe Edition Set for August 21 Release| access-date = July 8, 2012| publisher = Ultimate Classic Rock| year = 2012 }}</ref> It featured Ken Kelly's original cover artwork before alteration by Casablanca for the 1976 release.

''Destroyer: Resurrected'' met with mixed critical reception. William Clark of ''Guitar International'' wrote: "Each track sounds crisper, clearer and louder, which are always welcome qualities when you're listening to a classic album of the likes of ''Destroyer''".<ref name="GuitarInternational.com">{{cite web| url = http://guitarinternational.com/2012/09/17/review-destroyer-revisited/| title = Destroyer: Resurrected Breathing New Fire| publisher = Guitarinternational.com| access-date = September 18, 2012| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120920033755/http://guitarinternational.com/2012/09/17/review-destroyer-revisited/| archive-date = September 20, 2012 }}</ref> However, ''Circus'' magazine in a joint review with [[Aerosmith]]'s contemporary release of ''[[Rocks (Aerosmith album)|Rocks]]'' praised ''Rocks'' while stating that ''Destroyer'' "stinks." The album returned to the Billboard charts, debuting at No. 11 the week after its re-release. In 2019, the record was released in orange translucent vinyl, retailed exclusively by [[Walmart]] in the U.S.

==Track listing==
===Original release===
All credits adapted from the original releases.<ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Destroyer |author=[[Kiss (band)|Kiss]] |year=1976 |type=LP Sleeve |publisher=[[Casablanca Records]] |location = Los Angeles, California |id= NBLP 7025}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Destroyer (Resurrected)|author=[[Kiss (band)|Kiss]] |year=2012 |type=LP Sleeve |publisher=[[Casablanca Records]] |location = Los Angeles, California |id= B0017201-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes |title=Destroyer- 45t Anniversary Edition |author=[[Kiss (band)|Kiss]] |year=2021 |type=CD Booklet |publisher=[[Universal Music Enterprises]] |location = Santa Monica, California |id= 060243818414}}</ref>
{{Track listing
| extra_column = Lead vocals
| headline = Side one
| title1 = [[Detroit Rock City]]
| writer1 = [[Paul Stanley]], [[Bob Ezrin]]
| extra1 = Paul Stanley
| length1 = 5:17
| title2 = King of the Night Time World
| writer2 = Paul Stanley, [[Kim Fowley]], Mark Anthony, Bob Ezrin
| extra2 = Paul Stanley
| length2 = 3:19
| title3 = [[God of Thunder (song)|God of Thunder]]
| writer3 = Paul Stanley
| extra3 = Gene Simmons
| length3 = 4:13
| title4 = Great Expectations
| writer4 = [[Gene Simmons]], Bob Ezrin
| extra4 = Gene Simmons
| length4 = 4:24
}}
{{track listing
| extra_column = Lead vocals
| headline = Side two
| title5 = [[Flaming Youth (song)|Flaming Youth]]
| writer5 = [[Ace Frehley]], Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Bob Ezrin
| extra5 = Paul Stanley
| length5 = 2:59
| title6 = Sweet Pain
| writer6 = Gene Simmons
| extra6 = Gene Simmons
| length6 = 3:20
| title7 = [[Shout It Out Loud (Kiss song)|Shout It Out Loud]]
| writer7 = Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Bob Ezrin
| extra7 = Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons
| length7 = 2:49
| title8 = [[Beth (song)|Beth]]
| writer8 = [[Peter Criss]], Stan Penridge, Bob Ezrin
| extra8 = Peter Criss
| length8 = 2:45
| title9 = Do You Love Me
| writer9 = Paul Stanley, Kim Fowley, Bob Ezrin
| extra9 = Paul Stanley
| length9 = 3:33
| title10 = Rock and Roll Party
| writer10 = Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Bob Ezrin
| extra10 = instrumental
| length10 = 1:25
| total_length = 34:11
}}
* Rock and Roll Party appears a few seconds after "Do You Love Me?" as a [[hidden track]] on the original vinyl pressing.<ref>{{cite news | title = ''Destroyer'' track details| url = http://www.kissfaq.com/KissFAQ-wiki/index.php?title=Destroyer_Album_-_Rock_And_Roll_Demons| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110713153740/http://www.kissfaq.com/KissFAQ-wiki/index.php?title=Destroyer_Album_-_Rock_And_Roll_Demons| url-status = dead| archive-date = July 13, 2011| publisher = Kissfaq.com| access-date = September 21, 2013 }}</ref>

===''Destroyer: Resurrected'' (2012 remix)===
{{Track listing
| extra_column = Lead vocals
| headline =
| title1 = Detroit Rock City
| writer1 = [[Paul Stanley]], [[Bob Ezrin]]
| extra1 = Paul Stanley
| length1 = 5:15
| title2 = King of the Night Time World
| writer2 = Paul Stanley, [[Kim Fowley]], Mark Anthony, Bob Ezrin
| extra2 = Paul Stanley
| length2 = 3:21
| title3 = God of Thunder
| writer3 = Paul Stanley
| extra3 = Gene Simmons
| length3 = 4:17
| title4 = Great Expectations
| writer4 = [[Gene Simmons]], Bob Ezrin
| extra4 = Gene Simmons
| length4 = 4:24
| title5 = Flaming Youth
| writer5 = [[Ace Frehley]], Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Bob Ezrin
| extra5 = Paul Stanley
| length5 = 2:59
| title6 = Sweet Pain
| writer6 = Gene Simmons
| extra6 = Gene Simmons
| length6 = 3:21
| title7 = Shout It Out Loud
| writer7 = Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Bob Ezrin
| extra7 = Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons
| length7 = 2:51
| title8 = Beth
| writer8 = [[Peter Criss]], Stan Penridge, Bob Ezrin
| extra8 = Peter Criss
| length8 = 2:46
| title9 = Do You Love Me
| writer9 = Paul Stanley, Kim Fowley, Bob Ezrin
| extra9 = Paul Stanley
| length9 = 3:40
| title10 = Rock and Roll Party
| writer10 = Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Bob Ezrin
| extra10 = Instrumental
| length10 = 1:26
| title11 = Sweet Pain
| writer11 = Gene Simmons
| extra11 = Gene Simmons
| length11 = 3:18
}}

* Rock and Roll Party appears a few seconds after "Do You Love Me?" as a [[hidden track]] on the original vinyl pressing.
* Sweet Pain (track 6) solo by Ace Frehley, previously unreleased
* Sweet Pain (track 11) - Solo by Dick Wagner, from the original release (omitted from vinyl version)

==Personnel==
;Kiss
*[[Paul Stanley]] – [[singing|vocals]], [[rhythm guitar]]
*[[Gene Simmons]] – vocals, [[bass guitar|bass]]
*[[Peter Criss]] – [[drum kit|drums]], vocals
*[[Ace Frehley]] – [[lead guitar]], backing vocals

;Additional musicians
*[[Dick Wagner]] – [[guitar solo]] on "Sweet Pain", guitar licks on "Flaming Youth", [[acoustic guitar]] on "Great Expectations" and "Beth"
*Brooklyn Boys Chorus – additional vocals on "Great Expectations"
*David and Josh Ezrin – [[human voice|voice]]s on "God of Thunder"
*[[New York Philharmonic]] – [[orchestra]] on "Beth"

;Production
*[[Bob Ezrin]] – [[record producer|producer]], [[conducting|orchestration]], [[Keyboard instrument|keyboards]], [[piano]] on "Beth"
*H.A. Macmillan – orchestration
*Jay Messina, Corky Stasiak – [[audio engineer|engineers]]

==Charts==
{| {| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1976)
! scope="col"| Peak position
|-
! scope="row"|Australian Albums ([[Kent Music Report]])<ref name="albumfaq">{{cite web| url = http://www.kissfaq.com/charts/acharts.html| title = The Complete KISS Album Chart Action, 1974–| access-date = August 6, 2007| publisher = The KISSFAQ}}</ref>
| style = "text-align:center;"|6
|-
{{album chart|Canada|6|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|chartid=4140a|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
!scope="row"|Japanese Albums ([[Oricon]])<ref name="JPN">{{cite book|title=Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005|publisher=[[Oricon|Oricon Entertainment]]|location=Roppongi, Tokyo|year=2006|isbn=4-87131-077-9|language=ja}}</ref>
| align="center"| 17
|-
{{album chart|New Zealand|16|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|Norway|25|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|Sweden|4|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|UK2|22|date=19760530
|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|Billboard200|11|artist=Kiss|rowheader=true|access-date = February 20, 2024}}
|}

{| {| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (2021)
! scope="col"| Peak position
|-
{{album chart|Flanders|108|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer| rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|Wallonia|119|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|rowheader= true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|Netherlands|68|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|Germany4|16|id=16855|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024|refname=ger-2021}}
|-
{{album chart|Scotland|36|date=20211126|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|Switzerland|55|artist=Kiss|album=Destroyer|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|BillboardCatalog|4|artist=Kiss|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|-
{{album chart|BillboardTastemaker|3|artist=Kiss|rowheader=true|access-date=February 20, 2024}}
|}

==Certifications==
{{certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=Brazil|type=album|artist=Kiss|title=Destroyer|award=Gold|relyear=1976|certyear=2024|access-date=August 16, 2024|note=45th Anniversary Super Deluxe edition}}
{{certification Table Entry| region = United States| type = album| artist = Kiss| title = Destroyer| award = Platinum| number = 2| certref = <ref name="RIAA Celebrates 2011 Gold & Platinum Program Awards">{{cite web| url = http://riaa.com/newsitem.php?content_selector=riaa-news-gold-and-platinum&news_month_filter=2&news_year_filter=2012&id=9758C320-4246-A633-E693-C9AB9D03070F| title = Recording Industry Association of America – June 12, 2014| publisher = RIAA| access-date = June 13, 2014| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140414115320/http://riaa.com/newsitem.php?content_selector=riaa-news-gold-and-platinum&news_month_filter=2&news_year_filter=2012&id=9758C320-4246-A633-E693-C9AB9D03070F| archive-date = April 14, 2014 }}</ref>}}
{{certification Table Bottom| nosales = true|streaming=true}}

==Accolades==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Publication
! Country
! Accolade
! Year
! Rank
|-
| ''[[Rolling Stone]]''
| U.S.
| The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time<ref>{{cite magazine| url = https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/5| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070106194945/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5938174/the_rs_500_greatest_albums_of_all_time/5| url-status = dead| archive-date = January 6, 2007| title = The RS 500 Greatest Albums of All Time| magazine =Rolling Stone| year = 2003| access-date = August 6, 2007}}</ref>
| 2003
| style = "text-align:center;"| 496
|-
| ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]''
| U.S.
| The 100 Greatest American Albums of All Time<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.kissonline.net/news/index.php?mode=archive&id=1411| title = 100 GREATEST AMERICAN ALBUMS – KISS #50| work = Kiss Online| year = 2003| access-date = August 6, 2007| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071031100203/http://www.kissonline.net/news/index.php?mode=archive&id=1411| archive-date = October 31, 2007| url-status = dead }}</ref>
| 2002
| style = "text-align:center;"| 50
|-
| ''[[Guitar World]]''
| U.S.
| The 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time.<ref name="Rate Your Music"/>{{deprecated inline|certain=y|date=November 2024}}
| 2006
| style = "text-align:center;"| 60
|}

==Release history==
{| class = "wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
!scope="col"|Country
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Label
!scope="col"|Format
!scope="col"|Catalogue number
|-
!scope="row"|United States
| March 15, 1976
| [[Casablanca Records]]
| [[LP album|LP]]
| NBLP-7025
|-
!scope="row"|Canada
| 1976
| Casablanca Records
| LP
| NBLP-7025V
|-
!scope="row"|United States
| July 1987
| Casablanca/[[PolyGram]]
| [[Compact disc|CD]]
| 824 149-2
|-
!scope="row"|United States
| August 12, 1997
| [[Mercury Records]]
| [[Remaster]]ed CD
| 532 378-2
|-
!scope="row"|Worldwide
| August 21, 2012
| [[Universal Music Group]]
| [[Re-release]]
| —
|-
!scope="row"|Worldwide
| 2014
| [[Universal Music Group]]
| [[Remaster]]ed LP
| B0019818-01
|}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
;Bibliography
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book| last = Gill| first = Julian| title = The Kiss Album Focus, Volume 1| publisher = Xlibris Corporation| year = 2005| isbn = 1-4134-8547-2| edition = 3rd}}
*{{cite book| last = Gooch| first = Curt| author2 = Jeff Suhs| title = Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History| publisher = Billboard Books| year = 2002| location = New York | isbn= 0-8230-8322-5}}
*{{cite book| last = Leaf| first = David| author2 = Ken Sharp | title = Kiss: Behind the Mask: The Official Authorized Biography| publisher = Warner Books| year = 2003| location = New York| isbn= 0-446-53073-5}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{Discogs master| type = album|41722| name = Destroyer}}

{{Kiss}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Destroyer (Kiss Album)}}
[[Category:Kiss (band) albums]]
[[Category:1976 albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Bob Ezrin]]
[[Category:Albums recorded at Electric Lady Studios]]
[[Category:Albums recorded at Record Plant (New York City)]]
[[Category:Casablanca Records albums]]
[[Category:1970s concept albums]]
[[Category:Albums with cover art by Ken Kelly (artist)]]

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da

2025-06-11T05:21:36Z

74.221.2.5:

{{Short description|1968 song by the Beatles}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox song
| name = Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
| cover = BeatlesObLaDiObLaDaJulia.png
| border = yes
| alt = cover art
| caption = Picture sleeve for the song's 1976 US single release
| type = single
| B-side = *"[[While My Guitar Gently Weeps]]"
*"[[Julia (Beatles song)|Julia]]" (US)
| artist = [[the Beatles]]
| album = [[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]
| released = 22 November 1968
| recorded = 8, 9, 11 and 15 July 1968{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|pp=141–43}}
| studio = [[Abbey Road Studios|EMI]], London
| genre = {{hlist|[[Pop music|Pop]]{{sfn|Carlin|2009|p=172}}|[[ska]]{{sfn|Quantick|2002|p=183}}}}
| length = 3:07
| label = [[Apple Records|Apple]]
| writer = [[Lennon–McCartney]]
| producer = [[George Martin]]
| misc = {{Audio sample
| type = single
| file = Beatles obladi.ogg
| description = "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
}}
{{External music video|header=Audio|1={{YouTube|_J9NpHKrKMw|"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"}}}}
}}
"'''Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da'''" is a song by the English [[Rock music|rock]] band [[the Beatles]] from their 1968 double album ''[[The Beatles (album)|The Beatles]]'' (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by [[Paul McCartney]]<ref name="Fontenot/About" /><ref>{{cite magazine|first=Alan|last=Smith|title=Lennon/McCartney Singalong: Who Wrote What|magazine=[[Hit Parader]]|date=February 1972}} Text available at [https://archive.org/details/JohnLennonInterview1972HitParaderMagazine Internet Archive]; retrieved 3 February 2020.</ref>{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=174}} and credited to the [[Lennon–McCartney]] partnership. Following the album's release, the song was issued as a single in many countries, although not in the United Kingdom or the United States, and topped singles charts in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and West Germany. When belatedly issued as a single in the United States in 1976, it peaked at number 49 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]].

McCartney wrote "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" in a [[Reggae#Cod reggae|cod]] Jamaican [[ska]] style and appropriated a phrase popularised by Jimmy Scott, a London-based Nigerian musician, for the song's title and chorus. Following its release, Scott attempted, unsuccessfully, to receive a composing credit. The recording sessions for the track were marked by disharmony as McCartney's perfectionism tested his bandmates and their recording staff. The song was especially disliked by [[John Lennon]], and a heated argument during one of the sessions led to [[Geoff Emerick]] quitting his job as the Beatles' recording engineer. A discarded early version of the track, featuring Scott on congas, was going to be released as a single in the mid-[[1980s]], but was eventually included on the band's 1996 compilation ''[[Anthology 3]]''.

The Beatles' decision not to release the single in the UK or the US led to several cover recordings by other artists, who sought to achieve a chart hit with the song. Of these, [[Marmalade (band)|Marmalade]] became the first Scottish group to have a number 1 hit in the UK when their version topped the [[UK Singles Chart]] in late 1968. Despite the song's popularity, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" has been ridiculed by some commentators for its plain lightheartedness, and appeared in some [[List of music considered the worst#Songs|lists of worst songs ever]]. Since 2009, McCartney has regularly performed the song in concert.

