''Gordon'' is the debut studio

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by Canadian band

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...

. It was released through Sire Records on July 28, 1992. After ''

The Yellow Tape ''Barenaked Ladies'' (more commonly known as "The Yellow Tape"), is the Barenaked Ladies' third indie tape release, after ''Buck Naked'' in 1989 with just Ed Robertson and Steven Page, then ''Barenaked Lunch'' (also known as the ''Pink Tape'') in ...

'' was certified platinum in Canada, the group won a contest hosted by a local radio station. With the winnings, Barenaked Ladies were able to hire producer

Michael Phillip Wojewoda Michael Phillip Wojewoda is a Canadian record producer and musician. He has been nominated for eight Juno Awards and has received one for Recording Engineer of the Year and one for Producer of the Year. History Wojewoda began recording bands ...

and record the album at Le Studio, north of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Chalet Recording Studios, and Reaction Studios (both in Ontario). Though most of the album was recorded without incident, difficulty with "The King of Bedside Manor" caused the band to record the track naked—a tradition they would continue on other albums. Horn parts, guest vocalists, and nods to other bands including

Rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...

allowed Barenaked Ladies to expand on the sound they had developed while touring. "They had a real clarity about what they wanted

he album He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...

to be ... I just captured what it is they do", said Wojewoda.

Background and recording

In 1991, after the gold certification of ''

''—an independently recorded and manufactured cassette—Barenaked Ladies won ''Discovery to Disc'', a contest hosted by CFNY-FM, a Toronto-based rock radio station. With the prize winnings of $100,000, the band hired

to produce the album. Wojewoda felt the band had potential, specifically demonstrated with the track "The Flag", "there was definitely some wisdom in their young years." To get better acquainted with the band Wojewoda invited Barenaked Ladies to sing back-up vocals for "California Dreamline" during the recording of Rheostatics's ''

Whale Music ''Whale music'' is a term for whale sound. It may also refer to: *'' Whale Music'', a 1989 novel by Paul Quarrington * ''Whale Music'' (film), a 1994 Canadian film based on the Quarrington novel **'' Music from the Motion Picture Whale Music'', the ...

''. While in the studio the band met

drummer Neil Peart, who had influenced some of the Barenaked Ladies. The band selected 14 songs out of 20 candidates that they had written to record in the studio. " ey didn't need a lot of shaping. It was ... a matter of shifting through a lot of great moments and finding the ones which fit best on the record", said Wojewoda. With the tracks selected, Wojewoda and the band drove to Le Studio. The band worked on the album for ten- to twelve-hour sessions each day, with little conflict among members. At night the band would commute to their house by skiing in the moonlight. After some difficulty recording "The King of Bedside Manor", it was suggested that the band members record the song naked. Wojewoda and engineer Jean Diamont were also required to remove their clothes; said Wojewoda, "I think the recording has this totally over-the-top nervous energy as a result of being naked." Led by Jim and Andy Creeggan, the band developed horn parts for "Enid", "Wrap Your Arms Around Me", and "Box Set". Guest musicians are used throughout the album including Lewis Melville,

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. According to '' Billboard'', Brown is one of the most successful R&B singers of his generation, having often been referred to by many contempo ...

, and members of the

Bourbon Tabernacle Choir The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir were a Canadian alternative rock band that formed in 1985 in Toronto. History The band consisted of vocalist Kate Fenner, vocalist and organist Chris Brown, vocalist and guitarist Andrew Whiteman, guitarist Chris M ...

. "I don't think there're many musicians from Toronto who aren't on ''Gordon''", said Brown. The album was mixed in March 1992. Before the album's release, Sire Records had to receive clearance from various parties for music that Barenaked Ladies had included on various tracks of ''Gordon''. Having developed the songs during live performances, Barenaked Ladies integrated themes from

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, whic ...

