''Foreign Affairs'' is the fourth
studio album by New Zealand singer and songwriter
Sharon O'Neill
Sharon Lea O'Neill (born 23 November 1952) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and pianist, who had an Australasian hit single in 1983 with " Maxine" which reached No. 16 on both the Australian Kent Music Report and Recording Industry Association ...
. It was O'Neill's final studio album release on CBS. The album was certified Gold in New Zealand.
Background, writing, and recording
Late in 1981, O'Neill moved from
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
to
Sydney,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
Australia to pursue her music career,
where she wrote "Maxine", a song that chronicled the life of a
prostitute. In a 2016 interview, O'Neill said; "I was living in a hotel in Kings Cross when I got the inspiration to write "Maxine". She was always out there working at 3am when we'd get home bleary-eyed from a gig".
The album was produced by
John Boylan with local studio musicians. O'Neill, asked afterward whether this was one of the more enjoyable recording sessions, she said no, "but it was a highlight for me because it was done on the West Coast of the USA with a very important person in my life at the time, John Boylan..., who was so enthusiastic over my songs and pulled it all together and pulled in so many friends. I was such a fan of these people who came and played on the album that I was shaking in my shoes when they came into the studio".
People who played on the album, she said, include
Tom Scott, saxophonist with the ensemble
L.A. Express, on "Maxine"; and
David Lindley, the guitarist.
Singles
Three singles from the album charted: "
Losing You" (#26 in Australia,
Kent Music Report[ NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until ]ARIA
In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
created their own charts
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...
in mid-1988.); "
Maxine" (#16 in Australia,
Kent Music Report;
#16 in New Zealand
); and "
Danger
Danger is a lack of safety and may refer to:
Places
* Danger Cave, an archaeological site in Utah
* Danger Island, Great Chagos Bank, Indian Ocean
* Danger Island, alternate name of Pukapuka Atoll in the Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean
* Danger Isla ...
" (#78 in Australia,
Kent Music Report).
Track listing
All tracks are written by
Sharon O'Neill
Sharon Lea O'Neill (born 23 November 1952) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and pianist, who had an Australasian hit single in 1983 with " Maxine" which reached No. 16 on both the Australian Kent Music Report and Recording Industry Association ...
.
Personnel
Credits adapted from cassette liner notes, which omit the musicians on "All the Way Down."
*
Sharon O'Neill
Sharon Lea O'Neill (born 23 November 1952) is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and pianist, who had an Australasian hit single in 1983 with " Maxine" which reached No. 16 on both the Australian Kent Music Report and Recording Industry Association ...
– lead vocals, backing vocals (1, 5-7, 9),
Rhodes piano (1, 3, 8),
OB-Xa (1-4, 6-9),
Wurlitzer piano (2), acoustic piano (4, 5),
Prophet-5 (9)
*
John Boylan –
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
*
Mike Baird
Michael Bruce Baird (born 1 April 1968) is an Australian investment banker and former politician who was the 44th Premier of New South Wales, the Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister for Western Sydney, and the Leader of the New South W ...
– drums (2, 4, 7, 8)
*
Michael Boddicker
Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthe ...
–
Jupiter-8 (3, 6, 9),
vocoder
A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation.
The vocoder was ...
(6),
Minimoog (9)
*
Karla Bonoff Karla may refer to:
People
* Karla (name), a feminine given name
* Petras Karla (1937–1969), Soviet Olympic rower
Places
* Karla, Kose Parish, a village in Harju County, Estonia
* Karla, Rae Parish, a village in Harju County, Estonia
* K ...
– backing vocals (1, 3, 4)
*
Mike Botts
Michael Gene Botts (December 8, 1944 – December 9, 2005) was an American drummer, best known for his work with 1970s soft rock band Bread, and as a session musician. During his career, he recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Karla Bonoff, Andrew G ...
– drums (1, 3, 5, 6, 9)
*Scott Chambers – bass guitar (1, 3, 5, 6, 9)
*
Bob Glaub
Bob Glaub (born May 10, 1952)Hageman, William (April 29, 2005)."The aces of bass: Five giants of an overshadowed instrument", Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. is an American bass player and session musician. He has played with such artists an ...
– bass guitar (2, 4, 7, 8)
*
Don Henley – backing vocals (9)
*Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals (1, 4, 6)
*
Andrew Gold
Andrew Maurice Gold (August 2, 1951 – June 3, 2011) was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and record producer who influenced much of the Los Angeles-dominated pop/soft rock sound in the 1970s. Gold played on scores of reco ...
– guitar (7, 8)
*Carmen Grillo – backing vocals (2)
*Paul Grupp – tambourine (1, 3-5)
*
Bobbye Hall
Bobbye Jean Hall is an American percussionist who has recorded with a variety of rock, soul, blues and jazz artists, and has appeared on 20 songs that reached the top ten in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100.
Early career, work for Motown and move to ...
–
congas (1, 2, 5)
*Tom Kelly – backing vocals (6)
*
David Lindley – backing vocals (2)
*
Marcella Levy – backing vocals (1, 3-5, 7-9)
*
Arnold McCuller
Arnold McCuller (born August 26, 1950) is an American vocalist, songwriter, and record producer, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He was active as a solo artist and session musician, but is perhaps best known for his work as a touring back- ...
– backing vocals (2)
*
Bill Payne –
Hammond organ (7)
*
Timothy B. Schmit - backing vocals (3, 5, 7-9)
*
Tom Scott – saxophone (2, 3, 6)
*Brent Thomas – electric guitar (1-9), percussion (6)
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Notes
References
{{Authority control
1983 albums
CBS Records albums
Sharon O'Neill albums