==Background and inspiration==
[[Paul McCartney]] began writing "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" during the Beatles' [[The Beatles in India|stay in Rishikesh, India]], in early 1968.{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=419}}{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=201–02}} [[Prudence Farrow]], one of their fellow [[Transcendental Meditation]] students there, recalled McCartney, [[John Lennon]] and [[George Harrison]] playing it to her in an attempt to lure her out of her room, where she had become immersed in intense meditation.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mark|last=Paytress|chapter=A Passage to India|year=2003|title=[[Mojo (magazine)#Special editions|Mojo Special Limited Edition]]: 1000 Days of Revolution (The Beatles' Final Years – Jan 1, 1968 to Sept 27, 1970)|location=London|publisher=Emap|pages=16–17}}</ref> McCartney wrote the song when [[reggae]] was becoming popular in Britain; author [[Ian MacDonald]] describes it as "McCartney's rather approximate tribute to the Jamaican [[ska]] idiom".{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=258}} The character of Desmond in the lyrics, from the opening line "Desmond has a barrow in the market-place", was a reference to reggae singer [[Desmond Dekker]], who had recently toured the UK.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/27/arts/music/27dekker.html?ex=1306382400en=975c32f30ba9bd54ei=5088partner=rssnytemc=rss Nytimes.com]</ref> The tag line "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah" was an expression used by Nigerian conga player Jimmy Scott-Emuakpor, an acquaintance of McCartney.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=173}}{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=753}} According to Scott's widow, as part of his stage act with his band Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Scott would call out "Ob la di", to which the audience would respond "Ob la da", and he would then conclude: "Life goes on."{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=173–74}}

After the release of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" in November 1968, Scott tried to claim a writer's credit for the use of his catchphrase.{{sfn|Womack|2014|pp=683, 684}}{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=174}} McCartney said that the phrase was "just an expression", whereas Scott argued that it was not a common expression and was used exclusively by the Scott-Emuakpor family.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=173}} McCartney was angry that the British press sided with Scott over the issue.{{sfn|Giuliano|Giuliano|2005|pp=120–21}} According to researchers Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt, in their study of the tapes from the Beatles' filmed rehearsals at [[Twickenham Film Studios]] in January 1969, McCartney complained bitterly to his bandmates about Scott's claim that he "stole" the phrase.{{sfn|Sulpy|Schweighardt|1997|pp=33, 153}} Later in 1969, while in [[Brixton Prison]] awaiting trial for failing to pay maintenance to his ex-wife, Scott sent a request to the Beatles asking them to pay his legal bills. McCartney agreed to pay the amount on the condition that Scott abandon his attempt to receive a co-writer's credit.{{sfn|Turner|2012|pp=174–75}}

==Recording==
The Beatles gathered at Harrison's [[Esher]] home in [[Surrey]] in May 1968, after their return from Rishikesh, to record demos for their upcoming project.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|pp=243–44}}{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=683}} "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was one of the 27 demos recorded there.{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=299}} McCartney performed this demo solo, with only an acoustic guitar.{{sfn|Unterberger|2006|pp=195–96}} He also double-tracked his vocal, which was not perfectly synchronised, creating an echoing effect.

The formal recording of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" took place in July and involved several days of work. The first completed version of the track, recorded between 3 and 5 July,{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=184}} featured Scott playing congas{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=259fn}}{{sfn|Giuliano|Giuliano|2005|p=120}} and a trio of saxophonists.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=140}} At McCartney's insistence, the band remade the song in an effort to capture the performance for which he was aiming. In doing so, according to Beatles historian [[Mark Lewisohn]], "the Beatles were creating another first: the first time they had especially recruited session musicians and then rejected the recording."{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=141}}{{refn|group=nb|According to author [[Peter Ames Carlin]], McCartney's "fussiness" over the track was him exacting "revenge" for Lennon's self-indulgence on "[[Revolution 9]]".{{sfn|Carlin|2009|p=163}} Lennon had created this eight-minute experimental piece, with Harrison and [[Yoko Ono]],{{sfn|Quantick|2002|p=151}} while McCartney was in Los Angeles on business relating to [[Apple Records]].{{sfn|Carlin|2009|p=163}}}}

Work began on the new version on 8 July.{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=185}} In the recollection of [[Geoff Emerick]], the band's recording engineer, Lennon "openly and vocally detested" the song, calling it "more of Paul's 'granny music shit'", although at times he appeared enthusiastic, "acting the fool and doing his fake Jamaican patois".{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|pp=246, 254}} Having left the studio at one point, Lennon then returned under the influence of marijuana.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=258}} Out of frustration at being made to continually work on the song,{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=185}} he went straight to the piano and played the opening chords louder and faster than before, in what MacDonald describes as a "mock [[music-hall]]" style.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=258}} Lennon claimed that this was how the song should be played, and it became the version that the Beatles ended up using.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|pp=140–42}} McCartney nevertheless decided to remake the track once more.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=258}} During the afternoon session on 9 July, the Beatles recorded a new basic track, which Lewisohn says possibly featured McCartney playing the drums instead of [[Ringo Starr]].{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=141}} Despite this further work, McCartney conceded that the basic track from the previous day was adequate, and the band returned to the 8 July recording for overdubs during the evening session.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=141}}{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=186}}

McCartney's perfectionism annoyed his bandmates,<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|MacDonald|1998|p=258}}; {{Harvard citation no brackets|Unterberger|2006|p=105}}; {{Harvard citation no brackets|Womack|2014|p=683}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Henderson|first=Eric|url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/review/the-beatles-the-beatles-the-white-album/467|title=The Beatles: The Beatles (The White Album)|work=[[Slant Magazine]]|date=2 August 2004|access-date=9 March 2019}}</ref> and when their producer, [[George Martin]], offered him suggestions for his vocal part, McCartney rebuked him, saying, "Well you come down and sing it."{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=143}} According to Emerick, the usually placid Martin shouted in reply: "Then bloody sing it again! I give up. I just don't know any better how to help you."{{sfn|Sounes|2010|p=217}}{{sfn|Emerick|Massey|2006|p=255}} The following day, Emerick quit working for the group;<ref name="Gerard/PopMatters">{{cite web|last=Gerard|first=Chris|url=https://www.popmatters.com/the-glorious-quixotic-mess-that-is-the-beatles-the-white-album-2495457594.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1|title=The Glorious, Quixotic Mess That Is the Beatles' 'White Album'|work=[[PopMatters]]|date=18 February 2016|access-date=9 March 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=217–18}} he later cited this exchange between McCartney and Martin as one of the reasons, as well as the unpleasant atmosphere that had typified the White Album sessions up to that point.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=143}}

In the final verse, McCartney made an error by singing, "Desmond stays at home and does his pretty face" (rather than Molly), and had Molly letting "the children lend a hand". This mistake was retained because the other Beatles liked it.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=174}} Harrison and Lennon yell "arm" and "leg" between the lines "Desmond lets the children lend a hand" and "Molly stays at home".{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=141}}

The lyrics of Harrison's White Album track "[[Savoy Truffle]]" include the lines "We all know Ob-la-di-bla-da / But can you show me where you are?"{{sfn|Roessner|2006|p=156}} Like Lennon, Harrison had been vocal in his dislike of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".<ref name="Gerard/PopMatters" />{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=303}} According to music journalist Robert Fontenot, the reference in "Savoy Truffle" was Harrison's way of conveying his opinion of McCartney's song.<ref name="Fontenot/About">{{cite web|url=http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatles/a/The-Beatles-Songs-Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130110023858/http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatles/a/The-Beatles-Songs-Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da.htm |title=The Beatles Songs: 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' – The history of this classic Beatles song|first=Robert |last=Fontenot |work=About.com Entertainment |publisher=[[About.com|oldies.about.com]]|archive-date=10 January 2013|access-date=17 December 2015}}</ref>

==Releases and live performances==
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was released on ''The Beatles'' on 22 November 1968.{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|p=163}}{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=314}} As one of the most popular tracks on the album, it was also issued as a single, backed by "[[While My Guitar Gently Weeps]]",{{sfn|Spizer|2003|p=107}} in many countries, although not in the main commercial markets of the UK and the United States.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=684}} McCartney had wanted the single released in these two countries also,{{sfn|Spizer|2003|p=107}} but his bandmates vetoed the idea.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=259}} In November 1976, [[Capitol Records]] issued the song as a single in the US, with "[[Julia (The Beatles song)|Julia]]" as the [[A-side and B-side|B-side]].{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=188}} The sleeves were white and individually numbered, as copies of the White Album had been.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=188}} The discarded version of the song, known as "Take 5" and featuring Scott on congas, was scheduled for release as the [[B-side]] to the [[Leave My Kitten Alone]] single in [[January]] [[1985]], but was withdrawn when the ''[[Sessions (The Beatles album)|Sessions]]'' album project was canceled. It was released 11 years later on the ''[[Anthology 3]]'' compilation in 1996.{{sfn|Winn|2009|p=184}}

The first time the song was performed live by any of the Beatles was on 2 December 2009, when McCartney played it in [[Hamburg|Hamburg, Germany]], on the first night of a European tour.<ref>{{cite web|publisher= WMMR|title= Paul McCartney Says He's Doing All He Can to Fight Global Warming |date= 4 December 2009|url= http://www.wmmr.com/music/news/story.aspx?ID=1172062|url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716064922/http://www.wmmr.com/music/news/story.aspx?ID=1172062|archive-date= 16 July 2011}}</ref> Author [[Howard Sounes]] comments that, despite Lennon's derision of the song, it "went down a storm" in Hamburg – the city where the Beatles had honed their act in the early 1960s.{{sfn|Sounes|2010|p=563}} McCartney included "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" in his set list for the 2009 tour and in the set list for tours he made through to 2012.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=684}} He also performed it in front of [[Buckingham Palace]] for the [[Diamond Jubilee Concert|Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations]], then at [[Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival|San Francisco's Outside Lands concert]] on 9 August 2013. McCartney again featured the song in his set list for his 2013–15 [[Out There! Tour|Out There! tour]] and his 2016–17 [[One on One (tour)|One on One]] tour, as well as his 7 September 2018 [[Grand Central Terminal]] concert and his head-line appearance at the [[Glastonbury Festival]] in 2022.

==Reception==
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" topped singles charts in West Germany,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/The+Beatles/2278/?type=single |title=The Beatles Single-Chartverfolgung ''(in German)''|publisher=musicline.de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213203848/http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/The%2BBeatles/2278/?type=single |archive-date=13 December 2013|access-date=10 March 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> Austria, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan over 1968–69.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=684}} In 1969, Lennon and McCartney received an [[Ivor Novello Award]] for the song.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=684}} When belatedly issued as a single in the US, in 1976, "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" peaked at number 49 on the [[Billboard Hot 100|''Billboard'' Hot 100]].{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|pp=188, 195}} According to author [[Steve Turner (writer)|Steve Turner]], it has been described as the first song in the "white ska" style.{{sfn|Turner|2012|p=174}} In Australia, where the song was part of a double A-side single (backed with the Harrison composition "[[While My Guitar Gently Weeps]]"), the record achieved sales of over 50,000 copies, being eligible for the award of a Gold Disc.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Go Set Chart Book, Australia's First National Charts|page=13|isbn=978-1-387-71246-5|last1=Book|first1=Chart|date=6 April 2018|publisher=Lulu.com }}</ref>

In his contemporary review of the White Album, for ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', [[Jann Wenner]] called "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" "fun music for a fun song about fun", adding, "Who needs answers?"<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/review-the-beatles-white-album-186863/|title=Review: The Beatles' 'White Album'|first=Jann S.|last=Wenner|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=21 December 1968|page=10|access-date=26 June 2019}}</ref> ''[[Record Mirror]]''{{'}}s reviewer said it was the album's "most pleasant and best recorded track" and praised the "chuck-chuck piano and drum sound".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=The Beatles: ''The Beatles'' (''White Album'') (Apple)|author=Uncredited writer|magazine=[[Record Mirror]]|date=16 November 1968}} Available at [http://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/the-beatles-ithe-beatles-white-albumi-apple-2 Rock's Backpages] (subscription required).</ref> [[Nik Cohn]], writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'', gave the double LP an unfavourable review{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=795}} in which he criticised the Beatles for resorting to musical pastiche.<ref name="Cohn/NYT" /> He said that "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" was "mock-West Indies" and that like the album's other examples of "mock-[music]", "none of it works, it all loses out to the originals, it all sounds stale."<ref name="Cohn/NYT">{{cite news|title=A Brito Blasts the Beatles|last=Nik|first=Cohn|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=15 December 1968}}</ref> The ''[[NME]]''{{'}}s Alan Smith admired the "good-to-be-alive groove" and said the song was "a great personal favourite". He added: "Heard it once, can't stop. Handclapping fun à la West Indies, sung with warmth by Paul ... This is going to be a smash [hit] for somebody ..."<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Alan|last=Smith|title=Beatles Double-LP in Full|magazine=[[NME]]|date=9 November 1968|page=3}}</ref>

Ian MacDonald described "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as "one of the most spontaneous-sounding tracks on ''The Beatles''" as well as the most commercial, but also a song filled with "desperate levity" and "trite by McCartney's standards".{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|pp=258, 259}} Conversely, [[Stephen Thomas Erlewine]] of [[AllMusic]] includes it among McCartney's "stunning" compositions on the album.<ref>{{cite web|last=Erlewine|first=Stephen Thomas|url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/r1523/review |title=The Beatles ''The Beatles [White Album]''|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=9 March 2019}}</ref> Ian Fortnam of ''[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]]'' magazine groups it with "[[Martha My Dear]]", "[[Rocky Raccoon]]" and "[[Honey Pie]]" as examples of the "awful lot of sugar" McCartney contributed to the White Album, in an attempt to make it more "palatable" in response to Lennon's determination to include his eight-minute [[Avant-garde music|avant-garde]] piece "[[Revolution 9]]".<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Ian|last=Fortnam|title=You Say You Want a Revolution ...|magazine=[[Classic Rock (magazine)|Classic Rock]]|date=October 2014|page=42}}</ref>

"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is often the subject of ridicule. In 2004, it was included in ''[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]'' magazine's list titled "50 Worst Songs Ever!"<ref>{{cite web|agency=Associated Press|url=http://www.today.com/id/4788104#.Uv-Ep_vPyYs|title='We Built This City' dubbed worst song ever|work=[[Today (American TV program)|Today]]location=United States|date=20 April 2004|access-date=15 February 2014}}</ref> and was voted the worst song of all time in an online poll organised by [[Mars, Incorporated|Mars]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3998301.stm|title=Beatles classic voted worst song|publisher=BBC|date=10 November 2004|access-date=3 June 2013}}</ref> In 2012, the ''NME''{{'}}s website editor, Luke Lewis, argued that the Beatles had recorded "a surprising amount of ropy old toss", and singled out "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as "the least convincing [[cod-reggae]] [[Skank (dance)|skanking]] this side of the ''[[QI]]'' theme tune".<ref name="telegraph">{{cite news|last=Rowley|first=Tom|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/9581620/Poll-What-is-the-worst-Beatles-song.html|title=Poll: What is the worst Beatles song?|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|location=London|date=5 October 2012|access-date=15 February 2014}}</ref> That same year, Tom Rowley of ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' said the track was a "reasonable choice" for derision, following the result of the Mars poll,<ref name="telegraph"/> and it subsequently came second (behind "[[Revolution 9]]") in the ''Telegraph''{{'}}s poll to determine the worst Beatles song.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=684}}

==Personnel==
According to Ian MacDonald{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=258}} and Mark Lewisohn:{{sfn|Lewisohn|2005|pp=141, 142}}

'''The Beatles'''
* [[Paul McCartney]] – vocal, electric bass, [[acoustic bass guitar|acoustic bass]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Babiuk |first=Andy |author-link=Andy Babiuk |title=Beatles Gear |year=2015 |page=221 |publisher=Hal Leonard |url=http://www.andybabiuksfabgear.com/beatles-gear/ |access-date=4 July 2017 |isbn=978-1617130991 |archive-date=23 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923183753/https://www.andybabiuksfabgear.com/beatles-gear/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> handclaps, [[vocal percussion]]
* [[John Lennon]] – piano, backing vocal, handclaps, vocal percussion
* [[George Harrison]] – acoustic guitar, backing vocal, handclaps, vocal percussion
* [[Ringo Starr]] – drums, [[bongos]], [[maraca]]s, other percussion, handclaps, vocal percussion

'''Additional musicians'''
* James Gray, Rex Morris, Cyril Reuben – saxophones<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (song) |url=https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/song/ob-la-di-ob-la-da/ |access-date=2023-12-24 |website=The Paul McCartney project |language=en}}</ref>
* [[George Martin]] – [[Woodwind instrument|woodwind]] arrangement

==Cover versions==
===Marmalade===
{{Infobox song
| name = Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
| image = Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by The Marmalades UK vinyl Side-A.png
| alt = side-A label
| caption = UK A-side face label
| type = single
| artist = [[Marmalade (band)|Marmalade]]
| album =
| B-side = Chains
| released = 29 November 1968
| recorded =
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = [[Pop music|Pop]]
| length =
| label = [[Columbia Records|CBS]]
| writer = [[Lennon–McCartney]]
| producer = [[Mike Smith (British record producer)|Mike Smith]]
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title =
| next_year =
| misc = {{External music video|1={{YouTube|ax7J7HOP8II|"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" by Marmalade (1968, from ''Beat-Club'' series)}}}}
}}

