''Passion'' is the third studio album by American singer

Regina Belle Regina Elaine Belle (born July 17, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter who started her career in the mid-1980s. Known for her singles " Baby Come to Me" (1989) and "Make It Like It Was" (1990), Belle's most notable for two hit duets, both with ...

. It was released by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

on February 16, 1993 in the United States. Belle consulted producers

James Anthony Carmichael James Anthony Carmichael (born September 14, 1941) is an American Grammy-winning musician, arranger, and record producer. At first he started off in Los Angeles as an arranger and producer for Motown acts like The Temptations and the Jackson 5. C ...

Nick Martinelli Nicholas J. Martinelli (born 5 July 1952) is an American R&B and pop record producer. During the 1980s he worked with many R&B and pop music artists, some of them based in the UK. Acts he has worked with include Loose Ends, Phyllis Hyman, Fiv ...

, and

Narada Michael Walden Narada Michael Walden ( ; Michael Walden; born April 23, 1952) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He acquired the nickname Narada from Sri Chinmoy. He began his career as a drummer, working primarily in the jazz ...

to work with her on the album. Upon release, it peaked at number 63 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and number 13 on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

, selling over 389,000 copies according to

Nielsen Soundscan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

. The album produced the singles, "Dream in Color", "If I Could" and "The Deeper I Love," the latter of which failed to reach the main chart but did peak at number 7 on the

Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart. ''Passion'' also includes "

A Whole New World "A Whole New World" is the signature song from Disney's 1992 animated feature film ''Aladdin'', with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Tim Rice. A duet originally recorded by singers Brad Kane and Lea Salonga in their respective roles as t ...

," Belle's duet with

Peabo Bryson Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson (born April 13, 1951) is an American singer and songwriter. He is known for singing soul ballads (often as a duet with female singers) including the 1983 hit "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love" with Roberta Flack. Bryson ...

from

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

's 1992 animated film ''Aladdin'' (1992).

Critical reception

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 ...

editor Craig Lytle found that with ''Passion'' "Belle presents an album that steadfastly utilizes her vocal attributes ..Every song here is worthy of chart attention. The majority of the songs are ballads and mid-tempo numbers ..As the title indicates, Belle extends much passion in each one of these songs. She's lacking nothing on any one of these performances and the material is appropriately suited to the songstress ..From the jazzy blues to the soulful R&B and pop-oriented tunes, Belle's vocals are mesmerizing to the last note."

Track listing

Notes * denotes an associate producer

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Regina Belle albums 1993 albums Albums produced by Walter Afanasieff Albums produced by Narada Michael Walden Columbia Records albums