, Rush, The Housemartins, and

Vince Guaraldi Vincent Anthony Guaraldi (; birth name, né Dellaglio, July 17, 1928 – February 6, 1976) was an American jazz pianist best known for composing music for animated television adaptations of the ''Peanuts'' comic strip. His compositions for this s ...

into various tracks. ''Gordon'' was released on July 28, 1992.

Artwork

Two covers of this album were released. The original Sire Records cover features all five band members amongst large grey letters which spell "Gordon." The band's name appears in front of a red and blue ball with a stripe on it. The

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

cover features a similar ball as seen on the Sire Records cover in front of an indigo background with black stripes. The band's name is written above the ball on this cover and the album's title is featured below the ball. The Sire Records cover is featured on the top right of the back cover of the Reprise Records version. Both versions feature a disc stylized to look like the ball seen on both releases.

Reception

Jon Pareles of ''

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'' wrote, "It's not easy to be hyperactive, brooding, and whimsical all at once, but the Barenaked Ladies do just that." MacKenzie Wilson of

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 ...

wrote that the album approaches, but does not cross the "boundaries of silliness." She went on to call the "shared vocals ... refreshing and upbeat", concluding that "''Gordon'' is a great introduction to the Barenaked Ladies' sweet comic relief". ''

The Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.punny, more inventive than you might expect", stating that "it switches directions on you just when you're least expecting it". ''Gordon'' sold 80,000 copies in Canada during its first 24 hours of release, topping the Canadian charts for eight consecutive weeks. In the United States, initial album sales were stronger in larger cities, however, a spike in sales was not seen until the releases of '' Rock Spectacle'' and "

One Week One Week may refer to: * One Week (1920 film), ''One Week'' (1920 film), a short film starring and co-directed by Buster Keaton * One Week (2008 film), ''One Week'' (2008 film), a Canadian feature film directed by Michael McGowan * One Week (song), ...

". ''Gordon'' was certified Gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

in August 1998. According to Steven Page, the number of "fans who know every word of every song" outnumbers the number of units sold by four times. "''Gordon'' must be the most bootlegged album in

nited States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

history", said Page. In 2000, the album achieved diamond status in Canada, selling over one million copies.

Track listing

Personnel

Barenaked Ladies * Steven Page – vocals (all tracks),

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 stri ...

(tracks 4, 7, 8), shaker (track 8), wat-ups (track 1), moronic intro synth (track 2), cartoon noises (track 8), secret noises (track 15) *

Ed Robertson Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (born October 25, 1970) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Barenaked Ladies. He, along with former member Steven Page, founded the group in 1988. As of Page's ...

– guitar (all tracks), vocals (all tracks), shaker (track 8), cowbell (track 9), bionic intro synth (track 2), crowd noise (track 3), funky mouth (track 3) *

Jim Creeggan James Raymond Creeggan (born February 12, 1970) is the bassist for Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies. Early life Creeggan was born in Scarborough, Ontario. His mother taught piano lessons to neighborhood children, which Creeggan cred ...

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

(tracks 1–12, 14–15), arco double bass (track 13), vocals (tracks 1–6, 8, 9, 10, 12–15), shaker (track 8), secret noises (track 15) * Andy Creeggan – organ (tracks 3, 7),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(tracks 1–3, 7, 9–11, 14–15),

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest). ...

(tracks 1, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12),

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

(tracks 5, 6, 8)

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

(track 6), vocals (tracks 1–6, 8–15), Claves (track 9),

cuíca The cuíca () is a Brazilian friction drum with a large pitch range, produced by changing tension on the head of the drum. ''Cuíca'' is Portuguese for the gray four-eyed opossum (''Philander opossum'') which is known for its high-pitched cry. I ...

(track 2), shaker (tracks 6, 8, 11, 12),

mark tree A mark tree (also known as a nail tree, chime tree, or set of bar chimes) is a percussion instrument used primarily for musical colour. It consists of many small chimes—typically cylinders of solid aluminium or hollow brass tubing 3/8" in di ...