The Beatles' decision not to issue "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as a single in the UK or the US led to many acts rushing to record the song, in the hope of achieving a hit in those countries.<ref name="Fontenot/About" /> A recording by the Scottish pop band [[Marmalade (band)|Marmalade]], released in November 1968, became the most commercially successful of all the cover versions of songs from ''The Beatles''.{{sfn|Clayson|2003|pp=129–30}} It reached [[record chart|number one]] in the [[UK Singles Chart]] in January 1969, making Marmalade the first Scottish artist to top that chart.{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=351}}<ref name="British Hit Singles">{{cite book| first= David| last= Roberts| year= 2001| title= British Hit Singles| edition= 14th| publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London| page= 40| isbn= 0-85156-156-X}}</ref>

Marmalade's recording sold around half a million in the UK, and a million copies globally by April 1969.{{sfn|Murrells|1978|p=243}} During the group's TV appearance on [[BBC One]]'s ''[[Top of the Pops]]'' to promote the track, four of the five band members wore [[kilt]]s; their English-born drummer instead dressed as a [[Red coat (military uniform)|redcoat]].{{sfn|Clayson|2003|p=130}} Reflecting the song's popularity in the UK, according to author [[Alan Clayson]], comedian [[Benny Hill]] included the band's name with [[Cream (band)|Cream]] and [[Grapefruit (band)|Grapefruit]] in a sketch where a hungover radio disc jockey is continually confronted by phone-in requests that exacerbate his nausea.{{sfn|Clayson|2003|p=130}}

===Other artists===
Aside from Marmalade, two other acts achieved hits in Europe with "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".<ref name="Fontenot/About2">{{cite web|url=http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatles/a/The-Beatles-Songs-Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da_2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116120843/http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatles/a/The-Beatles-Songs-Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da_2.htm |title=The Beatles Songs: 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' – The history of this classic Beatles song ''[continued]''|first=Robert|last=Fontenot|work=About.com Entertainment |publisher=[[About.com|oldies.about.com]]|archive-date=16 January 2013|access-date=19 March 2020}}</ref> In 1968, a recording by the Bedrocks, a West Indian band from [[Leeds]], peaked at number 20 on the ''Record Retailer'' chart.{{sfn|Roberts|2006|p=51}} In a discussion at Twickenham Studios in January 1969, McCartney and his girlfriend, [[Linda McCartney|Linda Eastman]], said they both liked the Bedrocks' version best out of all the cover versions up to that point, including a recent single by [[Arthur Conley]].{{sfn|Sulpy|Schweighardt|1997|p=178}} Also in 1968, the Spectrum reached number 19 on the German singles chart with their cover.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ultratop.be/fr/song/59332/The-Spectrum-Ob-la-di,-Ob-la-da|title=The Spectrum – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|publisher=ultratop.be|access-date=11 March 2019}}</ref> [[Emil Dimitrov]] released an [[Extended play|EP]] of which the first track is a cover of the song in the same year.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} In 1969, [[Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass]], covered it for their album, ''[[Warm (Herb Alpert album)|Warm]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=www.allmusic.com|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000860760|website=allmusic.com|accessdate=February 25, 2025}}</ref>

[[Happy Mondays]] included "Desmond", which used part of the melody from "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", on their debut album ''[[Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)]]'', released in 1987. Partly through the involvement of [[Michael Jackson]], who owned the Beatles' [[Northern Songs]] catalogue, the track was removed from later pressings of the album because of the strong similarity.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Naylor|first=Tim|title=Oops! ... I Did It Again|url=https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/oops|magazine=[[Record Collector]]|date=March 2020|access-date=20 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Gary|last=Ryan|title=Does Rock 'N' Roll Kill Braincells?! – Shaun Ryder|url=https://www.nme.com/music-interviews/rock-n-roll-kill-braincells-shaun-ryder-2534938|work=[[NME]]|date=19 August 2019|access-date=19 March 2020}}</ref> Later, music fans and several critics and DJs noticed similarities between "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and [[The Offspring]]'s 1999 single "[[Why Don't You Get a Job?]]"<ref name="Fontenot/About2" /><ref>{{cite news|first=Geoff|last=Boucher|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-apr-24-ca-30466-story.html|title=Is the Song an Offspring?|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=24 April 1999|access-date=9 March 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Teri|last=van Horn|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/514029/offspring-song-has-a-familiar-ring-beatles-fans-say/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140613024928/http://www.mtv.com/news/514029/offspring-song-has-a-familiar-ring-beatles-fans-say/|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 June 2014|title=Offspring Song Has A Familiar Ring, Beatles Fans Say|publisher=[[MTV]]|date=6 May 1999|access-date=9 March 2019}}</ref>

The song opens Herbie Mann's 1974 album ''[[Reggae (album)|Reggae]]''.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

==Chart history==
===The Beatles version===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!style="width:18em"|Chart (1969)
!Peak position
|-
|Australian [[Go-Set|''Go-Set'' National Top 40]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.poparchives.com.au/gosetcharts/1969/19690423.html|title=Go-Set Australian charts – 23 April 1969|publisher=poparchives.com.au|access-date=10 March 2019}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|Australian [[Kent Music Report]]<ref>{{cite book | title=Australian Chart Book (1940–1969) | author=Kent, David | publisher=Australian Chart Book | location=Turramurra | year=2005 | isbn=0-646-44439-5}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{single chart|Austria|1|artist=The Beatles|song=Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|{{single chart|Flanders|5|artist=The Beatles|song=Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|Belgian Ultratop (Wallonia)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ultratop.be/fr/song/47/The-Beatles-Ob-La-Di,-Ob-La-Da|title=The Beatles – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|publisher=ultratop.be|access-date=10 March 2019}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|2
|-
|French Singles Chart<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tsort.info/music/6hsv00.htm |title=Song artist 1 – The Beatles |website=Tsort.info |access-date=2016-10-02}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|3
|-
|Finland ([[Suomen virallinen lista]])<ref name=Finland>{{cite book|first=Jake|last=Nyman|year=2005|title=Suomi soi 4: Suuri suomalainen listakirja|edition=1st|publisher=Tammi|location=Helsinki|isbn=951-31-2503-3|language=fi}}</ref>
|align="center"|15
|-
|Italian ''[[Musica e Dischi]]'' Chart<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.musicaedischi.it/classifiche_archivio.php|title=Classifiche|work=[[Musica e dischi]]|language=it|access-date=31 May 2022}} Set "Tipo" on "Singoli". Then, in the "Titolo" field, search "Ob-la-di ob-la-da".</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|4
|-
|Japanese [[Oricon]] Singles Chart<ref name="Oricon">{{cite web|publisher=Oricon|year=2009 |title=Japan No. 1 IMPORT DISKS|url=http://www18.ocn.ne.jp/~hbr/JPP1.htm|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421200743/http://www18.ocn.ne.jp/~hbr/JPP1.htm |archive-date=21 April 2015}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|7
|-
|Japanese Oricon International Chart<ref name="Oricon" />
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{single chart|Dutch100|3|artist=The Beatles|song=Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|New Zealand ''[[New Zealand Listener|Listener]]'' Chart<ref name="NZchart">{{cite web|url=http://www.flavourofnz.co.nz/index.php?qpageID=search%20listener&qartistid=8#n_view_location |title=Search ''NZ Listener'' > 'The Beatles' |publisher=Flavour of New Zealand|access-date=10 March 2019}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|-
|{{single chart|Switzerland|1|artist=The Beatles|song=Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|West German [[Musikmarkt|''Musikmarkt'' Hit-Parade]]<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zygEAAAAMBAJ&q=%22Ob-La-Di+Ob-La-Da%22&pg=PA67 |title=Billboard Hits of the World|magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]|date=15 March 1969|page=67|access-date=11 March 2019}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
!style="width:18em"|Chart (1976–77)
!Peak position
|-
|Canada ''[[RPM (magazine)|RPM]]'' Top Singles<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.5169a&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.5169a.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.5169a|title=''RPM'' Top Singles, January 8, 1977
|date=17 July 2013
|publisher=[[Library and Archives Canada]]|access-date=11 March 2019}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|27
|-
|Canada ''RPM'' Adult Contemporary<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.5143&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.5143.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.5143|title=Item Display – RPM – Library and Archives Canada |website=Collectionscanada.gc.ca |date=1976-12-25 |accessdate=2022-03-05}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|29
|-
|{{single chart|Billboardhot100|49|artist=The Beatles|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|US ''Billboard'' [[Adult Contemporary (chart)|Adult Contemporary]]<ref>{{cite book|first= Joel |last= Whitburn |author-link= Joel Whitburn |year= 1993 |title= Top Adult Contemporary: 1961–1993
|publisher= Record Research |page=25}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|39
|-
|US [[Cashbox (magazine)|''Cash Box'' Top 100]]<ref>{{cite book| first=Frank| last=Hoffmann| year=1983| title=The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950–1981| publisher=The Scarecrow Press, Inc| location=Metuchen, NJ & London| pages= 32–34}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"|47
|}

===Marmalade version===
{| class="wikitable"
!style="width:18em"|Chart (1968–69)
!Peak position
|-
|{{single chart|Austria|1|artist=The Marmalade|song=Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|{{single chart|Norway|1|artist=The Marmalade|song=Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|{{single chart|Switzerland|2|artist=The Marmalade|song=Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da|access-date=16 May 2016}}
|-
|UK [[UK Singles Chart|''Record Retailer'' Chart]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/13280/marmalade/|title=Marmalade|publisher=[[Official Charts Company]]|access-date=10 March 2019}}</ref>
|align=center|1
|-
|}

===Certifications===
{{Certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|artist=Beatles|title=Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da|type=single|award=Silver|id=17640-1786-1|certyear=2021|relyear=2010|note=The Beatles version|access-date=16 November 2021}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|streaming=true|nosales=true|noshipments=true}}

==See also==
* [[Nonsense song]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em|group=nb}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|last=Carlin|first=Peter Ames|title=Paul McCartney: A Life|url=https://archive.org/details/paulmccartneylif00carl|url-access=registration|publisher=Touchstone/Simon & Schuster|location=New York, NY|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4165-6223-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Clayson|first=Alan|author-link=Alan Clayson|title=Paul McCartney|publisher=Sanctuary|location=London|year=2003|isbn=1-86074-486-9 }}
* {{cite book
| last1=Emerick
| first1=Geoff
| year=2006
| author-link=Geoff Emerick
| last2=Massey
| first2=Howard
| title=Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles
| publisher=[[Penguin Books]]
| location=New York
| isbn=1-59240-179-1
}}
*{{cite book|last1=Giuliano|first1=Geoffrey|last2=Giuliano|first2=Avalon|author-link1=Geoffrey Giuliano|title=Revolver: The Secret History of the Beatles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=usR5AAAACAAJ|year=2005|publisher=John Blake|location=London|isbn=978-1-84454-160-7 }}
* {{cite book|first=Mark|last=Lewisohn|author-link=Mark Lewisohn|title=The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962–1970|publisher=Bounty Books|location=London|year=2005|orig-year=1988|isbn=978-0-7537-2545-0 }}
* {{cite book|last=MacDonald| first=Ian| year=1998| title=Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties| publisher=Pimlico|location=London| isbn=978-0-7126-6697-8 }}
*{{cite book|last=Miles|first=Barry|author-link=Barry Miles|title=[[Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now]]|publisher=Henry Holt|location=New York, NY|year=1997|isbn=0-8050-5249-6 }}
* {{cite book|last=Miles|first=Barry|title=The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years|publisher= Omnibus Press|location=London|year=2001|isbn=0-7119-8308-9 }}
* {{cite book
| last=Murrells
| first=Joseph
| year=1978
| title=The Book of Golden Discs
| publisher=Barrie and Jenkins
| location=London
| edition=2nd
| isbn=0-214-20512-6
| url=https://archive.org/details/bookofgoldendisc00murr
}}
* {{cite book|last=Quantick|first=David|author-link=David Quantick|title=Revolution: The Making of the Beatles' White Album|publisher=A Cappella Books|location=Chicago, IL|year=2002|isbn=1-55652-470-6 }}
* {{cite book
| last=Roberts
| first=David
| year=2006
| title=British Hit Singles & Albums
| publisher=Guinness World Records Limited
| location=London
| edition=19th
| isbn=1-904994-10-5
}}
* {{cite book |last=Roessner|first=Jeffrey|editor1-first=Ken|editor1-last=Womack|editor2-first=Todd|editor2-last=Davis|title=Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four|location=Albany, NY|publisher=SUNY Press|year=2006|isbn=0-7914-8196-4|chapter=We All Want to Change the World: Postmodern Politics and the Beatles' White Album}}
* {{cite book|last=Schaffner|first=Nicholas|author-link=Nicholas Schaffner|title=The Beatles Forever|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=New York, NY|year=1978|isbn=0-07-055087-5|url=https://archive.org/details/beatlesforever00scha}}
* {{cite book|last=Sounes|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Sounes|title=Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney|publisher=HarperCollins|location=London|year=2010|isbn=978-0-00-723705-0}}
* {{cite book|last=Spitz|first=Bob|year=2005|author-link=Bob Spitz| title=The Beatles: The Biography
|url=https://archive.org/details/beatlesbiography00spit|url-access=registration|publisher=Little, Brown|location=Boston, MA|isbn=0-316-80352-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Spizer|first=Bruce|author-link=Bruce Spizer|title=The Beatles on Apple Records|publisher=498 Productions|location=New Orleans, LA|year=2003|isbn=0-9662649-4-0}}
* {{cite book|last1=Sulpy|first1=Doug|last2=Schweighardt|first2=Ray|title=Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of The Beatles' Let It Be Disaster|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|location=New York, NY|year=1997|isbn=0-312-19981-3}}
* {{cite book
| last=Turner
| first=Steve
| year=2012|orig-year=1994
| author-link=Steve Turner (writer)
| title=A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song
| publisher=Carlton Books
| location=London
| isbn=978-1-78097-096-7
}}
* {{cite book|first=Richie|last=Unterberger|author-link=Richie Unterberger|title=The Unreleased Beatles: Music & Film|publisher=Backbeat Books|location=San Francisco, CA|year=2006|isbn=978-0-87930-892-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Winn|first=John C.|year=2009|title=That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966–1970|publisher=Three Rivers Press|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-307-45239-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Womack|first=Kenneth|author-link=Kenneth Womack|year=2014|title=The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, CA|isbn= 978-0-313-39171-2}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
* {{URL|http://austriancharts.at/no1_single60.asp|Austrian #1 singles}}
* {{Notes on|http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/oo.shtml}}
* {{YouTube|_J9NpHKrKMw|The Beatles – Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da}}

{{The Beatles (White Album)}}
{{The Beatles singles}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:The Beatles songs]]
[[Category:1968 songs]]
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Golden Earring

2025-05-30T17:42:25Z

74.221.2.5: /* Timeline */

{{Short description|Dutch rock band}}
{{About|the Dutch rock band|the film|Golden Earrings{{!}}''Golden Earrings''}}
{{Infobox musical artist|
| name = Golden Earring
| image = Golden Earring - TopPop 1974 7.png
| caption = Golden Earring in 1974 left to right: Rinus Gerritsen, Barry Hay, Cesar Zuiderwijk, George Kooymans
| image_size =
| background = group_or_band
| origin = [[The Hague]], Netherlands
| genre = {{hlist|[[Hard rock]]|[[blues rock]]|[[jazz rock]]|[[psychedelic rock]]|[[garage rock]]<ref>{{cite web |title=GOLDEN EARRING |url=https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=4256 |website=Progarchives.com |access-date=31 January 2023}}</ref><ref name="loudersound.com">{{cite web |last=Dome |first=Malcolm |title=It's Prog Jim, But Not As We Know It: Golden Earring |url=https://www.loudersound.com/features/it-s-prog-jim-49 |website=louder |access-date=31 January 2023 |date=28 October 2014}}</ref>}}
| alias = *The Tornados (1961–1962)
*The Golden Earrings (1962–1966)
*Golden Earrings (1966–1968)
*The Golden Earring (1969)
| years_active = 1961–2021
| label = [[Polydor Records|Polydor]], [[MCA Records|MCA]], [[Track Records|Track]], [[Universal Music|Universal]], [[Columbia Records|Columbia]], [[Capitol Records|Capitol]], 21, [[Polygram Records|Polygram]], [[Atlantic Records|Atlantic]], [[Atco Records|Atco]], First Quake, Red Bullet
| associated_acts =
| website = {{URL|goldenearring.nl}}
| current_members =
| past_members = {{ubl|[[Rinus Gerritsen]]|[[George Kooymans]]|[[Barry Hay]]|[[Cesar Zuiderwijk]]|Fred van der Hilst|Hans van Herwerden|Peter de Rond|Frans Krassenburg|[[Jaap Eggermont]]|Sieb Warner|Bertus Borgers|[[Eelco Gelling]]|[[Robert Jan Stips]]|[[John Lagrand (musician)|John Lagrand]]|Philip van Boom}}
}}

'''Golden Earring''' were a Dutch [[rock music|rock]] band, founded in 1961 in [[The Hague]] as '''The Tornados'''. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "[[Radar Love]]" in 1973, which went to number one on the Dutch chart, reached the top ten in the United Kingdom, and went to number thirteen on the United States chart,<ref name=huey/><ref>''US-Singles: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–2006''. Billboard Books, New York 2007, {{ISBN|0-89820-172-1}} / ''US-Alben: The Billboard Albums von Joel Whitburn'', 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, {{ISBN|0-89820-166-7}}</ref> "[[Twilight Zone (Golden Earring song)|Twilight Zone]]" in 1982, and "[[When the Lady Smiles]]" in 1984.<ref name=huey/> During their career they had nearly 30 top-ten singles on the Dutch charts and released 25 studio albums.

