''By Request'' is the first

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

by Irish

boy band A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band, created in 1993 by talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's '' The Late Late Show''. Their most successful line-up was composed of Keith Duffy, Steph ...

. It was released on 31 May 1999 by

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

. The album is their best selling release to date, with sales of over 4 million copies worldwide.

Background

The album contains all of the band's singles release since the start of their career in 1994, with the exception of the Irish-only single "

Working My Way Back to You "Working My Way Back to You" is a song made popular by The Four Seasons in 1966 and The Spinners in 1980. Written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, the song was originally recorded by The Four Seasons in 1966, reaching No. 9 on the U.S. ''B ...

", the Japanese only-single "Believe in Me", the American-only single "

Mystical Experience Scholarly approaches to mysticism include typology (disambiguation), typologies of mysticism and the explanation of mystical states. Since the 19th century, mystical experience has evolved as a distinctive concept. It is closely related to "mystic ...

", which appears as a bonus track on the Australian release, "Te Garder Pres De Moi", which appears as a bonus track on the French release, and " Everyday I Love You", which despite being an international release, only appears on the Asian release of the album, and was released as a single from ''The Singles Collection: 1994-1999'' in the United Kingdom. The album also features

Ronan Keating Ronan Patrick John Keating (born 3 March 1977) is an Irish singer. He debuted in 1993 alongside Keith Duffy, Michael Graham, Shane Lynch, and Stephen Gately, as the co-lead singer (with Gately) of Irish pop group Boyzone. His solo career start ...

's first solo outing, "

When You Say Nothing at All "When You Say Nothing at All" is a country song written by Paul Overstreet and Don Schlitz. It was a hit song for four different performers: Keith Whitley, who took it to the top of the ''Billboard'' Hot Country Singles chart on December 24, 19 ...

", plus three tracks only ever previously issued in the United States, on the American version of ''Where We Belong''. The album was released on 31 May 1999 via

, and was preceded by the album's lead single, " When the Going Gets Tough", released on 1 March 1999 as the official ''

Comic Relief Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character, scene, or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. Definition Comic relief usually means a releasing of emotional or other tension resulting from a comic episo ...

'' single for that year. The album was the second best selling album of the year in Britain, spending nine weeks atop the UK Album Chart, and was certified as 6× Platinum, selling more than four million copies worldwide to date. As of December 2014, it has sold 1,814,966 copies in the UK.

Track listing

Personnel

* Boyzone – vocals * Michael Mangini – guitar, producer * James McNally –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a larg ...

* Ann Morfee –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

* Steve Morris – violin * Tessa Niles – background vocals * Graeme Perkins – organizer * Audrey Riley –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

Trevor Steel Trevor David Steel (born 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is a mainstay member of the alternative rock band, The Escape Club, which formed in 1983, disbanded in 1992 and reformed in 2009. In 1988, with other members of The ...

– programming, producer * Miriam Stockley – background vocals * Carl Sturken –

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

, producer * Philip Todd –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

Peter-John Vettese Peter-John Vettese (born 15 August 1956 in Scotland), also known as Peter Vettese, is a Scottish keyboardist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. Vettese is perhaps best known for being the keyboardist for progressive rock band Jethro Tul ...

– keyboards * Warren Wiebe – background vocals * Gavyn Wright – string director * Nigel Wright – keyboards, producer *

Guy Barker Guy Jeffrey Barker, (born 26 December 1957) is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Early life Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a year ...

– trumpet * Clare Finnimore –

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

* Matt Howe –

mix engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

* Gillian Kent – violin * Michael Hart Thompson – guitar * Jeremy Wheatley – mix engineer * Andy Caine – background vocals * Clare Thompson – violin * Bruce White – viola * John Matthews – background vocals * Andy Earl – photography * Alex Black – assistant

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

* Tim Willis – assistant engineer * Ben Allen – guitar * John R. Angier – keyboards * Emma Black – cello * Deborah Widdup – violin * Nastee – DJ * Anna Hemery – violin * Wayne Hector – background vocals, vocal arrangement * Yvonne John Lewis – background vocals * Absolute – Producer, mix engineer * Richard George – violin * Skoti-Alain Elliot – bass, programming, track engineer * Laura Melhuish – violin * Orla Quirke – design, direction * Jim Steinman – producer, executive producer * Paul Martin – viola * Tracie Ackerman – background vocals * Tom Lord-Alge – mix engineer * Andy Bradfield – remixing * Nick Cooper – cello * Ian Curnow – producer * Danny Grant – keyboards * Sue Dench – viola * Andy Duncan – drums * Simon Franglen – keyboards, engineer, programming * Scott Gordon – vocal engineer * Mark Hudson – vocal arrangement, vocal producer * Eric Lijestrand – digital editing * Steve Lipson – bass, producer, programming,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

* Danny Foy – Guitar

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:By Request (Boyzone Album) 1999 greatest hits albums Boyzone albums Universal Records compilation albums Albums produced by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers