''Marshall Crenshaw'' is the debut studio album by American musician
Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Howard Crenshaw (born November 11, 1953) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for hit songs such as " Someday, Someway," a US top 40 hit in 1982, " Cynical Girl," and "Whenever You're on My Mind." He i ...
. It was released on April 28, 1982, by
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...
. Crenshaw, a performer in the musical ''
Beatlemania
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By ...
'', had begun to write songs for the album while staying in New York. The album was recorded with his backing band and producer
Richard Gottehrer
Richard Gottehrer (born 1940) is an American songwriter, record producer and record label executive. In 1997, he co-founded the Orchard with longtime business partner Scott Cohen, an independent music distribution company.
His career began as ...
, engineer Thom Panunzio, and second engineer Jim Ball.
''Marshall Crenshaw'' was a promising debut for Crenshaw, reaching number 50 in the United States and featuring a hit single in "
Someday, Someway." Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, and many of Crenshaw's most famous songs, such as "
Cynical Girl," "
Mary Anne," and "
There She Goes Again
"There She Goes Again" is a song by American rock band the Velvet Underground. It first appeared on their debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico'' (1967). The syncopated guitar riff is taken from the 1962 Marvin Gaye song "Hitch Hike ...
," are featured on the album.
Background
In the late 1970s, Marshall Crenshaw moved from his home state of Michigan to New York City to perform in the musical ''
Beatlemania
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By ...
''.
During this time, Crenshaw began to write songs that later appeared on his debut album, including "
Someday, Someway"; he said "While I was on the verge of leaving the show, in Boston, I wrote 'Someday, Someway' and five or six of the other tunes on my first album. I wrote those in my hotel room. That was my next move in life, to be a recording artist." After releasing his debut single "Something's Gonna Happen," on Shake Records, Crenshaw received offers from
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
and
Warner Brothers
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...
to record and release an album; Crenshaw ultimately chose Warner Brothers due to its more welcoming environment.
Crenshaw also formed a backing band consisting of his brother Robert Crenshaw on drums and Chris Donato on bass. This band recorded with Crenshaw for his first two albums.
Recording
''Marshall Crenshaw'' was recorded with producer Richard Gotterher at the
Record Plant
The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...
in New York.
Crenshaw wanted to produce his debut album alone, but Gotterher was brought in by Warner Bros. after sessions stalled; Crenshaw said "We started making our first album and I sort of
S'dmy way into the producer's chair but it didn't work out. So Richard Gottehrer came in and he helped me make the record."
Gotterher, a veteran hit songwriter and record-producer, was managing and producing
Robert Gordon Robert Gordon may refer to:
Entertainment
* Robert Gordon (actor) (1895–1971), silent-film actor
* Robert Gordon (director) (1913–1990), American director
* Robert Gordon (singer) (1947–2022), American rockabilly singer
* Robert Gordon (scr ...
when he and Crenshaw first crossed paths, about a year prior to the recording of ''Marshall Crenshaw''.
In addition to Gotterher,
Thom Panunzio
Thom Panunzio is a music producer and engineer.
His career began in 1974 at the Record Plant Studios NYC, working with John Lennon. Later, he became a staff engineer at the Record Plant, and later at The Hit Factory.
Panunzio worked often with ...
served as engineer for the album; Crenshaw recalled, "All I can remember is my co-producer, Richard Gottehrer, eating a lot of pasta and me pumping Thom Panunzio, our engineer, for stories about his days working with John Lennon."
Gotterher had originally proposed using drummer
Anton Fig
Anton Fig (born 8 August 1952 in Cape Town, South Africa), known as "The Thunder from Down Under", is a South African session drummer, perhaps best known as the drummer and second-in-command for Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Ba ...
and bassist
Will Lee
William Lee (born William Lubovsky; August 6, 1908 – December 7, 1982) was an American actor who appeared in numerous television and film roles, but was best known for playing Mr. Hooper, the original store proprietor of the eponymous Hooper' ...
for the sessions, but Crenshaw insisted on using his band instead, citing the "group identity" the trio had formed.
