''George Best'' is the debut album by The Wedding Present. It was released in October 1987 by their own

record company A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

, Reception Records. After self-releasing five singles on Reception Records

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed ...

, the band turned to recording their first album, continuing their collaboration with producer

Chris Allison Christopher John Allison (born 1961) is a British record producer and founder/head of Sonic360 Records. His work has been associated with artists such as The Beta Band, Coldplay, Walter Becker, Kinky, Plastilina Mosh, Emmanuel Jal, The Wed ...

, who had produced their previous single, "My Favourite Dress".

David Gedge David Lewis Gedge (born 23 April 1960, in Bramley, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England) is an English musician and songwriter. Early life Gedge grew up in Middleton, Greater Manchester, in the area known as Top of Hebers. He attended Hollin High S ...

's songwriting chronicles relationships breaking up or never taking off. A digression is CD bonus track "All About Eve", which is about

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, a subject Gedge came into contact with during his

childhood A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. The band sought and received permission to name the album after

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

legend

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional footballer who played as a winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United. A highly skilful dribbler, Best is regarded as one of the greatest pla ...

. Best agreed to appear on promotional shots with the band. The original Reception Records

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in O ...

release added two bonus tracks from the B-side of single "Anyone Can Make a Mistake". All later CD re-releases of ''George Best'', starting with the 1997 re-release by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

reissue label Pearls from the Past, added all tracks of 1988

singles Singles are people not in a committed relationship. Singles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Singles'' (miniseries), a 1984 Australian television series * ''Singles'' (1992 film), written and directed by Cameron Crowe * ''Singles'' ...

"Nobody's Twisting Your Arm" and "Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?", including a cover of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' "

Getting Better "Getting Better" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1967 album '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''. It was written mainly by Paul McCartney, with some of the lyrics written by John Lennon, and credited to the Lennon ...

". By the time of the latter single's release, drummer Shaun Charman had been fired and replaced by Simon Smith. In 2007, the band played a 20th anniversary tour of George Best, performing the album in its entirety. Following this, during the recording sessions for their 2008 album '' El Rey'', the band made a live-in-the-studio recording of ''George Best'' with

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal ...

. The recording, mixed by

Andrew Scheps Andrew Scheps is an American mix engineer, recording engineer, record producer, and record label owner, based in Los Angeles and the United Kingdom. He received Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album for his work on Red Hot Chili Peppers' ''Stadium A ...

, was released in September 2017 as ''George Best 30''. The 30th anniversary tour of George Best in 2017 was accompanied by the release of a documentary about the album, titled The Wedding Present: Something Left Behind. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' ranked it at number 489 in its 2014 list of

The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is a recurring opinion survey and music ranking of the finest albums in history, compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and indust ...

Track listing

All tracks written by David Gedge except as noted.

Original release

Vinyl

Side A # "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft" # "What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?" # "Don't Be So Hard" # "A Million Miles" # "All This and More" # "My Favourite Dress" ''(album version)'' Side B # " Shatner" # "Something and Nothing" # "It's What You Want That Matters" # "Give My Love to Kevin" # "Anyone Can Make a Mistake" # "You Can't Moan Can You?"

CD

# "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft" – 4:10 # "What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?" – 2:43 # "Don't Be So Hard" – 2:43 # "A Million Miles" – 3:33 # "All This and More" – 2:23 # "Getting Nowhere Fast" ( Alan, Evans, Oldroyd, Swift) – 1:44 # "My Favourite Dress" ''(album version)'' – 4:14 # "Shatner" – 2:07 # "Something and Nothing" – 3:50 # "It's What You Want That Matters" – 3:26 # "Give My Love to Kevin" – 2:46 # "Anyone Can Make a Mistake" – 3:18 # "You Can't Moan Can You?" – 3:20 # "All About Eve" – 2:13

George Best +9 CD re-release

# "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft" # "What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?" # "Don't Be So Hard" # "A Million Miles" # "All This and More" # "Getting Nowhere Fast" ( Alan, Evans, Oldroyd, Swift) # "My Favourite Dress" ''(album version)'' # "Shatner" # "Something and Nothing" # "It's What You Want That Matters" # "Give My Love to Kevin" # "Anyone Can Make a Mistake" # "You Can't Moan, Can You?" # "All About Eve" # "Nobody's Twisting Your Arm" # "Nothing Comes Easy" # "Don't Laugh" # "I'm Not Always So Stupid" # "Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?" # "Not from Where I'm Standing" # "Give My Love to Kevin" ''(acoustic version)'' # "

" (

Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

) # "Pourquoi Es-Tu Devenue Si Raisonnable?" Has also been released as a 4x10" vinyl-box.

Personnel

;The Wedding Present *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

* Peter Solowka – guitar * Keith Gregory –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Shaun Charman – drums (1-18) * Simon Smith – drums (19-23) ;Additional musician * Amelia Fletcher –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

;Technical staff *

– producer * Steve Lyon –

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 limit ...

, mixer * The Wedding Present – mixers

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:George Best (Album) The Wedding Present albums 1987 debut albums George Best