The Singles 1992–2003

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Untitled

The Singles 1992-2003 is a compilation album by the American third wave ska band No Doubt, released on November 25, 2003 (see 2003 in music.) It features the band's singles between 1992 and 2003, including a cover of Talk Talk's "It's My Life", which was a new single from the album. It was the band's final album to date (other than Everything in Time, which contained no new songs, but merely remixes and rarities) prior to lead vocalist Gwen Stefani's departure from No Doubt to pursue a solo career. The album reached number two on the U.S. Billboard 200 and number six on the Canadian Albums Chart .[1] It also topped the Swedish albums chart.

Background

No Doubt decided to go into hiatus in April 2003.[2] This was for two reasons: No Doubt's fifth studio album, Rock Steady, was released in December 2001 and was very successful, selling 3 million copies,[3] and being certified double platinum by the RIAA. Four singles were released from it between 2001 and 2003: "Hey Baby", "Hella Good", "Underneath It All" and "Running". The band members then decided to take a break to spend time with their families before starting to compile their greatest hits album in September 2003.

The other main reason was that, in early 2003,[4] their lead singer Gwen Stefani started work on her 1980s-inspired New Wave/dance-pop music side project, under which she released two solo albums: Love. Angel. Music. Baby. on November 22, 2004 and The Sweet Escape on December 15, 2006.

Music

The album was a compilation of thirteen commercially-released singles by the band from their previous studio albums Tragic Kingdom, Return of Saturn and Rock Steady and the song "Trapped in a Box" from No Doubt's debut album, No Doubt, which was never released as a single. However The Singles did not include "Happy Now?" and "Hey You!", two singles from Tragic Kingdom, neither of which were commercially successful, or "Squeal" and "Doghouse" from The Beacon Street Collection, which were both independently released. "Girls Get the Bass in the Back", a remix of "Hey Baby", and a cover version of "It's My Life" were also included.

Production

Being a greatest hits album and containing only one new song, recording The Singles 1992–2003 took very little time compared with their studio albums. Production started in September 2003 with the recording of a cover version of Talk Talk's song "It's My Life", produced by Nellee Hooper.[2] The accompanying music video for the song was filmed by director David LaChapelle at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.[2] Gwen Stefani insisted that, just because no writing was involved in the production of the album, that doesn't mean no effort was put into to its creation: the band had to decide which of their songs to include and which to leave out.[5] The album was released, along with the B-side, rarity and remix collection Everything in Time and box set Boom Box, two months later on the 25th November, in time for Christmas.

Singles

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The only single from The Singles 1992–2003 was a cover of the song "It's My Life", originally released in 1984 by the synthpop band Talk Talk. Because the band were taking a break while lead singer Gwen Stefani recorded her solo debut album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., they decided to do a cover version to avoid having to write a new song.[5] The band listened to hundreds of songs and narrowed it down to "It's My Life" and the song "Don't Change", released in 1982 by the Australian rock/New Wave group INXS.[6] No Doubt had doubts on recording a cover and contemplated writing new material[5], but decided on "It's My Life" after rehearsing the song with producer Nellee Hooper,[6] referring to it as a "feel-good" song.[5] Gwen Stefani stated:

We thought [choosing a song to cover] was going to be so easy, because that was the idea — 'Let's just do something that's fun and easy, why do we also have to, like, torture ourselves.' We went and listened to hundreds of songs, hundreds, and imagine trying to pick one, between the four of us? Oh my god, it was ridiculous.[5]

It later became one of the band's biggest hits, selling 4,827,000 copies[7] and being certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association[8] and gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.[9] The song was nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 47th Grammy Awards but lost to Los Lonely Boys' "Heaven".[10] Jacques Lu Cont, the song's programmer, created the Thin White Duke mix of "It's My Life", which won the award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.[11]

Reception

Critical

The Singles 1992–2003 was generally well received by music critics. Mike McGuirk of Rhapsody described the album as "a real joy" and a mix of "ska, teen pop and hip-hop".[12] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called the album a "stellar collection" and said that it had "a cheerful, giddy sound that marked a sea change from the sound of the early 1990s, when even catchy melodies were cloaked in a sense of gloom", and noticed that the album showed a lot of New Wave influence.[13] Anthony Thornton of NME said that "despite being an album packed with as much drama as the band themselves have suffered, it’ll be the pop anthems you come back for and fortunately there’s enough here to keep even the soap addicts happy".[14] Sarah McDonnell of OMH said that the album's music was "sheer diversity" due to the band's "pick 'n mix approach to musical styles". The high points were "Gwen Stefani's lyrics, which deal principally with coming to terms with her own femininity" and "the band's collaborations with various hip producers", such as The Neptunes, Nellee Hooper and Sly and Robbie; and the low points were the album's "hotch-potch feel", "random tracklisting" and the "forays into reggae".[15] Ruth Mitchell of the BBC called the album a typical Christmas album that was "unlikely to stand out from the crowd" and "too long, [getting] tiresome about half way through", although complimenting "Just a Girl", "Hey Baby" and "Underneath It All". She also described the placement of "Don't Speak", "the foursome's most glorious pop moment", at the back of album as a "shame".[16]