The album was recorded in approximately five weeks, in spite of several
Vox lighting on fire.
''Marshall Crenshaw'' features layered performances with clean production. Crenshaw later expressed dissatisfaction with the way the album was produced, saying "That band back then was really slick. Almost too slick. I see the tapes of that now and I think, 'This is a little too polished, almost.' We just rehearsed all the time. We were just playing clubs in the city, but we would still get together twice a week and go over stuff, and I would really drill those guys: 'Here's how the bass drum goes, and put the cymbal crash here.' I was very specific all the time—probably too much so. Now I think it was too much."
Songs
''Marshall Crenshaw'' features several of Crenshaw's most famous songs, such as "Someday, Someway", "There She Goes Again", "Cynical Girl", and "Mary Anne".
Crenshaw spoke favorably of the songwriting on the album, saying "The stuff was really well written. There was a discernible viewpoint that came across. It captured something, a statement was being made. We generated a lot of excitement in New York City from grassroots and built it up in less than a year. We had it really nailed down, but things got tricky after that." Despite several comparisons to
Buddy Holly
Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer and songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texas ...
, Crenshaw cited
Squeeze and
Rockpile
Rockpile was a British rock and roll band of the late 1970s and early 1980s, noted for their strong pub rock, rockabilly and power pop influences, and as a foundational influence on new wave. The band consisted of Dave Edmunds (vocals, gui ...
as the primary influences for the album.
"Someday, Someway" was among the early songs Crenshaw wrote for the album and was inspired by "
Lotta Lovin'
"Lotta Lovin'" is a song by American rockabilly singer Gene Vincent and The Blue Caps.
Background
The song was recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles and released as a 45 single with "Wear My Ring", co-written by Bobby Darin as the B side. G ...
" by
Gene Vincent
Vincent Eugene Craddock (February 11, 1935 – October 12, 1971), known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rockabilly and rock and roll. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, " Be-Bop-a-Lula ...
.
"I'll Do Anything" was often played live during this time and features lyrics which Crenshaw described as "a one-to-one conversation with somebody
here there isone person trying to comfort another person or reassure another person." Crenshaw also said that both "I'll Do Anything" and "Mary Anne" were about "try
ngnot to let your anxieties overwhelm you."
"Cynical Girl" was, according to Crenshaw, "really not about a girl—that's just off-the-shelf rock-and-roll language. To me, what the song says in a funny way is 'I hate brain-dead mass-culture
tuff
Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...
and I want to hang around with people who feel the same.' People have always really loved that song and identified with it and of course I love that"
Crenshaw chose not to include his debut single, "Something's Gonna Happen," on the album. He recalled, "I'm glad we didn't re-record it ... I like 'Something's Gonna Happen,' sonically speaking, more than a lot of tracks on the debut album."
Release and reception
''Marshall Crenshaw'' was released in April 1982. The album spent over six months on the ''Billboard'' chart, peaking at No. 50,
and eventually sold close to 400,000 copies in the United States. Contemporary reviews were glowing, with ''Rolling Stone'' calling it "1982's most gorgeous singer-songwriter debut" and claiming that "every song here sounds like a classic."
''Rolling Stone'' later included the album in its list of The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties, coming in at number 72.
The album's debut single "
Someday, Someway" reached No. 36 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the summer of 1982,
as well as No. 31 on the ''
Cash Box
''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' singles chart. The single is Crenshaw's highest-charting song. "Cynical Girl" and "There She Goes Again" were released as singles; the latter reached number 110 in the United States.
Despite its initial promise, the album failed to hit platinum, and his follow-up album ''
Field Day'' was a commercial failure. Crenshaw explained "After the first album didn't go platinum—everybody thought it would; I thought it would—it was '82–'83, and we were out promoting these records. I made both my first two albums just in that space of time. Eighty-four came around, and I thought: 'Here I worked all my life to get to this point and now it's over, right now. It's all over now!"