(track 6),

güiro The güiro () is a Puerto Rican percussion instrument consisting of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side. It is played by rubbing a stick or tines (see photo) along the notches to produce a ratchet sound. The güiro ...

(track 9), finger cymbals (track 6), cabasa (track 6), vibraphone (track 9), scat (track 10), wat'ups (track 1), marimba (track 12), mbira (track 12), suitcase (track 13), secret noises (track 15) *

Tyler Stewart Tyler Joseph Stewart (born September 21, 1967) is the drummer for the Canadian music group Barenaked Ladies. Role in Barenaked Ladies Stewart met Steven Page, Ed Robertson, and Jim Creeggan at the Waterloo Busker Carnival in Waterloo, Ontario, C ...

– drums (tracks 1–12, 14, 15), vocals (tracks 3, 8), shaker (track 8), wat'ups (track 1), bass drum (track 13), snare drum (track 13) The Jimmy Crack Horns (track 2) * Nic Gotham –

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

* Gene Hardy –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

* Chris Howells –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

* Tom Walsh –

trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...

The Horn Cuskers (track 9) * Nic Gotham –

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

* Gene Hardy –

Additional Personnel * Dave Allen –

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

(track 14) *

–

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

(track 10) * Chris Howells –

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

(track 6) * Catherine MacDonnell-Stephens –

bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...

(track 6) * Lewis Melville –

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all s ...

(tracks 2, 6, 11, 14) * Martin Tielli – guitar solo (track 15) * Tom Walsh –

(track 1) * Tim Wilson –

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

(track 15) *

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil "Bob" Wiseman (born 1962) is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former ...

–

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 ...

(track 14) *

– tambourine (track 2), Teutonic intro vocal (track 2), shaker (track 8), stupid keyboard bass (track 3), secret noises (track 15) Production * Michael-Philip Wojewoda – Producer, Engineer, Remixing * Greg Calbi – Mastering The Suburban Tabernacle Choir (track 14) * Dave Allen * Mike Barber * Gregor Beresford *

Arlene Bishop Arlene Bishop is a Canadian lyricist, screenwriter, artist and singer-songwriter. Biography Arlene Bishop was born in Churchill, Manitoba and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. She currently resides in Toronto. As a recording artists Bishop has plac ...

* Erica Buss *

Meryn Cadell Meryn Cadell is an American-Canadian writer and performance artist. He is an assistant professor of song lyrics and libretto writing in the Creative Writing Program at University of British Columbia. Cadell is a transgender man who transitioned ...

* Naida Creeggan * Matthew DeMatteo *

Kate Fenner Kate Fenner is a Canadian musician, currently based in New York City. The ''New York Times'' describes her vocal stylings as having a "lusty, alternative, Joni Mitchell-ish sound." She was one of the primary singers and songwriters for the Canad ...

* Gene Hardy * Natalie Herbert * Shelley Hines * Sally Lee * Lewis Melville * Jason Mercer * Janet Morassutti * Moxy Früvous * Keith Nakonechny *

Blair Packham The Jitters were a Canadian rock band formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1981 by Blair Packham, Danny Levy and Matthew Greenberg. Five years of constant performing established them as one of the premier club bands in the Greater Toronto Area. They c ...

* Matthew Page * Steve Pitkin *

Jason Plumb Jason Forrest Plumb is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and mixer who resides in Regina, Saskatchewan and was the lead singer and front man of the Waltons. He currently performs as a solo singer-songwriter with a backing band, The ...

* Rheostatics * Wilma Robertson * Tannis Slimmon * Earl Stokes * Wayne Stokes *

Charts

;Album ;Singles

Certifications

References

Works cited * {{Authority control 1992 debut albums Barenaked Ladies albums Reprise Records albums Albums produced by Michael Phillip Wojewoda Albums recorded at Le Studio