The band went through a number of early personnel changes until settling on a stable lineup in 1970, consisting of [[Rinus Gerritsen]] (bass and keyboards), [[George Kooymans]] (vocals and guitar), [[Barry Hay]] (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone), and [[Cesar Zuiderwijk]] (drums and percussion), which remained unchanged until the band broke up in 2021 when Kooymans was diagnosed with [[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis|ALS]]. A number of other musicians also appeared in short stints with the band over its history.

The band is scheduled to play a series of five farewell concerts at the [[Rotterdam Ahoy]] in 2026.

==History==
===Early years (1961–1969)===
What became Golden Earring was formed in 1961 in [[The Hague]] by 13-year-old George Kooymans and his 15-year-old neighbor, Rinus Gerritsen.<ref>{{Cite web |last=NWS |first=VRT |date=2021-02-05 |title=Rockband Golden Earring stopt ermee door ziekte van bandlid George Kooymans |url=https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/02/05/rockband-golden-earring-stopt-ermee-door-ziekte-van-bandlid-geor/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=vrtnws.be |language=nl}}</ref> Originally called "the Tornados", the name was changed to '''the Golden Earrings'''<ref name="LarkinHR"/> when they discovered that the name [[the Tornados]] was already in use by another group. The name "the Golden Earrings" was taken from an instrumental called "Golden Earrings" performed by the British group [[The Hunters (instrumental band)|the Hunters]], for whom they served as opening and closing act.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Slagwerkkrant.nl |title=Golden Earring na zestig jaar gedwongen om te stoppen |url=https://www.slagwerkkrant.nl/nieuws/artikel/2-25186/golden-earring-na-zestig-jaar-gedwongen-om-te-stoppen |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Slagwerkkrant.nl}}</ref> Initially a pop-rock band with Frans Krassenburg on lead vocals and [[Jaap Eggermont]] on drums, the Golden Earrings had a hit with their debut single "Please Go", recorded in 1965.<ref name=huey/><ref name="LarkinHR"/> Dissatisfied with Dutch recording studios, the band's manager and co-discoverer Fred Haayen arranged for the next single to be recorded at the [[Pye Records]] studios in London. The record cut at Pye, "That Day", reached number two on the Dutch charts.{{CN|date=November 2021}} The definite article was dropped from the name in 1967, and the plural "s" was dropped in 1969.<ref name=huey>{{cite web |last=Huey |first=Steve |title=Golden Earring Biography |url=http://www.allmusic.com/artist/golden-earring-mn0000669303/biography |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=28 July 2015}}</ref>

In 1968, [[Barry Hay]] joined the band, replacing Krassenburg as frontman. Two years later, the band earned their first number one hit in the Netherlands with the song "Dong Dong Diki Digi Dong".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Toen Op 1: Dong-Dong-Di-Ki-Di-Gi-Dong {{!}} Top 40-nieuws |url=https://www.top40.nl/binnen-bij-nieuws-toen-op-1-dong-dong-di-ki-di-gi-dong |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Top40.nl |language=nl}}</ref> In the United States, ground work for entering the US market was being laid by East Coast FM radio disc jockey and music critic Neil Kempfer-Stocker, who is credited as the first radio DJ to play the band in the US. This single was followed by a successful psychedelic album ''[[Eight Miles High (album)|Eight Miles High]]'',<ref name="LarkinHR"/> which featured a 19-minute version of the title track, a cover of the [[Eight Miles High|1966 hit song]] by [[the Byrds]]. The song, played throughout their US tour, became the core performance of their live shows, and their experience in the US led them to make their studio albums resemble their live shows, rather than the other way around.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TqU5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT219 |page=219 |title=Made in the Low Countries: Studies in Popular Music |series=Routledge Global Popular Music Series |editor1-first=Lutgard |editor1-last=Mutsaers |editor2-first=Gert |editor2-last=Keunen |publisher=Routledge |year=2017 |isbn=9781317417941 |first=Maarten |last=Steenmeijer |chapter=Before and After: Golden Earring Before and After the 'Dutch Invasion'}}</ref> The band's American records during this period were issued by the [[Perception Records]] label in New York, and the band's ''[[Golden Earring (album)|Golden Earring]]'' LP, known as ''Wall of Dolls'', and single "Back Home" performed poorly in the US but became a number 1 hit in the Netherlands.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vandaag in 1970: grootste hit Golden Earring komt binnen |url=https://www.top40.nl/nieuws-nieuws-vandaag-in-1970-grootste-hit-golden-earring-komt-binnen |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Top40.nl |language=nl}}</ref>

===International fame (1970s and 1980s)===
{{multiple image
|total_width = 300
|image1 = Barry Hay 2 - Golden Earring - 1974.jpg
|caption1 = Lead singer [[Barry Hay]] in 1974
|image2 = George Kooymans - Golden Earring - 1974.jpg
|caption2 = Lead guitarist [[George Kooymans]] in 1974
}}
In 1969, drummer [[Cesar Zuiderwijk]] joined the band,<ref name="LarkinHR"/> completing what has become Golden Earring's classic line-up. The band enjoyed brief international fame in the 1970s when the single version of "[[Radar Love]]" (1973),<ref name="LarkinHR"/> from the gold-certified album ''[[Moontan]]'', became a hit in both Europe and the US.<ref name=huey/> Golden Earring embarked on their first major US tour in 1969–1970. Owing to American influences, their music evolved towards hard rock,<ref name="LarkinHR"/> and they performed along with [[Jimi Hendrix]], [[Led Zeppelin]], [[Procol Harum]], and [[Eric Clapton]]. Between 1969 and 1984, Golden Earring completed 13 US tours. During this period, they performed as the opening act for [[Santana (band)|Santana]], [[King Crimson]], [[the Doobie Brothers]], [[Rush (band)|Rush]] and [[38 Special (band)|.38 Special]]. During 1973–74, when "Radar Love" was a hit, they had [[Kiss (band)|Kiss]] and [[Aerosmith]] as their opening acts.

Golden Earring released the ''[[Live (Golden Earring album)|Live]]'' album in 1977.<ref name="LarkinHR">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Virgin Encyclopedia of Heavy Rock]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=1999|edition=First|isbn=0-7535-0257-7|pages=187/8}}</ref> The album was recorded at London's Rainbow Theater.

Golden Earring enjoyed a brief period of US stardom, but were unable to secure further chart success until 1982's "[[Twilight Zone (Golden Earring song)|Twilight Zone]]".<ref name="LarkinHR"/> The music video of the song, directed by [[Dick Maas]], was played on the recently launched [[MTV]], and helped the song to become a US hit, spending 27 weeks on the Billboard chart.<ref name=internationale>{{cite news |url=https://www.nu.nl/muziek/6114669/het-internationale-succes-van-golden-earring-van-nummer-1-tot-gebande-clip.html |website=NU.nl |access-date=8 November 2021 |title=Het internationale succes van Golden Earring: van nummer 1 tot gebande clip |date=5 February 2021}}</ref>

"[[When the Lady Smiles]]" became an international hit in 1984, reaching No. 3 in Canada and becoming the band's fifth number one hit in their native country, but was not successful in the United States, reaching no higher than #76 on the US Singles Chart. The video was banned from MTV because of its "unholy desires about a nun and a lobotomy";<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.tampabay.com/nothing-to-smile-about-in-this-truly-odd-golden-earring-video/2213316/ |newspaper=[[Tampa Bay Times]] |title=Nothing to smile about in this truly odd Golden Earring video |first=Kevin |last=Wuench |date=12 June 2015 |accessdate=8 November 2021}}</ref> this was [[Dick Maas]]'s second video for the band, and helped launch his career as a film director.<ref name=internationale/> While touring the US in 1984, the band played at the Great Arena [[Six Flags Great Adventure]] in New Jersey on May 11 and were in the midst of their performance when a fire broke out at the [[Haunted Castle (Six Flags Great Adventure)|Haunted Castle]] on the opposite side of the theme park, killing eight teenagers. Following this tour, Golden Earring turned their focus toward Europe where they continued to attract standing-room-only crowds. The group paused briefly after the release of ''[[The Hole (album)|The Hole]]'' in 1986 to focus on other projects, with Hay and Kooymans both releasing solo albums (''Victory of Bad Taste'' and ''Solo'', respectively) the following year. The group then reconvened to record their final album of the 1980s, releasing ''[[Keeper of the Flame (Golden Earring album)|Keeper of the Flame]]'' in 1989.<ref name="LarkinHR"/>

===Later years (1990s–2021)===
In 1991, Golden Earring had another hit in the Netherlands with "Going to the Run", a rock-ballad about a [[Hells Angels]] motorcycle gang member who was a friend of the band and died in a crash. The Russian rock band [[Aria (band)|Aria]] made a successful cover of "Going to the Run" as "Беспечный ангел" ("Careless Angel"). Between 1992 and 2004, the band released three acoustic live unplugged albums, which became quick successes. The first, ''The Naked Truth'', sold 450,000 copies within the first few years<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-29 |title=The Dutch Iconic blues albums: The Golden Earring - Naked Truth |url=https://www.bluesmagazine.nl/the-dutch-iconic-blues-albums-the-golden-earring-naked-truth/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |language=nl-NL}}</ref> and became the third-best selling album of 1993 in the Netherlands.<ref>{{Cite web |title=JAAROVERZICHTEN - Album 1993 |url=https://dutchcharts.nl/jaaroverzichten.asp?year=1993&cat=a |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=dutchcharts.nl}}</ref>

Golden Earring celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2011, which the [[PostNL|Dutch postal service]] honored with a stamp that contained a music link: when a smartphone with a special app is held up to the music stamp, Golden Earring's "Radar Love" plays.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2011-10-10|title=Postzegel voor de Golden Earring|url=http://www.westonline.nl/nieuws/postzegel-voor-golden-earring|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209235025/http://www.westonline.nl/nieuws/postzegel-voor-golden-earring|archive-date=2011-12-09|website=Westonline|language=nl}}</ref>

On 11 May 2012, the band released what was to prove to be their final studio album, ''[[Tits 'n Ass]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Slagwerkkrant.nl |title=Golden Earring na zestig jaar gedwongen om te stoppen |url=https://www.slagwerkkrant.nl/nieuws/artikel/2-25186/golden-earring-na-zestig-jaar-gedwongen-om-te-stoppen |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Slagwerkkrant.nl}}</ref>

On 5 February 2021, the band's manager announced to the Dutch press that the band's active career was over due to George Kooymans' serious [[ALS]] illness.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nos.nl/l/2367435|title=Ziekte George Kooymans betekent het einde van Golden Earring|website=Nos.nl|access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://netherlandsnewslive.com/golden-earring-guitarist-george-kooymans-seriously-ill-show/80504/|title=Golden Earring guitarist George Kooymans seriously ill | Show|website=Netherlandslive.com|date=5 February 2021|access-date=18 July 2021}}</ref>

=== One Last Night (2025–present) ===
In January 2025, the band announced that they would play one final concert, named "Golden Earring: One Last Night" at the [[Rotterdam Ahoy]] on 30 January 2026. Kooymans will not play, but several famous Dutch artists will perform with the band, and five euros from each ticket sold will go to [[ALS]] research.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Golden Earring geeft op 30 januari 2026 toch afscheidsconcert in Ahoy |url=https://voorburgsdagblad.nl/rotterdam%20&%20regio/golden-earring-geeft-op-30-januari-2026-toch-afscheidsconcert-in-ahoy |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=voorburgsdagblad.nl |language=nl}}</ref> Because of extra demand, four more shows from 26 to 29 January were added, which also all sold out immediately.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-01-23 |title=Extra afscheidsconcerten Golden Earring binnen een uur uitverkocht |url=https://nos.nl/artikel/2552927-extra-afscheidsconcerten-golden-earring-binnen-een-uur-uitverkocht |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=nos.nl |language=nl}}</ref>

==Band members==

=== Final members ===
*[[Rinus Gerritsen]] – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica (1961–2021)
*[[George Kooymans]] – guitar, vocals (1961–2021)
*[[Barry Hay]] – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone (1967–2021)
*[[Cesar Zuiderwijk]] – drums, percussion (1970–2021)

=== Former members ===
*Fred van der Hilst – drums, percussion (1962–1965)
*Hans van Herwerden – guitar (1962–1963)
*Peter de Ronde – guitar (1963–1966)
*Frans Krassenburg – vocals (1964–1967)
*[[Jaap Eggermont]] – drums, percussion (1965–1969)
*Sieb Warner – drums, percussion (1969–1970)
*Bertus Borgers – saxophone (1973–1976)
*[[Eelco Gelling]] – guitar (1973–1975, 1976–1978)
*[[Robert Jan Stips]] – keyboards, synthesizers (1974–1976, 1977–1978, 1980, 1982, 1986)
*[[John Lagrand (musician)|John Lagrand]] – harmonica (1979)

===Lineups===
{| class="toccolours" border=1 cellpadding=2 cellspacing=0 style="float: width: 375px; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #E2E2E2;" width=99%
|-
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1961–1962
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1962–1963
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1963–1964
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1964–1965
|-
| valign=top |
*'''[[Rinus Gerritsen]]''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''[[George Kooymans]]''' – guitar, vocals
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Hans van Herwerden''' – guitar
*'''Fred van der Hilst''' – drums, percussion
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Fred van der Hilst''' – drums, percussion
*'''Peter de Ronde''' – guitar
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Fred van der Hilst''' – drums, percussion
*'''Peter de Ronde''' – guitar
*'''Frans Krassenburg''' – vocals
|-
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1965–1966
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1966–1967
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1967–1969
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1969–1970
|-
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Peter de Ronde''' – guitar
*'''Frans Krassenburg''' – vocals
*'''[[Jaap Eggermont]]''' – drums, percussion
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Frans Krassenburg''' – vocals
*'''Jaap Eggermont''' – drums, percussion
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Jaap Eggermont''' – drums, percussion
*'''[[Barry Hay]]''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Sieb Warner''' – drums, percussion
|-
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1970–1973
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1973–1974
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1974–1975
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1975–1976
|-
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''[[Cesar Zuiderwijk]]''' – drums, percussion
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Cesar Zuiderwijk''' – drums, percussion
*'''Bertus Borgers''' – saxophone
*'''[[Eelco Gelling]]''' – guitar
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Cesar Zuiderwijk''' – drums, percussion
*'''Bertus Borgers''' – saxophone
*'''Eelco Gelling''' – guitar
*'''[[Robert Jan Stips]]''' – keyboards, synthesizers
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Cesar Zuiderwijk''' – drums, percussion
*'''Bertus Borgers''' – saxophone
*'''Robert Jan Stips''' – keyboards, synthesizers
|-
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1976
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1976–1977
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1977–1978
! bgcolor="#E7EBEE" valign=top width=25% | 1978–2021
|-
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Cesar Zuiderwijk''' – drums, percussion
*'''Robert Jan Stips''' – keyboards, synthesizers
*'''Eelco Gelling''' – guitar
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Cesar Zuiderwijk''' – drums, percussion
*'''Eelco Gelling''' – guitar
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Cesar Zuiderwijk''' – drums, percussion
*'''Eelco Gelling''' – guitar
*'''Robert Jan Stips''' – keyboards, synthesizers
| valign=top |
*'''Rinus Gerritsen''' – bass, keyboards, guitar, harmonica
*'''George Kooymans''' – guitar, vocals
*'''Barry Hay''' – vocals, guitar, flute, saxophone
*'''Cesar Zuiderwijk''' – drums, percussion
|}

=== Timeline ===
{{#tag:timeline|
ImageSize = width:1000 height:450
PlotArea = left:105 bottom:120 top:0 right:35
Alignbars = justify
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1961 till:05/02/2021
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor = increment:4 start:1961
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1961

Colors =
id:voc value:red legend:Vocals
id:ww value:tan2 legend:Wind_instruments
id:g value:green legend:Guitars
id:key value:purple legend:Keyboards
id:b value:blue legend:Bass
id:dr value:orange legend:Drums
id:alb value:black legend:Studio_releases

LineData =
layer:back
at:01/09/1965
at:27/01/1967
at:01/01/1968
at:01/01/1969
at:01/11/1969
at:01/10/1970
at:01/06/1972
at:01/07/1973
at:01/03/1975
at:01/01/1976
at:01/07/1976
at:01/01/1978
at:01/07/1979
at:01/10/1980
at:01/08/1982
at:01/03/1984
at:01/05/1986
at:08/05/1989
at:19/04/1991
at:01/07/1994
at:01/07/1995
at:12/04/1999
at:01/02/2003
at:11/05/2012
at:11/05/2015

