''Suzanne Vega'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter

Suzanne Vega Suzanne Nadine Vega ( Peck; born July 11, 1959) is an American singer-songwriter best known for her folk-inspired music. Vega's music career spans almost 40 years. She came to prominence in the mid-1980s, releasing four singles that entered the ...

. It was released on May 1, 1985 through A&M Records. The album was primarily recorded at Celestial Sound in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and was produced by Steve Addabbo and

Lenny Kaye Lenny Kaye (''né'' Kusikoff; born December 27, 1946) is an American guitarist, composer, and writer who is best known as a member of the Patti Smith Group. Early life Kaye was born to Jewish parents in the Washington Heights area of upper Ma ...

. The album's folk style and stripped-back arrangements deviated from the prevailing trends of the time, and helped to usher in a new era of singer-songwriters. ''Suzanne Vega'' was a critical success and helped Vega's rise to popularity. The album surpassed sales expectations by selling over 200,000 copies in the US and was certified

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

in the UK for sales of over 300,000 copies. " Marlene on the Wall", "Small Blue Thing" and "Knight Moves" were released as singles to promote the album, with the former becoming a top 30 hit in the UK upon a re-release in 1986. The album itself reached the top 20 in the UK. It would later be placed at number 80 in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

s list of the "100 Best Albums of the Eighties".

Commercial performance

''Suzanne Vega'' exceeded both A&M and Vega's expectations by selling over 200,000 copies in the US. The album would peak at number 91 on the ''Billboard'' 200. It was even more successful in the UK, where sales numbers exceeded 300,000 and the album reached number 11. "Marlene on the Wall" was released as the album's first single. Upon its original release, the song stalled at number 83 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. However, after being re-released in 1986, it reached a new peak of number 21, becoming her highest-charting song in that country and one of her biggest hits. The album's second single, "Small Blue Thing", peaked at number 65 in the UK.

Critical reception

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' wrote, "Vega can get a bit pretentious, but what singer-songwriter worth a damn doesn't? It's the price you pay for taking risks. ''Suzanne Vega'' is a flattering and very substantial introduction."

Track listing

All tracks written by

. Side one # "Cracking" – 2:49 # "Freeze Tag" – 2:36 # " Marlene on the Wall" – 3:40 # "Small Blue Thing" – 3:54 # "Straight Lines" – 3:49 Side two # "Undertow" – 3:26 # "Some Journey" – 3:38 # "The Queen and the Soldier" – 4:48 # "Knight Moves" – 3:36 # "Neighborhood Girls" – 3:21

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

: *

–

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 without ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

* Steve Addabbo — background vocals (4, 5, 7),

synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1 ...

guitar (6), 12-string

(8),

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

(10) * Darol Anger – electric violin (7) * Frank Christian –

(2, 9), electric

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

(10) *Paul Dugan –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

(1, 4, 6, 8, 9), vertical bass (2) * Sue Evans –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(3, 5, 6, 10),

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

(4, 10) *Jon Gordon –

(1–7) * Peter Gordon – string arrangement (6) *Frank Gravis –

(3, 5, 10) *Shem Guibbory –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

(6) * Mark Isham –

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s (7) *John Mahoney –

programming (6) *Maxine Neuman –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

(6) *C.P. Roth –

s (1–5, 9),

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 ...

(8),

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 ...

(8) *Roger Squitero –

(7)

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Suzanne Vega (Album) 1985 debut albums A&M Records albums Albums produced by Lenny Kaye Albums produced by Steve Addabbo Suzanne Vega albums