''North of a Miracle'' is the debut solo album by English singer-songwriter

Nick Heyward Nicholas Heyward (born 20 May 1961) is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He came to international attention in the early 1980s as the lead singer and songwriter for Haircut One Hundred. He and the band parted ways after their first al ...

. It was released on 28 October 1983 through

Arista Records Arista Records () is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously handled by BMG Entertain ...

and spent 10 weeks 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 ...

, peaking at number 10. The album produced four UK singles, " Whistle Down the Wind", "Take That Situation", "Blue Hat for a Blue Day" and "On a Sunday". In the United States, the album peaked in the ''Billboard'' 200 at number 178 and remained on the chart for 4 weeks. On the ''Cash Box'' album chart, it spent a total of eight weeks, peaking at number 170. The single "Whistle Down the Wind" peaked at No. 20 on the ''Billboard''

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

chart in early 1984 and was selected by director John Hughes for inclusion in the 1984 film ''Sixteen Candles''.

Recording and production

The album was recorded from May to June 1983 at Abbey Road Studios and produced by

Geoff Emerick Geoffrey Ernest Emerick (5 December 1945 – 2 October 2018) was an English sound engineer and record producer who worked with the Beatles on their albums '' Revolver'' (1966), ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (1967) and '' Abbey Roa ...

. The original U.S. vinyl pressing significantly altered the running order of the songs, with only 3 songs (1, 2 & 6) maintaining their original positions.

Track listing

U.S. track listing

(Note: all U.S. track timings listed as slightly shorter on original U.S. LP labels – Arista AL 8 8106)

Remastered track listing (2010)

A 2-disc remastered version of the album was released in 2010 on Cherry Red Records.

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. * Nick Heyward – record producer, vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, brass arrangements * Pete Beachill –

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

* Stuart Brooks –

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 ...

, trumpet * Andrew Brown – bass guitar *

Paul Buckmaster Paul John Buckmaster (13 June 1946 – 7 November 2017) was a Grammy Award-winning British cellist, arranger, conductor and composer, with a career spanning five decades. He is best known for his orchestral collaborations with David Bowie, Sh ...

– string arrangements * Brian Gascoigne – piano * Ian Laws – guitar * Bill Le Sage – piano * Tony Maronie – bongo drum, percussion *

Dave Mattacks David James Mattacks (born 13 March 1948) is an English people, English rock music, rock and folk music, folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician and as a performing ar ...

– drums * Steve Nieve – organ, piano *

Pino Palladino Giuseppe Henry "Pino" Palladino (born 17 October 1957) is a Welsh musician, songwriter, and record producer. A prolific session bassist, he has played bass for acts such as The Who, the John Mayer Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Jeff Beck ...

– bass guitar * Morris Pert –

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbr ...

, percussion *

Andrew Powell Andrew Powell (born 18 April 1949) is an English musical composer, arranger and performer, born of Welsh parents. He himself moved to Wales in 2003. Early life Powell was born Surrey, England. He began piano lessons at the age of four and lat ...

– conductor,

orchestral arrangements An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ...

Tim Renwick Timothy John Pearson Renwick (born 7 August 1949) is an English guitarist. He is best known for his association with Al Stewart in his early career and for his long-standing role as lead guitarist for the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver. His single ...

– electric guitar, acoustic guitar,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

* Danny Schogger – accordion, organ, piano * Chris White – saxophone ;Production *

– record producer,

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 l ...

* Jon Jacobs –

assistant engineer Assistant may refer to: * Assistant (by Speaktoit), a virtual assistant app for smartphones * Assistant (software), a software tool to assist in computer configuration * Google Assistant, a virtual assistant by Google * ''The Assistant'' (TV seri ...

* David Botterell – photography,

management Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1983 debut albums Nick Heyward albums Albums arranged by Paul Buckmaster Arista Records albums Albums produced by Geoff Emerick