PlotData =
width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,–4)
bar:Frans Krassenburg from:01/07/1964 till:01/07/1967 color:voc
bar:Barry Hay from:01/07/1967 till:end color:voc
bar:Barry Hay from:01/07/1967 till:01/07/2003 color:g width:3
bar:Barry Hay from:01/07/1967 till:01/07/1992 color:ww width:7
bar:Bertus Borgers from:01/07/1973 till:01/05/1976 color:ww
bar:George Kooymans from:start till:end color:g
bar:George Kooymans from:start till:end color:voc width:3
bar:Hans van Herwerden from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1963 color:g
bar:Peter de Ronde from:01/07/1963 till:01/07/1966 color:g
bar:Eelco Gelling from:01/05/1973 till:01/07/1975 color:g
bar:Eelco Gelling from:01/05/1976 till:01/07/1978 color:g
bar:Robert Jan Stips from:01/07/1974 till:01/09/1976 color:key
bar:Rinus Gerritsen from:start till:end color:b
bar:Rinus Gerritsen from:start till:end color:key width:3
bar:Fred van der Hilst from:01/07/1962 till:01/07/1965 color:dr
bar:Jaap Eggermont from:01/07/1965 till:01/03/1969 color:dr
bar:Sieb Warner from:01/03/1969 till:01/09/1969 color:dr
bar:Cesar Zuiderwijk from:01/09/1969 till:end color:dr
}}

==Discography==
{{main|Golden Earring discography}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}
* ''[[Just Ear-rings]]'' (1965)
* ''[[Winter-Harvest]]'' (1967)
* ''[[Miracle Mirror]]'' (1968)
* ''[[On the Double (album)|On the Double]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Eight Miles High (album)|Eight Miles High]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Golden Earring (album)|Golden Earring]]'' (1970)
* ''[[Seven Tears]]'' (1971)
* ''[[Together (Golden Earring album)|Together]]'' (1972)
* ''[[Moontan]]'' (1973)
* ''[[Switch (Golden Earring album)|Switch]]'' (1975)
* ''[[To the Hilt (album)|To the Hilt]]'' (1976)
* ''[[Contraband (Golden Earring album)|Contraband]]'' (1976)
* ''[[Grab It for a Second]]'' (1978)
* ''[[No Promises...No Debts]]'' (1979)
* ''[[Prisoner of the Night]]'' (1980)
* ''[[Cut (Golden Earring album)|Cut]]'' (1982)
* ''[[N.E.W.S. (Golden Earring album)|N.E.W.S.]]'' (1984)
* ''[[The Hole (album)|The Hole]]'' (1986)
* ''[[Keeper of the Flame (Golden Earring album)|Keeper of the Flame]]'' (1989)
* ''[[Bloody Buccaneers]]'' (1991)
* ''[[Face It (album)|Face It]]'' (1994)
* ''[[Love Sweat]]'' (1995)
* ''[[Paradise in Distress]]'' (1999)
* ''[[Millbrook U.S.A.]]'' (2003)
* ''[[Tits 'n Ass]]'' (2012)
* ''The Hague'' (EP) (2015)
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* Biography by Golden Earring founder and bass player Rinus Gerritsen published on the band's website.
* Biographical books on the Golden Earring: ''Haagsche Bluf'' by Pieter Franssen, 1993, and ''Rock die niet roest'' by prof. Maarten Steenmeyer, 2005. Both titles are in Dutch.
* ''The Story of Golden Earring'' by Karin and Mechteld Beks, Picture publishers, an authorized biography published on the occasion of the band's 45th anniversary. Text in Dutch. (2005)
* Interviews with the band over the years, many of which can be traced back through the Golden Earring Museum website.

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

* {{Official website}}
* [http://www.radar-Love.net/ Radar Love TimeTravel]
* [http://www.musicmirror.net/interviews-archiv1.htm English-language interview with George Kooymans for ''MusicMirror'']

{{Golden Earring |state=expanded}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1961 establishments in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:2021 disestablishments in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:Dutch hard rock musical groups]]
[[Category:Dutch psychedelic rock music groups]]
[[Category:Dutch musical quartets]]
[[Category:Musical groups established in 1961]]
[[Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2021]]
[[Category:Musical groups from The Hague]]
[[Category:English-language musical groups from the Netherlands]]

From Her to Eternity

2025-05-27T10:39:57Z

74.221.2.5:

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox album
| name = From Her to Eternity
| type = studio
| artist = [[Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds]]
| cover = fromhertoeternity.jpg
| alt =
| released = May 1984
| recorded = September–October 1983 and March 1984
| venue =
| studio = * [[Miloco Studios#The Garden|The Garden]] ([[London]])
* [[Trident Studios|Trident]] (London)
| genre = * [[Post-punk]]
* [[gothic rock]]
* [[no wave]]
* [[experimental rock]]
* [[punk blues]]<ref name="guardian"/>
| length = {{duration|m=43|s=32}}
| label = [[Mute Records|Mute]]
| producer = * [[Flood (music producer)|Flood]]
* Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds<ref name="DiscogsBest">{{cite web |title=Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – The Best Of (CD, Album) at Discogs |website=[[Discogs]] |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/379534 |access-date=1 November 2016}}</ref>
| prev_title =
| prev_year =
| next_title = [[The Firstborn Is Dead]]
| next_year = 1985
}}
'''''From Her to Eternity''''' is the debut studio album by the Australian [[Rock music|rock]] band [[Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds]], released in May 1984 by [[Mute Records]]. Produced by [[Flood (music producer)|Flood]] and the band itself, the album's title is a [[pun]] on [[James Jones (author)|James Jones]]' debut novel, ''[[From Here to Eternity (novel)|From Here to Eternity]]'' (1951), and its subsequent [[From Here to Eternity|1953 film adaptation]].

== Background and production ==
After the break-up of [[Nick Cave]]'s former band [[The Birthday Party (band)|the Birthday Party]], Cave formed a new project with former band member [[Mick Harvey]]. Cave and Harvey were joined by a semi-fluid group of bandmates, initially including [[Einstürzende Neubauten]] member [[Blixa Bargeld]] on guitar, [[Hugo Race]] on guitar, and former [[Magazine (band)|Magazine]] member [[Barry Adamson]] on guitar, bass, and piano. After some studio work, the band's premiere public performance was held on New Year's Eve, 1983 at the [[Crystal Ballroom (Melbourne)|Crystal Ballroom]] in [[Melbourne]], under the name "Nick Cave – Man or Myth?", followed by a tour.<ref>{{cite web |work=From the Archives |title=Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Concert Chronology/Gigography |url=http://www.fromthearchives.com/nc/chronology.html |publisher=fromthearchives.com |access-date=18 June 2010}}</ref> The band then briefly called themselves "Nick Cave and the Cavemen" before adopting the "Bad Seeds" moniker, in reference to the final Birthday Party release, ''[[Mutiny/The Bad Seed|The Bad Seed]]'' extended play (EP).

The majority of the album was recorded at [[Trident Studios]] in [[London]] in March 1984. "Saint Huck", "Wings off Flies" and "A Box for Black Paul" were recorded at [[Miloco Studios#The Garden|The Garden]] studio (owned by [[John Foxx]] of [[Ultravox]]) between September and October 1983. [[JG Thirlwell]], an early member of the group, co-wrote "Wings Off Flies" and made uncredited instrumental contributions to the album, but departed early in the recording sessions due to creative disagreements and to work on his own solo material.<ref name=Wray2014>Daniel Dylan Wray (2014) [http://thequietus.com/articles/16018-the-birthday-party-interview-nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds If This Is Heaven I'm Bailing Out: The Death Of The Birthday Party ], The Quietus, accessed 5 January 2017</ref> The band is also seen playing a live performance of the title track in the 1987 [[Wim Wenders]] film ''[[Wings of Desire]]''. This version, recorded at [[Hansa Tonstudio|Hansa Studio]], [[Berlin]] in February 1987, is included on CD reissues of the album.

Cave later said, "Well, I guess we weren't kicking people in the teeth anymore. I mean, it just became different. I wanted it to be more lyrically orientated and getting Blixa Bargeld from [[Einstürzende Neubauten]] in the group made an incredible difference. He's a completely kind of atmospheric guitarist and incredibly economical and it gave me room to breathe."<ref>{{cite book | author= Tracee Hutchison | author-link= Tracee Hutchison |title=Your Name's On The Door|page=104|year=1992|publisher=ABC Enterprises |location=Sydney |isbn=0-7333-0115-0}}</ref>

== Critical reception ==
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/from-her-to-eternity-mw0000316643 |title=From Her to Eternity – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds / Nick Cave |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=24 January 2011 |last=Raggett |first=Ned}}</ref>
| rev2 = ''[[The Guardian]]''
| rev2score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref name="guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/apr/24/nick-cave-bad-seeds-review |title=Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: From Her to Eternity |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=24 April 2009 |access-date=24 January 2011 |last=Clarke |first=Betty}}</ref>
| rev3 = ''[[NME]]''
| rev3score = 6/10<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: From Her to Eternity |magazine=[[NME]] |date=1 July 1995 |page=50}}</ref>
| rev4 = ''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]''
| rev4score = 7.3/10<ref>{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12949-from-her-to-eternity-the-first-born-is-dead-kicking-against-the-pricks-your-funeral-my-trial/ |title=Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: From Her to Eternity / The First Born Is Dead / Kicking Against the Pricks / Your Funeral... My Trial |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |date=6 May 2009 |access-date=24 January 2011 |last=Berman |first=Stuart}}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]''
| rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: From Her to Eternity / The Firstborn Is Dead / Kicking Against the Pricks / Your Funeral... My Trial |magazine=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |issue=274 |date=May 2009 |last=Fyfe |first=Andy}}</ref>
| rev6 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
| rev6score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds |last=Sisario |first=Ben |author-link=Ben Sisario |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/151 151–152]}}</ref>
| rev7 = ''[[Select (magazine)|Select]]''
| rev7score = 4/5<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: From Her to Eternity / The First Born Is Dead |magazine=[[Select (magazine)|Select]] |issue=61 |date=July 1995 |last=Morris |first=Mark |page=100}}</ref>
| rev8 = ''[[Spin Alternative Record Guide]]''
| rev8score = 8/10<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Birthday Party |last=Reynolds |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Reynolds |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide |editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor1-link=Eric Weisbard |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |year=1995 |isbn=0-679-75574-8 |pages=43–44}}</ref>
| rev9 = ''[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]]''
| rev9score = {{Rating|4|5}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/nick_cave/reviews/12968 |title=Album reissues: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds |website=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |date=26 March 2009 |access-date=11 March 2017 |last=Cavanagh |first=David |author-link=David Cavanagh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205134103/http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/nick_cave/reviews/12968 |archive-date=5 December 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
}}
''From Her to Eternity'' has been well received by critics. ''[[Trouser Press]]'' wrote that while "the album relies less on shock effects than any the Birthday Party ever made, the explosive parts are that much more effective."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=nick_cave_and_the_bad_seeds |title=TrouserPress.com :: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds |last1=Sheridan |first1=David |last2=O'Connor |first2=Rob |last3=Neate |first3=Wilson |last4=Reeher |first4=Jason |website=[[Trouser Press|TrouserPress.com]] |access-date=31 July 2016}}</ref> Chris Long of [[BBC Music]] described it as "imperfect, visceral, exciting and, ultimately, classic."<ref>{{cite web |last=Long |first=Chris |title=Review of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – From Her To Eternity |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/8rvr |date=8 May 2009 |publisher=[[BBC Music]] |access-date=18 June 2010}}</ref>

[[Mat Snow]] said it was, "one of the greatest rock albums ever made. Dynamic, subtly layered, funny and plain obsessive, ''From Her To Eternity'' is the work of a visionary unfettered by worship of the romantic rock'n'roll mythology, and which thus reaches peaks hitherto unscaled."<ref>{{cite web| work= [[Rock's Backpages]] | title=Nick Cave: From Her To Eternity (Mute)|author=Mat Snow | url=https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Article/nick-cave-ifrom-her-to-eternityi-mute}}{{subscription required|s}}</ref>

''[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]'' ranked it 63rd on their list "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s", calling it "ghoulish to the point of ridiculousness, which is the entire point [...their] visceral hyperbole is something powerful, as though we’re hearing humankind’s palm read by a fortune teller with a cockeyed grin and a hand snatching your wallet."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-1980s/?page=7|title=The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s - Page 7|website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]}}</ref>

== 2009 remaster ==
The album was remastered and reissued on 27 April 2009 as a collector's edition CD/DVD set, along with the three subsequent studio albums in the Bad Seeds catalog, namely ''[[The Firstborn Is Dead]]'' (1985), ''[[Kicking Against the Pricks]]'' and ''[[Your Funeral... My Trial]]'' (both 1986). The CD features the original 7-song vinyl LP's track listing, while "[[In the Ghetto]]", "The Moon Is in the Gutter", and "[[From Her to Eternity (song)|From Her to Eternity]]" (1987 version) are featured as bonus audio tracks on the accompanying DVD, rather than being sequenced into the album as in earlier CD pressings. The DVD also includes music videos from the time and the first installment of 'Do You Love Me Like I Love You', a 14-part documentary by [[Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard]].

== Track listing ==
{{Track listing
| headline = Side one
| all_writing = [[Nick Cave]], unless otherwise noted
| title1 = [[Avalanche (Leonard Cohen song)|Avalanche]]
| lyrics1 = [[Leonard Cohen]]
| music1 = Cohen
| length1 = 5:13
| title2 = Cabin Fever!
| lyrics2 = Cave
| music2 = {{hlist|Cave|[[Blixa Bargeld]]}}
| length2 = 6:11
| title3 = Well of Misery
| length3 = 5:25
| title4 = [[From Her to Eternity (song)|From Her to Eternity]]
| lyrics4 = {{hlist|Cave|[[Anita Lane]]}}
| music4 = {{hlist|Cave|Bargeld|[[Hugo Race]]|[[Barry Adamson]]|[[Mick Harvey]]}}
| length4 = 5:33
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side two
| total_length = 43:32
| title5 = Saint Huck
| length5 = 7:22
| title6 = Wings Off Flies
| lyrics6 = {{hlist|Cave|Peter Sutcliffe}}
| music6 = {{hlist|Cave|[[J.G. Thirlwell|Jim Thirlwell]]}}
| length6 = 4:06
| title7 = A Box for Black Paul
| length7 = 9:42
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = 1988 CD release
| total_length = 54:49
| title1 = Avalanche
| lyrics1 = Cohen
| music1 = Cohen
| length1 = 5:13
| title2 = Cabin Fever!
| lyrics2 = Cave
| music2 = {{hlist|Cave|Bargeld}}
| length2 = 6:11
| title3 = Well of Misery
| length3 = 5:25
| title4 = From Her to Eternity
| lyrics4 = {{hlist|Cave|Lane}}
| music4 = {{hlist|Cave|Bargeld|Race|Adamson|Harvey}}
| length4 = 5:33
| title5 = [[In the Ghetto]]
| lyrics5 = [[Mac Davis]]
| music5 = Davis
| length5 = 4:06
| title6 = The Moon Is in the Gutter
| length6 = 2:36
| title7 = Saint Huck
| length7 = 7:22
| title8 = Wings Off Flies
| lyrics8 = {{hlist|Cave|Sutcliffe}}
| music8 = {{hlist|Cave|Thirlwell}}
| length8 = 4:06
| title9 = A Box for Black Paul
| length9 = 9:42
| title10 = From Her to Eternity
| note10 = 1987
| lyrics10 = {{hlist|Cave|Lane}}
| music10 = {{hlist|Cave|Bargeld|Race|Adamson|Harvey}}
| length10 = 4:35
}}

== Personnel ==
All personnel credits adapted from ''From Her to Eternity''{{'}}s album notes,<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=From Her to Eternity|others=[[Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds]]|year=1984|type=Album notes|publisher=[[Mute Records]]|id=STUMM 17}}</ref> unless otherwise noted.
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
'''Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds'''
* [[Nick Cave]] – [[lead vocals]]; [[Hammond organ]]
* [[Barry Adamson]] – [[bass guitar|bass]]; [[backing vocals]]
* [[Blixa Bargeld]] – [[guitar]]; [[slide guitar]]; backing vocals
* [[Mick Harvey]] – [[drum kit|drums]]; [[piano]]; guitar; [[vibraphone]]; organ; backing vocals
* [[Anita Lane]] (credited as band member, but does not perform on the album)
* [[Hugo Race]] – guitar; backing vocals
* [[J.G. Thirlwell]] (uncredited, instruments played unknown<ref name=Wray2014/>)

'''Technical personnel'''
* [[Flood (producer)|Flood]] – [[Audio engineer|engineer]]ing
* Tim Tom – LP [[Audio mastering|mastering]]

