Middle of Nowhere (Album)
Middle of Nowhere | ||||
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Hanson studio album | ||||
Publication |
1997 |
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Label (s) | Mercury Records | |||
Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
13 |
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running time |
54 min 18 s |
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occupation |
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Middle of Nowhere is the debut album of American band Hanson with a major label .
Middle of Nowhere was released in 1997 by Mercury Records . The success of the pop album is repeatedly referred to in the press as a trailblazer for other teen pop acts such as Britney Spears , Christina Aguilera or * NSYNC .
Music genre
After the two self-released albums Boomerang and MMMBop , Middle of Nowhere is the band's first professionally produced album. It is characterized by catchy pop melodies with echoes of classic Motown rhythms, soul and rock .
History of origin
When Middle of Nowhere was released in 1997 , brothers Isaac, Taylor and Zac Hanson were 16, 14 and 11 years old. This occasionally led to comparisons with the Jackson 5 . Unlike the Jackson 5, however, Hanson played their own instruments on stage, even though they were supported by a number of studio musicians in the studio.
For nine of the thirteen tracks on Middle of Nowhere , Hanson also received support from professional songwriters such as Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Desmond Child and Mark Hudson. Producer Steve Lironi worked with the band on the arrangements for the pieces. Only MMMBop and Thinking Of You were produced by the Dust Brothers.
Mercury Records backed the release of the album with a major PR campaign. Tamara Davis, who had already worked with Sonic Youth and Luscious Jackson , was hired for the music video for MMMBop . The campaign was successful, and Middle of Nowhere sold more than eight million copies worldwide.
In May 2007, ten years after the release of Middle of Nowhere , Hanson re-recorded the songs from the album as acoustic versions at two concerts . They released Middle of Nowhere Acoustic in December of that year, but only distributed the album through their website. The songs Thinking Of You , Speechless and With You In Your Dreams are missing on Middle of Nowhere Acoustic .
Track list
- Thinking Of You - 3:13 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson)
- MMMBop - 4:27 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson)
- Weird - 4:02 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / D. Child)
- Speechless - 4:20 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / S.Lironi)
- Where's The Love - 4:12 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / M. Hudson / S. Salover)
- Yearbook - 5:29 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / E. Shipley)
- Look At You - 4:28 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / S. Lironi)
- Lucy - 3:35 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / M. Hudson)
- I Will Come To You - 4:11 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / B. Mann / C. Weil)
- A Minute Without You - 3:55 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / M. Hudson)
- Madeline - 4:13 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / C. Magness)
- With You in Your Dreams - 3:53 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson)
- Man from Milwaukee - 3:38 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson)
Between With You in Your Dreams and the bonus track Man from Milwaukee there are eight three-second tracks without sound.
Single releases
The single MMMBop reached number 1 in the charts in 27 countries. In Germany , Austria and Switzerland , Where's the Love and I Will Come To You were subsequently released, but they could not repeat the great success of MMMBop .
In the UK : two additional singles were released Weird and Thinking Of You . In the USA, however, the second single I Will Come To You was also the last.
successes
Charts and chart placements
album
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1997 | Middle of Nowhere |
DE1
gold
(17 weeks)DE |
AT2
gold
(16 weeks)AT |
CH2
platinum
(22 weeks)CH |
UK1
gold
(32 weeks)UK |
US2 × 4
(58 weeks)US |
First published: May 6, 1997
|
Singles
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, , Placements, weeks, awards, comments) |
Remarks | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | AT | CH | UK | US | |||
1997 | MMMBop |
DE1
platinum
(18 weeks)DE |
AT1
gold
(16 weeks)AT |
CH1
gold
(25 weeks)CH |
UK1
gold
(11 weeks)UK |
US1
platinum
(22 weeks)US |
First published: April 15, 1997
|
Where's the love |
DE52 (9 weeks) DE |
AT40 (1 week) AT |
CH24 (8 weeks) CH |
UK4th
silver
(12 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: September 1997
|
|
I will come to you |
DE36 (10 weeks) DE |
AT10 (12 weeks) AT |
CH9 (10 weeks) CH |
UK5 (9 weeks) UK |
US9
gold
(20 weeks)US |
First published: September 1997
|
|
1998 | Weird | - | - | - |
UK19 (7 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: March 1998
|
Thinking of you | - | - | - |
UK23
silver
(9 weeks)UK |
- |
First published: May 1998
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Awards
In addition to various gold and platinum records, Hanson and MMMBop won the 1997 MTV Europe Music Awards for the best song. Middle of Nowhere was at the Grammys as Record of the Year nomination, but could not win the prize.
Web links
- Middle of Nowhere at Allmusic (English)
- Criticism. In: Rolling Stone (English)
- MTV biography (English)