''Friday's Child'' is the second studio album by English singer

Will Young William Robert Young (born 20 January 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and actor who came to prominence after winning the 2002 Pop Idol (series 1), inaugural series of the ITV (TV network), ITV talent contest ''Pop Idol'', making him the f ...

. It was released on 1 December 2003 and reached number one 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 C ...

. The album has gone 5×

Platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

in the UK, with worldwide sales of over 1.8 million. The second single taken from the album, "

Your Game "Your Game" is the second single from Will Young's second studio album, '' Friday's Child'' (2003), and also appears on the international version of Young's third album, ''Keep On'' (2005). The song was co-written by Young, Tayo Onile-Ere and B ...

", won Best British Single at the

2005 Brit Awards Brit Awards 2005 was the 25th edition of the Brit Awards, an annual pop music awards ceremony in the United Kingdom, which for this 25th edition was marketed as "Brits 25 - The 25th Show". A Special BRITs 25 Award for the best single from the pa ...

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 databas ...

editor Jon O'Brien found that "Young has made the brave decision to move away from pop's most influential man

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of ''The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on t ...

for follow-up ''Friday's Child'' ..It's a much more personal affair that showcases both his songwriting talent and his undoubtedly unique soulful tones ..While certainly far more adventurous than his debut, it still sometimes lapses into MOR territory, particularly on the

Simply Red Simply Red are a British soul and pop band formed in Manchester in 1985. The lead vocalist of the band is singer and songwriter Mick Hucknall, who, by the time the band initially disbanded in 2010, was the only original member left. Since the ...

-esque "Free" and the rather aimless and ultimately quite drab acoustic ballad "Very Kind." But overall, ''Friday's Child'' will undoubtedly bury the reality pop tag once and for all. Britain's first ''

Pop Idol ''Pop Idol'' is a British music competition television series created by Simon Fuller which ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003. The aim of the show was to decide the best new young pop singer (or "pop idol") in the UK based on viewer voting and par ...

'' has become an artist in his own right and the fact he's done it without the Cowell juggernaut behind him should make its success even sweeter."

Track listing

;Notes * signifies an additional producer * signifies an original producer

Personnel

Performers and musicians *

– vocals *Toby Baker – keyboards *

Anne Dudley Anne Jennifer Dudley (née Beckingham; born 7 May 1956) is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genre ...

– keyboards *

Greg Wells Greg Wells is a Canadian musician, record producer, songwriter and audio engineer. Wells has songs on over 130 million albums sold. He has worked with John Legend, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariana Grande, Jazmine Sullivan, Kid Cudi, Adele, Rufus Wai ...

– keyboards *Rick Willson – guitar *

Stephen Lipson Stephen J. Lipson (born 16 March 1954) is an English record producer, audio engineer, guitarist and songwriter. As a record producer, he has worked with many artists including Annie Lennox, Propaganda, Act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Will Youn ...

– guitar *

John Themis John Themis is an Australian-born musician, songwriter and record producer, best known for his long-term work with Boy George and Culture Club, collaborating on many of their songs and albums since the 1990s. He also worked on ''Taboo'', a music ...

– guitar *David Rainger – guitar *Tim Cansfield – guitar *

Eg White Francis Anthony "Eg" White (born 22 November 1966) is a British musician, songwriter and producer. He started his career in the cowpunk band Yip Yip Coyote in the 1980s and then formed Brother Beyond with his brother, David White, in the late ...

– guitar, instruments on "Going My Way" and "Out of My Mind" *

Blair MacKichan Blair MacKichan is a British musician and songwriter. He started his musical career playing drums, then later progressed to the piano. As a musician he fronts a band named ''Blair and Friends''. MacKichan writes a lot of his own material. He w ...

– guitar, backing vocals *

Neil Conti Neil Conti (born 12 February 1959) is an English drummer and music producer best known as a member of the English pop band Prefab Sprout (1983–1993, 2000). As an in-demand session drummer, he has collaborated with acts such as David Bowie, Mi ...

– drums *Steve Barney – drums *

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 *

Neil Yates Neil Yates (born 1970 in Stockport, Cheshire, England) is a British jazz and folk musician. Biography Yates studied music at Salford University before moving to London to study jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He lived and w ...

– brass arrangements *Phil Todd – flute * Mark Feltham – harmonica *Steve Lee – harmonica *

Tracy Ackerman Tracy Ackerman is a British singer and songwriter. She works with several other British songwriters including Andy Watkins and Paul Wilson of Absolute and Mark Taylor. Ackerman has written for artists including Geri Halliwell, Cher, Boyzone, Tina ...

– backing vocals *Lynne Marie – backing vocals *

Karen Poole Karen Ann Poole (born 8 January 1971) is an English singer and songwriter. Poole has had over 35 Top 20 UK hits as a songwriter. Biography Karen was born in Chadwell Heath, London, England, and is the daughter of 1960s vocalist Brian Poole, le ...

– backing vocals *

Metro Voices Metro Voices is a choir group based in London, England, that specialises in performing for the motion pictures. They work closely with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and with acclaimed British composer Craig Armstrong. They are known from their ...

– gospel choir *

Toby Smith Toby Grafftey-Smith (29 October 1970 – 11 April 2017), known professionally as Toby Smith, was an English musician, most famous for being the keyboardist and co-songwriter for Jamiroquai from 1992 until his departure in 2002. Background and p ...

– instruments on "Dance the Night Away" *Chris Dodd – instruments on "Dance the Night Away" Technical *Stephen Lipson – producer, programmer *

– producer, programmer *

– producer, mixer, brass arrangement *Chris Dodd – producer *

Robin Thicke Robin Alan Thicke (born March 10, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his 2013 hit single " Blurred Lines", which is one of the best-selling singles of all time. At the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, h ...

– producer *Pro-Jay – producer, engineer *Eg White – producer, mixer *Dave Naughton – ProTools *Heff Moraes – engineer, mixer *Andy Saunders – mix engineer *Sam Miller – additional engineering *Steve Lee – programming *Jenny O'Grady – choir master *

Nick Ingman Nicholas Ingman (born 29 April 1948) is an English arranger, composer and conductor in the commercial music field. His collaborators include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Björk, and the British X-factor. Born and educated in London, Ingman moved ...

– orchestral arrangement *

– orchestral arrangement

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 2003 albums Will Young albums Albums produced by Robin Thicke Albums produced by Stephen Lipson 19 Recordings albums