Musician
Jeffrey Foskett
Jeffrey Foskett (February 17, 1956) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer best known as a touring and studio musician for Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys since the 1980s. Foskett was described as the Beach Boys' "vice principal" ...
include the album on his list of top ten recordings, writing, "Not since ''
Rubber Soul
''Rubber Soul'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 3 December 1965 in the United Kingdom, on EMI's Parlophone label, accompanied by the non-album double A-side single "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work ...
'' or ''
Pet Sounds
''Pet Sounds'' is the 11th studio album by American rock band the Beach Boys, released on May 16, 1966, by Capitol Records. It was initially met with a lukewarm critical and commercial response in the United States, peaking at number 10 on th ...
'' was there an LP where every single cut was as good as the previous. The production by Richard Gottehrer and the performances by the band make this a true classic."
Track listing
A 2000 remastered, reissued version on Rhino/Warner Archives features bonus tracks, which include demos and live tracks.
#
"Starlit Summer Sky" (Demo, 1979) (Crenshaw, Cioffi, Todd) – 2:48
#"Whenever You're on My Mind
"Whenever You're on My Mind" is a 1983 song by American rock musician Marshall Crenshaw. The song was released on his 1983 album '' Field Day''. The song, notable for its booming production, originally was written during the making of Crenshaw's ...
" (Demo, 1979) (Crenshaw, Bill Teeley) – 3:02
#"You're My Favorite Waste of Time
"You're My Favorite Waste of Time" (also known as "Favorite Waste of Time" and "My Favourite Waste of Time") is a song written and first released by American singer Marshall Crenshaw. His 1979 home demo of the song was released as the B-side of ...
" (1979, Marshall Crenshaw & the Handsome, Ruthless and Stupid Band) – 2:38
#"Somebody Like You" (1980) – 3:17
#"Rave On!
"Rave On", also written "Rave On!", is a song written by Sonny West, Bill Tilghman and Norman Petty in 1958. It was first recorded by West for Atlantic Records, which released his version in February 1958 (as Atlantic 45-1174). Buddy Holly recor ...
" (Live, 1982) ( Sonny West, Bill Tilghman, Norman Petty
Norman Petty (May 25, 1927 – August 15, 1984) was an American musician, record producer, publisher, radio station owner, and considered to be one of the founding fathers of early rock & roll.
Biography
Petty was born in the small town of Clo ...
) – 1:35
#"The Usual Thing" (Live, 1982) – 3:14
#"Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.)
"Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.)" is a song written in 1966 by Albert Hamilton, Richard Morris, and Edwin Starr. It was initially released by Starr as a single in the United States in January that year on Ric-Tic Records. The track was released on Pol ...
" (Live, 1982) (Albert Hamilton, Richard Morris, Charles Hatcher) – 2:45
#"Look at What I Almost Missed" (Live, 1982) ( George Clinton, Tamala Lewis) – 3:58
#"I've Been Good to You" (Live, 1981) (Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive director. He was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief ...
) – 2:55
#"Brand New Lover (Alternate Version) (hidden track) – 3:01
Personnel
* Marshall Crenshaw – guitar, vocals (bass on bonus-track demos)
* Chris Donato – bass, vocals
* Robert Crenshaw
Robert Crenshaw is an American drummer, recording artist, author, and robotics instructor/trainer. He is known primarily for his solo recordings and his years in his brother Marshall Crenshaw's band.
Biography Early years
Crenshaw grew up outsi ...
– drums, vocals
Guest musicians
* Tony Garnier – bass
* Richard Gottehrer
Richard Gottehrer (born 1940) is an American songwriter, record producer and record label executive. In 1997, he co-founded the Orchard with longtime business partner Scott Cohen, an independent music distribution company.
His career began as ...
– percussion
* Michael Osborne – percussion
Album design - Spencer Drate, Judith Salavetz
Photography - Gary Greene
References
{{Authority control
1982 debut albums
Marshall Crenshaw albums
Warner Records albums
Rhino Records albums
Albums produced by Richard Gottehrer