'''Design personnel'''
* Marina Strocchi  – front cover photography
* Jessamy Calkin – back cover photography
{{col-2}}
'''2009 Collector's Edition Remaster personnel'''<ref>{{cite AV media notes|title=From Her to Eternity|others=[[Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds]]|year=2009|type=Album notes|publisher=[[Mute Records]]|id=5099923699229}}</ref>
* Mick Harvey – [[Executive producer|executive production]]; [[5.1 surround sound]] [[Audio mixing (recorded music)|mixing]]
* David Rowntree – executive production
* Rachel Willis – executive production
* Shaun Connon – executive production
* Kevin Van Bergen – master-tape transfer
* Kevin Paul – 5.1 surround sound mixing
* Simon Heyworth – [[remaster]]ing
* Amy Hanson – sleeve notes
* Anne Carruthers – co-ordination
* MJ Salisbury – co-ordination
{{col-end}}

== Charts ==
=== Weekly charts ===
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+Weekly chart performance for ''From Her to Eternity''
! scope="col" | Chart (1984)
! scope="col" | Peak position
|-
! scope="row" | [[UK Albums Chart|UK Albums]] ([[Official Charts Company|OCC]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/17740/nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds|title=Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds | Full Official Chart History|website=[[Official Charts Company]]|publisher=[[British Phonographic Industry]]/Entertainment Retailers Association|access-date=13 September 2016}}</ref>
| 40
|-
! scope="row" | [[UK Indie Chart|UK Independent Albums]] (OCC)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cherryred.co.uk/books/indiehits/c.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606125710/http://www.cherryred.co.uk/books/indiehits/c.htm|title=Indie Hits: "C"|website=[[Cherry Red Records|Cherry Red]]|last1=Lazell|first1=Barry|archive-date=6 June 2011|access-date=30 September 2014}}</ref>
| 1
|}
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
! scope="col" | Chart (2024–2025)
! scope="col" | Peak position
|-
{{album chart|Flanders|171|artist=Nick Cave|album=From Her to Eternity|rowheader=true|access-date=25 February 2024}}
|-
! scope="row"| Croatian International Albums ([[Top of the Shops|HDU]])<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.top-lista.hr/www/lista-prodaje-strano-8-tjedan-2025/|title=Lista prodaje 8. tjedan 2025. (17.02.2025. - 23.02.2025.)|date=17 February 2025|publisher=[[Top of the Shops|HDU]]|language=hr|access-date=8 March 2025|archive-date=6 March 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250306111343/https://www.top-lista.hr/www/lista-prodaje-strano-8-tjedan-2025/|url-status=live}}</ref>
| 15
|}

== References ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
* {{URL|1=http://www.nickcave.com/music/nickcaveandthebadseeds/from-her-to-eternity|2=''From Her to Eternity''}} at [[Nick Cave]]{{'}}s official website
* {{Discogs master|17098}}
* {{MusicBrainz release group|mbid=3d86cdea-11df-3b99-ab00-bb6193bd2103}}

{{Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:From Her To Eternity}}
[[Category:1984 debut albums]]
[[Category:Mute Records albums]]
[[Category:Nick Cave albums]]
[[Category:Albums recorded at Trident Studios]]

Bringing It All Back Home

2025-04-30T15:49:20Z

74.221.2.5:

{{hatnote group|{{About|the Bob Dylan studio album}}
{{Redirect|Bringin' It All Back Home|Johnny Copeland's album of the same name|Bringin' It All Back Home (Johnny Copeland album){{!}}''Bringin' It All Back Home'' (Johnny Copeland album)}}}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Bringing It All Back Home
| type = studio
| artist = [[Bob Dylan]]
| cover = Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home.jpg
| border = yes
| alt = A photograph of Dylan staring at the camera with a woman reclining behind him on a chair. A lens effect blurs the edges of the photo.
| released = {{Startdate|1965|04}}
| recorded = January 13–15, 1965
| venue =
| studio = [[Columbia Records#Studio A|Columbia 7th Ave]], New York City
| genre = {{hlist|[[Folk rock]]<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-bob-dylans-bringing-it-all-back-home-stunned-the-world-20160322|title=How Bob Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home' 'Stunned the World'|last=Hermes|first=Will|date=March 22, 2016|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|access-date=June 4, 2016|quote=We look back at Bob Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home,' which saw him go electric, invent folk rock and redefine what can be said in a song.|archive-date=May 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160529171528/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/how-bob-dylans-bringing-it-all-back-home-stunned-the-world-20160322|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://pitchfork.com/news/40126-morning-benders-mirah-pay-bob-dylan-tribute/|title=Morning Benders, Mirah Pay Bob Dylan Tribute|publisher=Pitchfork |last=Breihan|first=Tom|date=September 21, 2010}}</ref>|[[contemporary folk music|folk]]<ref name=AM />|[[blues]]<ref name="Sawyers2011">{{cite book|author=June Skinner Sawyers|title=Bob Dylan: New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-KQIwgaI3-8C&pg=PA77|date=May 1, 2011|publisher=Roaring Forties Press|isbn=978-0-9846254-4-4|page=77}}</ref>}}
| length = 47:21
| label = [[Columbia Records|Columbia]]
| producer = [[Tom Wilson (producer)|Tom Wilson]]
| prev_title = [[Another Side of Bob Dylan]]
| prev_year = 1964
| next_title = [[Highway 61 Revisited]]
| next_year = 1965
| misc = {{Singles
| name = Bringing It All Back Home
| type = studio
| single1 = [[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]" / "[[She Belongs to Me]]
| single1date = March 8, 1965
| single2 = [[Maggie's Farm]]" / "[[On the Road Again (Bob Dylan song)|On the Road Again]]
| single2date = June 1965
| single3 = [[Gates of Eden (song)|Gates of Eden]]
| single3date = July 20, 1965
}}
}}

'''''Bringing It All Back Home''''' is the fifth studio album by the American singer-songwriter [[Bob Dylan]], released in April{{nbsp}}1965 by [[Columbia Records]].<ref name=CashBox>{{cite magazine|author=Anon.|title=Columbia Bows 19 New Albums|magazine=[[Cashbox (magazine)|Cash Box]]|date=April 10, 1965|page=6|quote=Columbia Records has announced an April Release to contain 19 albums{{nbsp}}... [including] 'Bringing It All Back Home' by Bob Dylan{{nbsp}}...}}</ref>{{refn|name=release|group="nb"|March 22, 1965 is the date usually stated as the release date for the album in later secondary sources.<ref name = "
March 22, 1965 Release">{{Cite news|last1=Snow|first1=Mat|title=Bob Dylan’s Bringing It All Back Home Revisited|work=[[Mojo (magazine)|Mojo]]|publisher = [[Bauer Media Group]]|location=[[London]]|date=March 22, 2024| url=https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/bob-dylans-bringing-it-all-back-home-revisited/|access-date=March 21, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240322183522/https://www.mojo4music.com/articles/stories/bob-dylans-bringing-it-all-back-home-revisited/| archive-date=March 22, 2024|url-status=live}}</ref>}} In a major transition from his earlier sound, it was Dylan's first album to incorporate electric instrumentation, which [[Electric Dylan controversy|caused controversy]] and divided many in the contemporary [[Folk music|folk]] scene.<ref>[[Irwin Silber]], editor of folk magazine ''[[Sing Out!]]'' described Dylan's new music as "a freak and a parody". ''Bob Dylan'' by Anthony Scaduto, Abacus Books, 1972, p. 188</ref>

The album is split into two distinct halves; the first half of the album features electric instrumentation, in which on side one of the original LP, Dylan is backed by an electric [[rock and roll]] band. The second half features mainly acoustic songs. The album abandons the [[protest music]] of Dylan's previous records in favor of more surreal, complex lyrics.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/dylans-double-personality-celebrating-the-50th-anniversary-of-bringing-it-all-back-home-1426713732|title=Dylan's Double Personality: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of 'Bringing It All Back Home'|website=[[Wsj.com]]|date=March 18, 2015|access-date=July 21, 2019|last1=Woodward|first1=Richard B.}}</ref>

The album reached No. 6 on ''[[Billboard charts|Billboard]]''{{'}}s Pop Albums chart, the first of Dylan's LPs to break into the US Top 10. It also topped the UK charts later that spring. The first track, "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]", became Dylan's first single to chart in the US, peaking at No. 39. ''Bringing It All Back Home'' has been described as one of the greatest albums of all time by multiple publications.<ref name="faroutmagazine.co.uk">{{Cite web |date=2021-03-22 |title=Bob Dylan's triumphant album 'Bringing It All Back Home' |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-dylan-album-bringing-it-all-back-home-review/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last1=Hermes |first1=Will |date=2016-03-22 |title=How Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home' 'Stunned the World' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-bob-dylans-bringing-it-all-back-home-stunned-the-world-158316/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2009-05-31 |title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Revisiting Bob Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home' (1965) {{!}} Retrospective Tribute |url=https://albumism.com/features/bob-dylan-bringing-it-all-back-home-turns-55-anniversary-retrospective |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=Albumism |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2003, it was ranked number 31 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]'''s list of the "[[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|500 Greatest Albums of All Time]]", later repositioned to number 181 in the 2020 edition.

{{TOC limit|3}}

== Recording ==
{{more citations needed section|date=July 2017}}

Dylan spent much of the summer of 1964 in [[Woodstock, New York|Woodstock]], a small town in upstate [[New York (state)|New York]] where his manager, [[Albert Grossman]], had a place.<ref name="faroutmagazine.co.uk"/> When [[Joan Baez]] went to see Dylan that August, they stayed at Grossman's house. Baez recalls that "most of the month or so we were there, Bob stood at the typewriter in the corner of his room, drinking red wine and smoking and tapping away relentlessly for hours. And in the dead of night, he would wake up, grunt, grab a cigarette, and stumble over to the typewriter again." Dylan already had one song ready for his next album: "[[Mr. Tambourine Man]]" was written in February 1964 but omitted from ''[[Another Side of Bob Dylan]]''. Another song, "[[Gates of Eden (song)|Gates of Eden]]", was also written earlier that year, appearing in the original manuscripts to ''Another Side of Bob Dylan''; a few lyrical changes were eventually made, but it's unclear if these were made that August in Woodstock. At least two songs were written that month: "[[If You Gotta Go, Go Now]]" and "[[It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)]]". During this time, Dylan's lyrics became increasingly [[Surrealism|surreal]], and his prose grew more stylistic, often resembling [[Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)|stream-of-consciousness]] writing with published letters dating from 1964 becoming increasingly intense and dreamlike as the year wore on.

Dylan returned to the city, and on August 28, he met [[the Beatles]] for the first time in their New York hotel.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bob Dylan's Influence on The Beatles|url=http://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/beatles-blog/bob-dylans-influence-on-the-beatles|website=AARON KREROWICZ, Professional Beatles Scholar|access-date=November 10, 2016}}</ref> In retrospect, this meeting with the Beatles would prove to be influential to the direction of Dylan's music, as he would soon record music invoking a rock sound for at least the next three albums. Dylan would remain on good terms with the Beatles, and as biographer [[Clinton Heylin]] writes, "the evening established a personal dimension to the very real rivalry that would endure for the remainder of a momentous decade."

Dylan and producer [[Tom Wilson (producer)|Tom Wilson]] were soon experimenting with their own fusion of rock and folk music. The first unsuccessful test involved overdubbing a "[[Fats Domino]] early rock & roll thing" over Dylan's earlier, acoustic recording of "[[House of the Rising Sun]]", according to Wilson. This took place in the [[CBS 30th Street Studio|Columbia 30th Street Studio]] in December 1964.<ref>[[Clinton Heylin|Heylin, Clinton]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=c9d62SgEJpkC ''Bob Dylan: The Recording Sessions, 1960–1994''], Macmillan, 1997. Cf. p.33-34 for record producer [[Tom Wilson (producer)|Tom Wilson]]'s use of the 30th Street Studios for some of Dylan's work, and other references in the book.</ref> It was quickly discarded, though Wilson would more famously use the same technique of overdubbing an electric backing track to an existing acoustic recording with [[Simon & Garfunkel]]'s "[[The Sound of Silence]]". In the meantime, Dylan turned his attention to another folk-rock experiment conducted by [[John P. Hammond]], an old friend and musician whose father, [[John H. Hammond]], originally signed Dylan to Columbia. Hammond was planning an electric album around the blues songs that framed his acoustic live performances of the time. To do this, he recruited three members of an American/Canadian bar band he met sometime in 1963: guitarist [[Robbie Robertson]], drummer [[Levon Helm]], and organist [[Garth Hudson]] (members of the Hawks, who would go on to become [[the Band]]). Dylan was very aware of the resulting album, ''[[So Many Roads (John P. Hammond album)|So Many Roads]]''; according to his friend, Danny Kalb, "Bob was really excited about what John Hammond was doing with electric blues. I talked to him in the Figaro in 1964 and he was telling me about John and his going to Chicago and playing with a band and so on …"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heylin |first=Clinton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dd5EmZDdScoC&pg=PA174 |title=Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition |date=2011-04-01 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-27241-9 |language=en}}</ref>

However, when Dylan and Wilson began work on the next album, they temporarily refrained from their own electric experimentation. The first session, held on January 13, 1965, in [[Columbia Records#Studio A|Columbia's Studio A]] in New York, was recorded solo, with Dylan playing piano or acoustic guitar. Ten complete songs and several song sketches were produced, nearly all of which were discarded.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{Cite web |date=2022-03-22 |title=How Bob Dylan made 'Bringing It All Back Home' in three days |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-bob-dylan-recorded-bringing-it-all-back-home-in-three-days/ |access-date=2022-11-06 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref> Take one of "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" would be used for the album, but three would eventually be released: "I'll Keep It With Mine" on 1985's ''[[Biograph (album)|Biograph]]'', and "[[Farewell, Angelina (song)|Farewell Angelina]]" and an acoustic version of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" on 1991's ''[[The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991]]''.

Other songs and sketches recorded at this session: "Love Minus Zero/No Limit", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", "She Belongs to Me", "On the Road Again", "If You Gotta Go, Go Now", "You Don't Have to Do That", "California," and "Outlaw Blues", all of which were original compositions.

Dylan and Wilson held another session at Studio A the following day, this time with a full, electric band. Guitarists [[Al Gorgoni]], [[Kenny Rankin]], and [[Bruce Langhorne]] were recruited, as were pianist [[Paul Griffin (musician)|Paul Griffin]], bassists Joseph Macho Jr. and [[Bill Lee (musician)|William E. Lee]], and drummer [[Bobby Gregg]]. The day's work focused on eight songs, all of which had been attempted the previous day. According to Langhorne, there was no rehearsal, "we just did first takes and I remember that, for what it was, it was amazingly intuitive and successful." Few takes were required of each song, and after three and a half hours of recording (lasting from 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm), master takes of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit", "Subterranean Homesick Blues", "Outlaw Blues", "She Belongs to Me", and "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" were all recorded and selected for the final album.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Sometime after dinner, Dylan reportedly continued recording with a different set of musicians, including [[John P. Hammond]] and [[John Sebastian]] (only Langhorne returned from earlier that day). They recorded six songs, but the results were deemed unsatisfactory and ultimately rejected.

Another session was held at Studio A the next day, and it would be the last one needed. Once again, Dylan kept at his disposal the musicians from the previous day (that is, those that participated in the 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm session); the one exception was pianist Paul Griffin, who was unable to attend and replaced by Frank Owens. Daniel Kramer recalls:<ref name="ReferenceB"/> {{cquote|The musicians were enthusiastic. They conferred with one another to work out the problems as they arose. Dylan bounced around from one man to another, explaining what he wanted, often showing them on the piano what was needed until, like a giant puzzle, the pieces would fit and the picture emerged whole … Most of the songs went down easily and needed only three or four takes … In some cases, the first take sounded completely different from the final one because the material was played at a different tempo, perhaps, or a different chord was chosen, or solos may have been rearranged...His method of working, the certainty of what he wanted, kept things moving.}}

The session began with "Maggie's Farm": only one take was recorded, and it was the only one they'd ever need. From there, Dylan successfully recorded master takes of "On the Road Again", "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", "Gates of Eden", "Mr. Tambourine Man", and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", all of which were set aside for the album. A master take of "If You Gotta Go, Go Now" was also selected, but it would not be included on the album; instead, it was issued as a single-only release in Europe, but not in the US or the UK.

Though Dylan was able to record electric versions of virtually every song included on the final album, he apparently never intended ''Bringing It All Back Home'' to be completely electric. As a result, roughly half of the finished album would feature full electric band arrangements while the other half consisted of solo acoustic performances, sometimes accompanied by Langhorne, who would embellish Dylan's acoustic performance with a [[countermelody]] on his electric guitar.

