Middle of Nowhere (Album)

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Middle of Nowhere
Hanson studio album

Publication
(s)

1997

Label (s) Mercury Records

Format (s)

CD , MC

Genre (s)

pop

Title (number)

13

running time

54 min 18 s

occupation
  • Drums , vocals: Zac Hanson

production

chronology
- Middle of Nowhere Snowed In
(1997)

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

  1. Thinking Of You - 3:13 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson)
  2. MMMBop - 4:27 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson)
  3. Weird - 4:02 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / D. Child)
  4. Speechless - 4:20 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / S.Lironi)
  5. Where's The Love - 4:12 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / M. Hudson / S. Salover)
  6. Yearbook - 5:29 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / E. Shipley)
  7. Look At You - 4:28 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / S. Lironi)
  8. Lucy - 3:35 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / M. Hudson)
  9. I Will Come To You - 4:11 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / B. Mann / C. Weil)
  10. A Minute Without You - 3:55 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / M. Hudson)
  11. Madeline - 4:13 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson / C. Magness)
  12. With You in Your Dreams - 3:53 (I. Hanson / T. Hanson / Z. Hanson)
  13. 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 DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1997 Middle of Nowhere DE1
gold
gold

(17 weeks)DE 		AT2
gold
gold

(16 weeks)AT 		CH2
platinum
platinum

(22 weeks)CH 		UK1
gold
gold

(32 weeks)UK 		US2
Quadruple platinum
× 4
Quadruple platinum

(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 DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1997 MMMBop DE1
platinum
platinum

(18 weeks)DE 		AT1
gold
gold

(16 weeks)AT 		CH1
gold
gold

(25 weeks)CH 		UK1
gold
gold

(11 weeks)UK 		US1
platinum
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
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
gold

(20 weeks)US
First published: September 1997
1998 Weird - - - UK19 (7 weeks)
UK 		-
First published: March 1998
Thinking of you - - - UK23
silver
silver

(9 weeks)UK 		-
First published: May 1998

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rolling Stone.de: Hanson record the album again . As of February 8, 2008
  2. ↑ WZ: news line: Hanson: More than a flash in the pan . Status: January 26, 2008
  3. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK1 UK2 US1 US2