''Some Gave All'' is the debut studio album by American singer

Billy Ray Cyrus Billy Ray Cyrus (born August 25, 1961) is an American country singer and actor. He has released 16 studio albums and 53 singles since 1992, and is known for his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart", which topped the U.S. Hot Country Songs chart and ...

. It was his first album for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

in 1992 and became the best selling album of that year in the United States, selling over 9 million copies in the first 12 months of release. It produced four hit singles on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' country charts. The first of these was Cyrus's breakthrough song "

Achy Breaky Heart Achy may refer to: * Suffering from pain * Stéphane Achy (born 1988), Gabonese footballer * Achy Obejas Achy Obejas (born June 28, 1956) is a Cuban-American writer and translator focused on personal and national identity issues, living in Benic ...

", which topped the charts in several countries. In the US it was a five-week number one on the

Hot Country Songs Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

chart, as well as a top 5 hit on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It became the first single ever to achieve triple Platinum status in Australia and was the best-selling single of 1992 in the same country. Thanks to the video of the song, there was an explosion of

line dancing A line dance is a choreographed dance in which a group of people dance along to a repeating sequence of steps while arranged in one or more lines or rows. These lines usually face all in the same direction, or less commonly face each other.Knight ...

into the mainstream, becoming a craze. The song earned

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nominations for Cyrus in the categories

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

and Best Country Vocal Performance, Male. That same year, Cyrus also received a Grammy Award nomination for

Best New Artist The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967. The official guidelines are as ...

. "Achy Breaky Heart" was originally recorded as "Don't Tell My Heart" by

The Marcy Brothers The Marcy Brothers were an American country music trio formed in Oroville, California, in 1983 and disbanded in 1999. The trio consisted of three brothers: Kevin, Kris, and Kendal Marcy. They released two albums for divisions of Warner Music Group ...

on their 1991 self-titled album. "Could've Been Me", "Wher'm I Gonna Live?" and "She's Not Cryin' Anymore" were also released as singles, peaking at numbers 2, 23, and 6, respectively, on the country charts. The title track also reached number 52 based on unsolicited airplay and Cyrus' cover of "

These Boots Are Made for Walkin' "These Boots Are Made for Walkin' is a hit song written by Lee Hazlewood and recorded by American singer Nancy Sinatra. It charted on January 22, 1966, and reached No.1 in the United States ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and in the UK Singles Chart. Su ...

" charted only outside the United States.

Critical reception

Reviewing for ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'' in December 1992,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

was critical of Cyrus for "oversinging like

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
, The Jewish Historical Society of New Haven, 1998. (born February 26, 1953), known professio ...

at a Perot rally" throughout the album and for celebrating warfare in the title song. However, he offered some approval of Cyrus's "nice macho self-mockery" on "Achy Breaky Heart", "Wher'm I Gonna Live?", and "I'm So Miserable", concluding that with time he may develop into a 21st-century version of

Waylon Jennings Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music. Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...

. In 2006, ''Some Gave All'' ranked at number 33 in ''Q'' magazine's list of "The 50 Worst Albums Ever!"

Commercial performance

Overall, the album is his most successful album to date, which has been certified 9× Multi-Platinum in the United States and is the longest time spent by a debut artist at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 (17 consecutive weeks) and most consecutive chart-topping weeks in the SoundScan era. It is the only album (from any genre) in the SoundScan era to log 17 consecutive weeks at number one and is also the top-ranking debut album by a country artist. It ranked 43 weeks in the top 10, a total topped by only one country album in history, ''

Ropin' the Wind ''Ropin' the Wind'' is the third studio album by the American country music artist Garth Brooks. It was released on September 2, 1991, and was his first studio album to debut at No. 1 the ''Billboard'' 200 chart and the Top Country Albums chart. ...

'' by

Garth Brooks Troyal Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer and songwriter. His integration of pop and rock elements into the country genre has earned him popularity, particularly in the United States with success on the co ...

. ''Some Gave All'' was also the first debut album to enter at the number 1 in the ''Billboard'' Country Albums chart. The album has also sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and is the best-selling debut album of all time for a solo artist and remains one of the biggest selling albums of all time. ''Some Gave All'' was also the best-selling album of 1992 in the US with 4.7 million copies sold. As of April 2019 the album has sold 7.5 million copies in United States according to Nielsen Music.

Track listing

Personnel

Adapted credits from the media notes of ''Some Gave All''. Sly Dog *

– lead vocals, backing vocals * Greg Fletcher – drums, percussion * Corky Holbrook – bass guitar * Terry Shelton – acoustic guitar, electric guitar * Barton Stevens – keyboards, backing vocals Additional musicians * Clyde Carr – backing vocals * Costo Davis – synthesizer * Sonny Garrish –

steel guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...

* Keith D. Hinton – acoustic guitar, electric guitar * Joe Scaife – backing vocals Production *Joe Scaife – co-producer, mixing *Jim Cotton – co-producer, mixing *Grahame Snith – assistant engineer *Clyde Carr – assistant engineer *Hank Williams – mastering

Chart positions

Album

End-of-decade charts

Singles

Other charted songs

Certifications

References

{{Authority control 1992 debut albums Billy Ray Cyrus albums Mercury Nashville albums Canadian Country Music Association Top Selling Album albums