''Bizarre Fruit'' is the third album by British dance band

M People M People (stylised as ''M''People) is an English dance music band that formed in 1990 and achieved success throughout most of the 1990s. The name M People is taken from the first letter of the first name of band member Mike Pickering, who form ...

. It was released on 14 November 1994 and charted and peaked at No. 4 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, spending one year on the chart before an expanded version of the album, ''

Bizarre Fruit II ''Bizarre Fruit II'' is a reissued and expanded version of M People's 1994 '' Bizarre Fruit'' album, with the single versions of " Search for the Hero" and "Love Rendezvous" in place of the originals, and including the band's cover of the Smal ...

'', was released a year later. In 1996 it was announced that ''Bizarre Fruit'' had reached 1.1 million copies sold worldwide. The albums ''Bizarre Fruit'' and ''Bizarre Fruit II'' were certified 5× platinum in the UK for sales of 1.5 million. The album's two most popular singles were "

Sight for Sore Eyes "Sight for Sore Eyes" is the tenth overall single from British band M People from their third album, '' Bizarre Fruit'' (1994). Written by bandmembers Mike Pickering, Paul Heard and Heather Small, and produced by M People, it was released as ...

", which reached No. 6 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and " Search for the Hero", which peaked at No. 9 on the same chart. Other singles released from this album were " Open Your Heart" (No. 9), "

Love Rendezvous "Love Rendezvous" is a song by British band M People, released in 1995 as the fourth single from their third album, ''Bizarre Fruit''/''Bizarre Fruit II'' (1994). Written by Mike Pickering, Paul Heard and Heather Small, and produced by M Peopl ...

" (No. 32) and "

Itchycoo Park "Itchycoo Park" is a song written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, first recorded by their group, the Small Faces. Largely written by Lane, it was one of the first music recordings to feature flanging, an effect at that time made possible ...

" (No. 11) from the re-released album. In the US, remixes for the song "Padlock" were supplied to club DJs and appeared as the B-side to the CD maxi single of "Search for the Hero". The track reached No. 13 on the '' Billboard'' Dance chart.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

editor William Cooper stated that ''Bizarre Fruit'' is "chock-full of funky house grooves", and

Heather Small Heather Margarita Small (born 20 January 1965) is a British soul singer and former lead vocalist of the band M People. Her subsequent debut solo studio album, ''Proud'', was released in 2000. Career 1987–1998: Hot House and M People Small ...

's "deep, soulful vocals add just the right touch to the mix". He highlighted songs like " Open Your Heart", "

", " Search for the Hero" and "Precious Pearl". Peter Galvin from ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' viewed the album as a "irrepressible" follow-up to ''

Elegant Slumming ''Elegant Slumming'' is the second album by the British dance band M People. It was released on 4 October 1993 charting and peaking at number 2 on the UK Album Chart and spent 87 weeks in the Top 75. It re-entered the chart three times in Octo ...

Critical reception

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References