== Songs ==

=== Overview ===
''Bringing It All Back Home'' consists mainly of blues and folk and, as a result of Dylan's adoption of a more electric sound, is considered to have been instrumental in the birth of folk rock.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Revisiting Bob Dylan's 'Bringing It All Back Home' (1965) {{!}} Retrospective Tribute |url=https://albumism.com/features/bob-dylan-bringing-it-all-back-home-turns-55-anniversary-retrospective |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=Albumism |language=en-US}}</ref> On his following albums, ''[[Highway 61 Revisited]]'' and ''[[Blonde on Blonde]]'', he would further develop the genre, influencing American folk acts such as [[Buffalo Springfield]] and [[Simon & Garfunkel|Simon and Garfunkel]] as well as [[British Invasion]] bands like the Beatles and [[the Rolling Stones]] to innovate, producing more introspective lyrics and allowing the latter two groups to expand out of the confines of their [[pop rock]] roots. According to [[Pete Townshend]] of [[the Who]], Dylan's folk attitude also influenced the writing of one of their most successful songs, the 1965 single "[[My Generation]]". In the Beatles' case, the results of this innovation, namely the albums ''[[Help!]]'' and ''[[Rubber Soul]],'' would help push folk rock into the mainstream''.''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-01 |title=How Bob Dylan influenced The Beatles and The Rolling Stones |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-bob-dylan-influenced-the-beatles-the-rolling-stones-the-who/ |access-date=2022-11-07 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Side one ===
{{unsourced section|date=January 2025}}
==== "Subterranean Homesick Blues" ====
The album opens with "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]", heavily inspired by [[Chuck Berry]]'s "[[Too Much Monkey Business]]". "Subterranean Homesick Blues" became a Top 40 hit for Dylan. "Snagged by a sour, pinched guitar riff, the song has an acerbic tinge … and Dylan sings the title rejoinders in mock self-pity," writes music critic [[Tim Riley (music critic)|Tim Riley]]. "It's less an indictment of the system than a coil of imagery that spells out how the system hangs itself with the rope it's so proud of."

==== "She Belongs to Me" ====
"[[She Belongs to Me]]" extols the bohemian virtues of an artistic lover whose creativity must be constantly fed ("Bow down to her on Sunday / Salute her when her birthday comes. / For Halloween buy her a trumpet / And for Christmas, give her a drum.")

==== "Maggie's Farm" ====
"[[Maggie's Farm]]" contains themes of social, economic and political criticism, with lines such as "Well I try my best to be just like I am/But everybody wants you to be just like them" and "Well, I wake up in the morning, fold my hands and pray for rain/I got a head full of ideas that are drivin' me insane". It follows a straightforward blues structure, with the opening line of each verse ("I ain't gonna work...") sung twice, then repeated at the end of the verse. The third to fifth lines of each verse elaborate on and explain the sentiment expressed in the verse's opening/closing lines. It references working for Maggie, her father, her mother, and her brother on a farm.

==== "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" ====
"[[Love Minus Zero/No Limit]]" is a love song. Its main musical hook is a series of three descending [[Chord (music)|chords]], while its lyrics articulate Dylan's feelings for his lover, and have been interpreted as describing how she brings a needed [[zen]]-like calm to his chaotic world. The song uses surreal imagery, which some authors and critics have suggested recalls [[Edgar Allan Poe]]'s "[[The Raven]]" and the biblical [[Book of Daniel]]. Critics have also remarked that the style of the lyrics is reminiscent of [[William Blake]]'s poem "[[The Sick Rose]]".

==== "Outlaw Blues" ====
"[[Outlaw Blues (Bob Dylan song)|Outlaw Blues]]" is an [[electric blues]] song that lyrically follows a fugitive traveling through harsh conditions ("Ain't it hard to stumble and land in some muddy lagoon?/Especially when it's nine below zero and three o'clock in the afternoon") as he resents the life of being on the run.

==== "On the Road Again" ====
"[[On the Road Again (Bob Dylan song)|On the Road Again]]" catalogs the absurd affectations and degenerate living conditions of bohemia. The song concludes: "Then you ask why I don't live here / Honey, how come you don't move?"

==== "Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" ====
"[[Bob Dylan's 115th Dream]]" narrates a surreal experience involving the discovery of America, "Captain Arab" (a clear reference to [[Ahab (Moby-Dick)|Captain Ahab]] of ''[[Moby Dick]]''), and numerous bizarre encounters. It is the longest song in the electric section of the album, starting out as an acoustic ballad before being interrupted by laughter, and then starting back up again with an electric blues rhythm. The music is so similar in places to ''Another Side of Bob Dylan''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "[[Motorpsycho Nitemare]]" as to be indistinguishable from it but for the electric instrumentation. The song can be best read as a highly sardonic, non-linear (historically) dreamscape parallel cataloguing of the discovery, creation and merits (or lack thereof) of the United States.

=== Side two ===

==== "Mr. Tambourine Man" ====
"[[Mr. Tambourine Man]]" is the first track on side 2 of the album. It was written and composed in early 1964, at the same approximate time as "[[Chimes of Freedom (song)|Chimes of Freedom]]", which Dylan recorded later that spring for his album ''[[Another Side of Bob Dylan]]''. The lyrics are surrealist and may be influenced by the work of [[Arthur Rimbaud]] (most notably for the "magic swirlin' ship" evoked in the lyrics).

==== "Gates of Eden" ====
"[[Gates of Eden (song)|Gates of Eden]]" is the only song on the album that is mono on the stereo release and all subsequent reissues. Dylan plays the song solo, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. It is considered one of Dylan's most surreal songs.

==== "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" ====
"[[It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)|It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)]]" was written in the summer of 1964, first performed live on October 10, 1964, and recorded on January 15, 1965. It is described by Dylan biographer [[Howard Sounes]] as a "grim masterpiece". The song features some of Dylan's most memorable lyrical images. Among the well-known lines sung in the song are "He not busy being born is busy dying," "Money doesn't talk, it swears," "Although the masters make the rules, for the wisemen and the fools" and "But even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked." Musically, it is similar to Dylan's cover of "[[Highway 51 Blues]]", which he recorded four years earlier and released on his debut album, ''[[Bob Dylan (album)|Bob Dylan]]''.

==== "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" ====
"[[It's All Over Now, Baby Blue]]" is the album's closing song. The song was recorded on January 15, 1965, with Dylan's acoustic guitar and harmonica and [[Bill Lee (musician)|William E. Lee's]] bass guitar the only instrumentation.<ref>{{cite book|title=Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, 1960–1973|url=https://archive.org/details/bobdylanperformi00will|url-access=registration|edition=2nd|author=Williams, P.|page=[https://archive.org/details/bobdylanperformi00will/page/138 138]|year=2004|publisher=Omnibus Press|isbn=978-1-84449-095-0}}</ref>

== Artwork ==
The album's cover,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/14026 | title=The story of the art work on Bringing it All Back Home | Untold Dylan }}</ref> photographed by [[Daniel Kramer (photographer)|Daniel Kramer]] with an edge-softened lens, features [[Sally Grossman]] (wife of Dylan's manager [[Albert Grossman]]) lounging in the background.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Williams |first=Alex |date=2024-05-14 |title=Daniel Kramer, Who Photographed Bob Dylan’s Rise, Dies at 91 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/14/arts/music/daniel-kramer-dead.html |access-date=2024-05-15 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> There are also artifacts scattered around the room, including LPs by [[the Impressions]] (''[[Keep On Pushing]]''), [[Robert Johnson]] (''[[King of the Delta Blues Singers]]''), [[Ravi Shankar]] (''[[India's Master Musician]]''), [[Lotte Lenya]] (''Sings Berlin Theatre Songs by Kurt Weill'') and [[Eric Von Schmidt]] (''The Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt''). Dylan had "met" Schmidt "one day in the green pastures of Harvard University"<ref>Baby, Let Me Follow You Down</ref> and would later mimic his album cover pose (tipping his hat) for his own ''[[Nashville Skyline]]'' four years later.<ref name="complete">{{cite book | last = Humphries | first = Patrick | title = The Complete Guide to the Music of Bob Dylan| publisher =Omnibus Press | year = 1995 | location = [[London]], England | isbn = 0-7119-4868-2}}</ref> A further record, [[Françoise Hardy]]'s EP ''J'suis D'accord,'' was on the floor near Dylan's feet but can only be seen in other shots from the same photo session, as well as a copy of the Wilhelm/Baynes version of ''[[I Ching]]''.

Visible behind Grossman is the top of Dylan's head from the cover of ''[[Another Side of Bob Dylan]]''; under her right arm is the magazine ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' with President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] as "[[Time Person of the Year|Man of the Year]]" on the cover of the January 1, 1965 issue. There is a [[harmonica]] resting on a table with a [[fallout shelter]] (capacity 80) sign leaning against it. Above the fireplace on the mantle directly to the left of the painting is the [[Lord Buckley]] album ''The Best of Lord Buckley''. Next to Lord Buckley is a copy of ''GNAOUA'', a magazine devoted to exorcism and [[Beat Generation|Beat]] poetry edited by poet [[Ira Cohen]], and a glass collage by Dylan called "The Clown" made for Bernard Paturel from colored glass Bernard was about to discard.<ref name="ReferenceA">Robert Shelton: No Direction Home: {{ISBN|0-14-010296-5}}</ref>

Dylan sits forward holding his cat (named Rolling Stone)<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and has an opened magazine featuring an advertisement on ''[[Jean Harlow]]'s Life Story'' by the columnist [[Louella Parsons]] resting on his crossed leg. The cufflinks Dylan wore in the picture were a gift from [[Joan Baez]], as she later referenced in her 1975 song "[[Diamonds & Rust (song)|Diamonds & Rust]]". Daniel Kramer received a Grammy nomination for best album cover for the photograph.

On the back cover (also by Kramer), the woman massaging Dylan's scalp is the filmmaker and performance artist [[Barbara Rubin]].<ref name="ginsbergproject">{{cite web|last1=Hale|first1=Peter|title=Barbara Rubin (1945–1980)|url=http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/barbara-rubin-1945-1980.html|website=The Allen Ginsberg Project}}</ref>

== Release ==

''Bringing It All Back Home'' was released in April{{nbsp}}1965 by [[Columbia Records]].<ref name=CashBox />{{refn|group=nb|name=release}} The mono version of ''Bringing It All Back Home'' was re-released in 2010 on ''[[The Original Mono Recordings]]'', accompanied by a booklet containing a critical essay by [[Greil Marcus]]. A high-definition 5.1 [[surround sound]] edition of the album was released on SACD by Columbia in 2003.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.highfidelityreview.com/columbia-releases-15-bob-dylan-albums-on-hybrid-sacd.html|title = Columbia Releases 15 Bob Dylan Albums on Hybrid SACD|date = September 16, 2003}}</ref>

== Reception ==

The release of ''Bringing It All Back Home'' coincided with the final show of a joint tour with [[Joan Baez]]. By this time, Dylan had grown far more popular and acclaimed than Baez, and his music had radically evolved from their former shared folk style in a totally unique direction. It would be the last time they would perform extensively together until 1975. (She would accompany him on another tour in May 1965, but Dylan would not ask her to perform with him.) The timing was appropriate as ''Bringing It All Back Home'' signaled a new era. Dylan was backed by an electric [[rock and roll]] band—a move that further alienated him from some of his former peers in the folk music community.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}} The album reached No. 6 on ''[[Billboard charts|Billboard]]''{{'}}s Pop Albums chart, the first of Dylan's LPs to break into the US top 10. It also topped the UK charts later that spring. The first track, "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]", became Dylan's first single to chart in the US, peaking at #39.

=== Legacy ===
{{Music ratings
| rev1 = [[AllMusic]]
| rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref name=AM>{{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0000193642|tab=Overview|label=AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine|last=Erlewine|first=Stephen Thomas|access-date=June 4, 2016}}</ref>
|rev2 = ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''
|rev2Score = {{Rating|4|4}}<ref>{{cite web|last=Kot|first=Greg|author-link=Greg Kot|date=October 25, 1992|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/10/25/dylan-through-the-years-hits-and-misses/|title=Dylan Through The Years: Hits And Misses|work=[[Chicago Tribune]]|access-date=January 10, 2017}}</ref>
|rev3 = ''[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music]]''
|rev3Score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Larkin|first=Colin|author-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|year=2011|title=Encyclopedia of Popular Music|publisher=[[Omnibus Press]]|isbn=978-0-85712-595-8|edition=5th|chapter=Bob Dylan|title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music}}</ref>
|rev4 = ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]''
|rev4score = A<ref>{{cite web|last=Flanagan |first=Bill |url=https://ew.com/article/1991/03/29/bob-dylans-discography/ |title=Dylan Catalog Revisited |publisher=EW.com |date=March 29, 1991 |access-date=August 29, 2012}}</ref>
| rev5 = ''[[MusicHound]] Rock''
| rev5Score = 4.5/5<ref>{{cite book|editor1-last=Graff|editor1-first=Gary|editor2-last=Durchholz|editor2-first=Daniel|title=MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide|edition=2nd|publisher=Visible Ink Press|location=Farmington Hills, MI|year=1999|isbn=1-57859-061-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578590612/page/371 371]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781578590612/page/371}}</ref>
|rev6 = ''[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide]]''
|rev6score = {{Rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t9eocwUfoSoC&pg=PA262 |editor1-last=Brackett|editor1-first=Nathan|editor2-last=Hoard|editor2-first=Christian |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |publisher=Fireside|location=New York, NY |year=2004 |access-date=August 22, 2015|page=262|isbn=0-7432-0169-8}}</ref>
| rev7 = [[Tom Hull (critic)|Tom Hull]]
| rev7Score = A<ref>{{cite web|last=Hull|first=Tom|author-link=Tom Hull (critic)|date=June 21, 2014|url=http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/arch/rhap/rh1406-1.php|title=Rhapsody Streamnotes: June 21, 2014|website=tomhull.com|access-date=March 1, 2020}}</ref>
}}

''Bringing It All Back Home'' is regarded as one of the greatest albums in rock history. In 1979 ''[[Rolling Stone Record Guide]]'' critic [[Dave Marsh]] wrote: "By fusing the [[Chuck Berry]] beat of [[the Rolling Stones]] and [[the Beatles]] with the leftist, folk tradition of the folk revival, Dylan really had brought it back home, creating a new kind of rock & roll [...] that made every type of artistic tradition available to rock."<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Chris |title=101 Albums that Changed Popular Music |location=Oxford, England |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-537371-4 |pages=31|year=2009 }}</ref> [[Clinton Heylin]] later wrote that ''Bringing It All Back Home'' was possibly "the most influential album of its era. Almost everything to come in contemporary popular song can be found therein."<ref>{{Cite book|first=Clinton|last=Heylin|title=Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades: The 20th Anniversary Edition|publisher=faber and faber|year=2011|isbn=978-0-571-27240-2|page=181}}</ref> In 2003, the album was ranked number 31 on ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine's list of the "[[Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time|500 Greatest Albums of All Time]]", maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/bob-dylan-bringing-it-all-back-home-168661/|year=2012| title=500 Greatest Albums of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest albums of all time| magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]| access-date= September 23, 2019}}</ref> It moved down to number 181 on the 2020 list.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url= https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-all-time-1062063/bob-dylan-bringing-it-all-back-home-2-1063052/
|title=Bringing It All Back Home ranked 181st greatest album by Rolling Stone magazine|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=September 22, 2020|access-date=December 8, 2020}}</ref> The album was inducted into the [[Grammy Hall of Fame]] in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/hall-of-fame#b |title=Grammy Hall of Fame Letter B|work=Grammy|date=October 18, 2010|access-date=20 August 2021}}</ref> In a 1986 interview, film director [[John Hughes (filmmaker)|John Hughes]] cited it as so influential on him as an artist that upon its release (while Hughes was still in his teens), "Thursday I was one person, and Friday I was another."<ref>{{cite web|last=Ringwald|first=Molly|title=Molly Ringwald Interviews John Hughes|url=http://www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html|work=Seventeen Magazine. Spring 1986|publisher=The John Hughes Files|access-date=February 25, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090809144057/http://www.riverblue.com/hughes/articles/molly17.html|archive-date=August 9, 2009}}</ref> The album was included in [[Robert Christgau]]'s "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings—published in ''[[Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies]]'' (1981)<ref>{{cite book|last=Christgau|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Christgau|year=1981|title=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies|publisher=[[Ticknor & Fields]]|isbn=0-89919-025-1|chapter=A Basic Record Library: The Fifties and Sixties|chapter-url=https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-cg70/basics.php|access-date=March 16, 2019|via=robertchristgau.com|title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies}}</ref>—and in Robert Dimery's music reference book ''[[1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die]]'' (2010).<ref>Robert Dimery; Michael Lydon (March 23, 2010). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: Revised and Updated Edition. Universe. {{ISBN|978-0-7893-2074-2}}.</ref>
It was voted number 189 in the third edition of [[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]'s book ''[[All Time Top 1000 Albums]]'' (2000).<ref name="Larkin">{{cite book|title=All Time Top 1000 Albums|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=[[Virgin Books]]|date=2000|edition=3rd|isbn=0-7535-0493-6|page=98|title-link=All Time Top 1000 Albums}}</ref>
Hip-hop group [[Public Enemy]] reference it in their 2007 Dylan tribute song "[[Long and Whining Road]]": "It's been a long and whining road, even though time keeps a-changin' / I'm a bring it all back home".<ref>{{Citation|title=Public Enemy – The Long and Whining Road|url=https://genius.com/Public-enemy-the-long-and-whining-road-lyrics|access-date=April 12, 2021}}</ref>

== Outtakes ==
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2017}}

The following outtakes were recorded for possible inclusion to ''Bringing It All Back Home''.