Significance

Track listing

Main version[17]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Just a Girl"Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal3:25
2."It's My Life"Mark Hollis, T. Friese-Greene3:45
3."Hey Baby"G. Stefani, Kanal, Tom Dumont, R. Price3:26
4."Bathwater"G. Stefani, Kanal, Dumont4:00
5."Sunday Morning"Kanal, G. Stefani, Eric Stefani4:31
6."Hella Good"G. Stefani, P. Williams, Chad Hugo, Kanal4:02
7."New"G. Stefani, Dumont4:24
8."Underneath It All"G. Stefani, Dave Stewart5:02
9."Excuse Me Mr."G. Stefani, Dumont3:04
10."Running"G. Stefani, Kanal4:00
11."Spiderwebs"G. Stefani, Kanal4:26
12."Simple Kind of Life"G. Stefani4:15
13."Don't Speak"E. Stefani, G. Stefani4:22
14."Ex-Girlfriend"G. Stefani, Dumont, Kanal3:31
15."Trapped in a Box"E. Stefani, Dumont, G. Stefani, Kanal3.23

Bonus track[18]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
16."Girls Get the Bass in the Back" ("Hey Baby" remix)G. Stefani, T. Kanal, T. Dumont, R. Price; remixed by Philip Steir6:15

Import bonus tracks[19]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
16."Girls Get the Bass in the Back" ("Hey Baby" remix)G. Stefani, T. Kanal, T. Dumont, R. Price; remixed by Philip Steir6:15
17."Underneath It All" (Live acoustic version)G. Stefani, D. Stuart3:47

Credits

Chart positions

Chart (2004)[21][22][23] Peak
position
Canadian Albums Chart 6
U.S. Billboard 200 2
Chart (1997) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart 15
Austrian Albums Chart 11
Belgian Albums Chart 32
Danish Albums Chart 5
Dutch Albums Chart 8
Finnish Albums Chart 1
German Albums Chart 14
New Zealand Albums Chart 8
Norwegian Albums Chart 2
Portugese Albums Chart 27
Swedish Albums Chart 1
Swiss Albums Chart 5
UK Albums Chart 5

Release history

Main version[24]

Date Label Format Catalog
2003 Interscope CD 000149502
2004 Interscope CD 9861260
2007 Polydor CD 9849751
2007 Interscope CD 9076

Bonus track version[25]

Date Label Format Catalog
2003 Interscope CD 9861381
2007 Interscope CD 9849751

Import bonus track version[26]

Date Label Format Catalog
2003 Interscope CD 136
2004 Universal CD 986138
2006 Universal/Interscope CD 6017

References

  1. ^ "The Singles 1992-2003 > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums". Allmusic. Retrieved April 6, 2007
  2. ^ a b c Timeline of the band's history at No Doubt's official website. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  3. ^ "316) Rock Steady". Rolling Stone. November 1, 2003. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
  4. ^ Moss, Corey and Downey, Ryan. "Gwen Stefani Recording Solo Material". MTV News. April 18, 2003. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  5. ^ a b c d e Vineyard, Jennifer and Pak, SuChin."No Doubt To Tell Fans 'It's My Life'". MTV News. September 15, 2003. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  6. ^ a b Montoya, Paris and Lanham, Tom. Liner notes for "It's My Life" on The Singles 1992-2003. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  7. ^ "Tracks Countdown 2004". Media Traffic. 2005. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  8. ^ "ARIA Charts - End Of Year Charts - Top 100 Singles 2004". Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  9. ^ "Searchable Database". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  10. ^ "Grammy Awards 2005: Key winners". BBC News. February 14, 2005. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  11. ^ "47th Grammy Award Winners Announced". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Retrieved September 28, 2008.
  12. ^ Review from Rhapsody. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
  13. ^ Allmusic's review of The Singles 1992–2003. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
  14. ^ NME's review of The Singles 1992–2003. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
  15. ^ http://www.musicomh.com/albums/no-doubt.htm OMH's review] of The Singles 1992–2003. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
  16. ^ BBC's review of The Singles 1992–2003. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
  17. ^ The Singles 1992–2003 track listing at the Billboard page on the main version of the album.
  18. ^ The Singles 1992–2003 track listing at the Billboard page on the bonus track version of the album.
  19. ^ The Singles 1992–2003 track listing at the Billboard page on the import version of the album.
  20. ^ a b Credits for The Singles 1992–2003 at Allmusic. Retrieved October 1, 2008.
  21. ^ Chart listings for No Doubt's albums on the Billboard 200. Retrieved October 9, 2008.
  22. ^ Chart listings for The Singles 1992–2003 at Allmusic. Retrieved October 8, 2008.
  23. ^
  24. ^ The Singles 1992–2003 release history of main version of album at Allmusic.
  25. ^ The Singles 1992–2003 release history of bonus track version of album at Allmusic.
  26. ^ The Singles 1992–2003 release history of import bonus track version at Allmusic.

External links

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