*"California" (early version of "Outlaw Blues")
*"Farewell Angelina"
*"[[If You Gotta Go, Go Now]] (Or Else You Got to Stay All Night)"
*"[[I'll Keep It with Mine]]"
*"You Don't Have to Do That" (titled "Bending Down on My Stomick Lookin' West" on recording sheet)(fragment)

The raunchy "If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got To Stay All Night)" was issued as a single in Benelux. A different version of the song appears on ''[[The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991]]''. An upbeat, electric performance, the song is relatively straightforward, with the title providing much of the subtext. [[Manfred Mann]] took the song to #2 in the UK in September 1965. [[Fairport Convention]] recorded a tongue-in-cheek, acoustic French-language version, "Si Tu Dois Partir", for their celebrated third album, ''[[Unhalfbricking]]''.

"[[I'll Keep It with Mine]]" was written before ''[[Another Side of Bob Dylan]]'' and was given to [[Nico]] in 1964. Nico was not yet a recording artist at the time, and she would eventually record the song for ''[[Chelsea Girl (album)|Chelsea Girl]]'' (released in 1967), but not before [[Judy Collins]] recorded her own version in 1965. [[Fairport Convention]] would also record their own version on their critically acclaimed second album, ''[[What We Did on Our Holidays]]''. Widely considered a strong composition from this period (Clinton Heylin called it "one of his finest songs"), a complete acoustic version, with Dylan playing piano and harmonica, was released on 1985's ''[[Biograph (album)|Biograph]]''. An electric recording exists as well—not of an actual take but of a rehearsal from January 1966 (the sound of an engineer saying "what you were doing" through a control room mike briefly interrupts the recording)—was released on ''[[The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991]]''.

"Farewell Angelina" was ultimately given to [[Joan Baez]], who released it in 1965 as the title track of her album, ''Farewell, Angelina''. The Greek singer [[Nana Mouskouri]] recorded her own versions of this song in French ("Adieu Angelina") in 1967 and German ("Schlaf-ein Angelina") in 1975.

In the film [[Dont Look Back]], a documentary of Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK, Baez is shown in one scene singing a fragment of the then apparently still unfinished song "Love Is Just A Four Letter Word" in a hotel room late at night. She then tells Dylan, "If you finish it, I'll sing it on a record". Dylan never released a version of the song, and, according to his website, he has never performed the song live.

"You Don't Have to Do That" is one of the great "what if" songs of Dylan's mid-1960s output. A very brief recording, under a minute long, it has Dylan playing a snippet of the song, which he abandoned midway through to begin playing the piano.

== Track listing ==
{{Track listing
| headline = Side one (Electric Side)
| all_writing = Bob Dylan
| extra_column = Recorded
| title1 = [[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]
| length1 = 2:21
| extra1 = January 14, 1965
| title2 = [[She Belongs to Me]]
| length2 = 2:47
| extra2 = January 14, 1965
| title3 = [[Maggie's Farm]]
| length3 = 3:54
| extra3 = January 15, 1965
| title4 = [[Love Minus Zero/No Limit]]
| length4 = 2:51
| extra4 = January 14, 1965
| title5 = [[Outlaw Blues (Bob Dylan song)|Outlaw Blues]]
| length5 = 3:05
| extra5 = January 14, 1965
| title6 = [[On the Road Again (Bob Dylan song)|On the Road Again]]
| length6 = 2:35
| extra6 = January 15, 1965
| title7 = [[Bob Dylan's 115th Dream]]
| length7 = 6:30
| extra7 = January 13 (intro) and January 14, 1965
| total_length = 24:03
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Side two (Acoustic Side)
| extra_column = Recorded
| title1 = [[Mr. Tambourine Man]]
| length1 = 5:30
| extra1 = January 15, 1965
| title2 = [[Gates of Eden (song)|Gates of Eden]]
| length2 = 5:40
| extra2 = January 15, 1965
| title3 = [[It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)]]
| length3 = 7:29
| extra3 = January 15, 1965
| title4 = [[It's All Over Now, Baby Blue]]
| length4 = 4:12
| extra4 = January 15, 1965
| total_length = 22:51
}}

== Personnel ==
*[[Bob Dylan]] – guitar, harmonica, keyboards, vocals

=== Additional musicians ===
*[[Steve Boone|Steve Boone ]]– bass guitar
*[[Al Gorgoni|Al Gorgoni ]]– guitar
*[[Bobby Gregg]] – drums
*[[Paul Griffin (musician)|Paul Griffin]] – piano, keyboards
*[[John P. Hammond]] – guitar
*[[Bruce Langhorne]] – guitar
*[[Bill Lee (musician)|Bill Lee]] – bass guitar on "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"
*Joseph Macho Jr. – bass guitar
*Frank Owens – piano
*[[Kenny Rankin]] – guitar
*[[John Sebastian]] – bass guitar

=== Technical ===
*[[Daniel Kramer (photographer)| Daniel Kramer]] – photography
*[[Tom Wilson (record producer)|Tom Wilson]] – [[Record producer|production]]

== Charts ==
===Weekly charts===
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:left;"
! scope="col"| Chart (1965)
! scope="col"| Peak position
|-
! scope="row"| [[UK Albums Chart]]<ref name="uk">{{cite web|url=http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/_/bob%20dylan/|title=Bob Dylan | Artist|publisher=[[The Official Charts Company]]|access-date=August 20, 2012}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"| 1
|-
! scope="row"| [[Billboard 200|US ''Billboard'' 200]]<ref name="us">{{AllMusic|class=album|id=mw0000193642|tab=awards|label=Bringing It All Back Home – Bob Dylan: Awards|access-date=August 20, 2012}}</ref>
| style="text-align:center;"| 6
|}

=== Singles ===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Year
! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Title
! scope="col" colspan="3" style="width:12em;"| Peak chart positions
|-
! style="width:2em; font-size:85%;"| [[Billboard Hot 100|US Main]] <ref name="us" />

! style="width:2em; font-size:85%;"| [[Adult Contemporary (chart)|US AC]] <ref name="us" />

! style="width:2em; font-size:85%;"| [[UK Singles Chart|UK]] <ref name="uk" />
|-
! scope="row" rowspan="2"| 1965
| style="text-align:left"| "[[Subterranean Homesick Blues]]"
| 39
| 6
| 9
|-
| style="text-align:left"| "[[Maggie's Farm]]"
| —
| —
| 22
|}

== Certifications ==
{{Certification Table Top}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United Kingdom|artist=Bob Dylan|title=Bringing It All Back Home|type=album|award=Gold|relyear=1965|id=10238-3101-2}}
{{Certification Table Entry|region=United States|artist=Bob Dylan|title=Bringing It All Back Home|type=album|award=Platinum|access-date=August 20, 2012}}
{{Certification Table Bottom|nosales=true}}

== References ==

=== Notes ===
{{reflist|group="nb"}}

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}


==Further reading==
*{{cite book|title=A Brief History of Album Covers|first=Jason|last=Draper|publisher=Flame Tree Publishing|location=London|year=2008|pages=40–41|isbn=9781847862112|oclc=227198538}}

{{Bob Dylan}}
{{Bob Dylan songs (1960s)}}
{{Bob Dylan singles}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1965 albums]]
[[Category:Albums produced by Tom Wilson (record producer)]]
[[Category:Albums recorded at CBS 30th Street Studio]]
[[Category:Columbia Records albums]]
[[Category:Bob Dylan albums]]

From Four Until Late

2025-03-13T14:23:26Z

74.221.2.5:

{{notability|Music|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox song
| name = From Four Until Late
| cover = From four until late - single.jpg
| cover_size = 180
| alt =
| caption = Original 78 record label
| type = single
| artist = [[Robert Johnson]]
| released = {{Start date|1937}}
| recorded = [[Dallas]], [[Texas]], June 19, 1937
| studio =
| genre = [[Blues]]
| length = 2:23
| label = [[Vocalion Records|Vocalion]], [[American Record Corporation|ARC]]
| writer = Robert Johnson
| producer = [[Don Law]]
}}

"'''From Four Until Late'''" (or "'''From Four Till Late'''") is a [[blues]] song written by [[Delta blues]] musician [[Robert Johnson]]. He recorded it in [[Dallas]], [[Texas]], during his penultimate session for producer [[Don Law]] on June 19, 1937.<ref>
{{cite AV media notes
| title = [[The Complete Recordings (Robert Johnson album)|The Complete Recordings]]
| others = [[Robert Johnson]]
| first = Stephen
| last = LaVere
| type = Box set booklet
| year = 1990
| publisher = Columbia Records
| id = C2K 46222
| oclc = 24547399
| page = 37
}}</ref> The lyrics contained his philosophical lines of "a man is like a prisoner, and he's never satisfied".<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|first=Robert|last=Palmer|year=1981|author-link=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=[[Penguin Books]]|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/127 127]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/127}}</ref>

British rock group [[Cream (Band)|Cream]] recorded the song for their debut album ''[[Fresh Cream]]'' in 1966.<ref>
{{cite web
| url = https://www.allmusic.com/album/fresh-cream-mw0000189639
| title = Cream: ''Fresh Cream'' – Review
| last = Erlewine
| first = Stephen Thomas
| author-link = Stephen Thomas Erlewine
| work = [[AllMusic]]
| access-date = May 31, 2016
}}</ref> Guitarist [[Eric Clapton]] provided the lead vocal. Clapton also recorded another version of the song on his ''[[Me and Mr. Johnson#Sessions for Robert J|Sessions for Robert J]]'' album in 2004.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/sessions-for-robert-j-mw0000633930|title=Sessions for Robert J. - Eric Clapton | Songs, Reviews, Credits|access-date=May 25, 2021|website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref>
{{Listen
| filename = Fresh Cream - Four Until Late Cream clip.ogg
| title = "Four Until Late"
| alt =
| description = 29 seconds of Cream's rendition
| type = music
| pos = left
}}
{{clear}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Robert Johnson}}
{{Cream}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Robert Johnson songs]]
[[Category:Songs written by Robert Johnson]]
[[Category:1937 songs]]
[[Category:Cream (band) songs]]
[[Category:Blues songs]]
[[Category:Song recordings produced by Don Law]]

{{blues-song-stub}}

If There Is Something

2025-03-05T14:16:26Z

74.221.2.5:

{{More citations needed|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox song
| name = If There Is Something
| cover =
| alt =
| type =
| artist = [[Roxy Music]]
| album = [[Roxy Music (album)|Roxy Music]]
| released = June 1972
| format =
| recorded = 17 March 1972 at Command Studios, 221 Piccadilly, London W1
| studio =
| venue =
| genre =
* [[Progressive rock]]<ref name= "RS 2004">{{cite book |chapter=Roxy Music|last=Sheffield|first=Rob|title=[[The Rolling Stone Album Guide|The New Rolling Stone Album Guide]] |year=2004 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |edition=4th |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |pages= 705–706}}</ref>
* [[art rock]]
* [[glam rock]]
| length = 6:34
| label =
| writer = Bryan Ferry
| producer = [[Peter Sinfield]]
}}

"'''If There Is Something'''" is a song written by [[Bryan Ferry]] and recorded by [[Roxy Music]] for their [[Roxy Music (album)|eponymous debut album]] in 1972. A live version appears on their ''[[Viva! (Roxy Music album)|Viva!]]'' [[live album]].

==Song structure and themes==
The song begins in a rather light-hearted, jaunty fashion, a slight pastiche of [[country music]], with [[honky tonk]] style piano and twangy guitar. Ferry's singing is nonchalant and jocular.

However the mood of the song builds with a repeated instrumental motif played between guitar and saxophone, Ferry's vocals re-entering to provide a fraught vocal climax.

The instrumental motifs then return, often featuring [[Andy Mackay]], before finally giving way to an emotional end section where Ferry's impassioned and melancholy vocals are set on top of a lush blend of backing vocals and the [[mellotron]] "three violins" tape set.

It has been said that the first part of the song is a youth wondering about love, the second part adults in the heat of passion and the third part the singer in old age thinking about their past love.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}

==Live performances==
The song was played on all the early Roxy Music tours and the instrumental passages were extended greatly, increasing the length of the song from 6:34 to sometimes over 12 minutes. On 18 February 1972, the BBC sessions aired a performance of over 11 minutes.

During the [[Country Life (Roxy Music album)|Country Life]] tour the song was also performed, and the performance at [[Newcastle City Hall]] on 27 or 28 October 1974 was used for the 1976 live album ''[[Viva! (Roxy Music album)|Viva!]]''.

After 1975 however, the song was no longer played until the Roxy Music Reunion tour in 2001. A live version from this tour appears on the [[Live (Roxy Music album)|"Live"]] album.

The song was played again live during the 2022 'Roxy Music' Tour, which was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of their [[Roxy Music (album)|eponymous debut album]].

==Personnel==
;Roxy Music
* [[Andy Mackay]] - [[saxophone]], [[oboe]], backing vocals
* [[Bryan Ferry]] - vocals, piano, [[mellotron]]
* [[Brian Eno]] - EMS [[VCS 3]] synth, backing vocals
* [[Graham Simpson (musician)|Graham Simpson]] - bass guitar
* [[Paul Thompson (musician)|Paul Thompson]] - drums
* [[Phil Manzanera]] - guitar
(on Viva! version)
* [[Eddie Jobson]] - [[electric violin]], [[synthesizer]], keyboards

==Cover versions==
* [[Tin Machine]] covered the song on their 1991 album ''[[Tin Machine II]]''. They also recorded a live version for their 1992 album ''[[Tin Machine Live: Oy Vey, Baby]]''.

==Use in films==
The song appears in the 2008 film ''[[Flashbacks of a Fool]]'' starring [[Daniel Craig]] where it features centrally in a scene where the main protagonist's younger self dances to the song with his girlfriend while made up as Bryan Ferry.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Roxy Music}}

{{authority control}}

[[Category:Roxy Music songs]]
[[Category:1972 songs]]
[[Category:Songs written by Bryan Ferry]]

Spiral Circus

2025-02-28T17:27:23Z

74.221.2.5:

{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2012}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Spiral Circus
| type = live
| artist = [[Porcupine Tree]]
| cover = Porcupine Tree - Spiral Circus (Cassette).jpg
| alt =
| released = '''Cassette:''' April 1994 '''Vinyl:''' February 1997
| recorded = 4 December 1993 6 December 1993 7 December 1993
| venue =
| studio =
| genre = [[Progressive rock]], [[psychedelic rock]], [[space rock]]
| length = 49:13
| label = '''Cassette:''' [[Delerium Records|Delerium]] '''Vinyl:''' Chromatic
| producer =
| prev_title = [[Up the Downstair]]
| prev_year = 1993
| next_title = [[The Sky Moves Sideways]]
| next_year = 1995
| misc = {{Extra album cover
| header = Vinyl Edition
| type = Live Album
| cover = Porcupine Tree - Spiral Circus Live (Vinyl).jpg
| border =
| alt =
| caption = Vinyl reissue on Chromatic
}}
}}

'''''Spiral Circus''''' is the name of the first [[live album]] by British [[psychedelic rock]]/[[progressive rock]] band [[Porcupine Tree]] from their first tour. The tracks were recorded directly from the mixing desk in three locations of [[England]] during December 1993. The first half of the album was taken from the shows in the [[BBC]] and [[The Borderline (music venue)|The Borderline]], [[London]], and the second half from The Nag's Head, [[High Wycombe]].

''Spiral Circus'' was first released in 1994 on [[Cassette tape|cassette]] only. This tape was given away free to subscribers of the Transmission information service. It was then reissued on vinyl in 1997 limited to 500 copies. Both editions are deleted at the present.<ref name="Steven Wilson -The Complete Discography (6th Edition)">{{cite web|url =http://www.voyage-pt.de/swdisco.pdf|title =Steven Wilson -The Complete Discography (7th Edition), p. 32| accessdate =2008-03-23}}</ref>

Despite the fact that the track is not included, the album name is a reference to a section in the song "The Sky Moves Sideways Phase 1" from ''[[The Sky Moves Sideways]]''.

==Track listing==

===Side A===
# "Burning Sky" – BBC / Borderline, London (11:02)
# "Voyage 34" – Borderline, London (5:32)
# "Always Never" – BBC (6:28)

===Side B===
# "Radioactive Toy" – High Wycombe (9:58)
# "Up the Downstair" – High Wycombe (7:15)
# "Not Beautiful Anymore" – High Wycombe (8:58)

==Personnel==

*[[Steven Wilson]] – guitar, vocals
*[[Richard Barbieri]] – keyboards, electronics
*[[Colin Edwin]] – bass
*[[Chris Maitland]] – drums, backing vocals

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Porcupine Tree}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Porcupine Tree live albums]]
[[Category:1993 live albums]]