Piece by Piece (Katie Melua album)

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Piece by piece
Studio album by Katie Melua

Publication
(s)

September 23, 2005

Label (s) Dramatico

Format (s)

CD , vinyl ; CD + DVD (SE)

Genre (s)

Jazz / Blues / Folk / Pop

Title (number)

12; 15 (SE)

running time

44:32 min; 54:38 min (SE)

occupation
  • The Irish Film Orchchestra

production

Mike Batt

chronology
Call Off the Search
(2003) 		Piece by piece Pictures
(2007)

Piece by Piece is the second music album by Georgian - British singer Katie Melua .

The album is stylistically similar to the debut album Call Off the Search , here too bar-jazz , blues and folk influences were mixed, whereby the personal reference of Katie Melua is much stronger on this album. While the first album was largely designed by producer Mike Batt , four tracks on Piece by Piece were written by Katie Melua (one track was written by both of them together). With placements in the top ten of much of the charts in Europe, Piece by Piece can be seen as the singer's final breakthrough.

history

Piece by Piece was released in Germany on September 23, 2005, 17 months after the release of the debut album Call Off the Search , in the UK it was released three days later. Like its predecessor, it was produced by Melua explorer Mike Batt , who also released this album on his own label Dramatico . It reached the top ten in Germany as well as in Austria and Switzerland and stayed in the charts for more than 40 weeks. In Great Britain, the album, like its predecessor, reached number 1 in the charts and received double platinum for more than 600,000 copies sold .

After producer Mike Batt wrote most of the tracks on the debut album, this time five songs were written by Katie Melua herself, including the album's theme song. In addition to the titles by Melua and Batt, the album also contains three cover versions . The title "Just Like Heaven" comes from the band The Cure and was originally released in 1987 on the album Kiss me Kiss me Kiss me . Katie Melua's interpretation was also the theme song for the film As long as you are there (Original title: Just Like Heaven ) by Mark Waters . "Blues in the Night" by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen from 1941 was originally nominated for an Oscar . The track "On the Road Again" comes from the 1968 album Boogie with Canned Heat by the American blues rock band Canned Heat . The title "Sometimes When I'm Dreaming" is a composition by Mike Batt and was originally interpreted by Art Garfunkel .

Katie Melua during the 2006 Piece by Piece tour

When it comes to the line-up, Melua and Batt largely relied on the musicians with whom they had already recorded Call Off the Search and with whom they were also on tour. As a guitarist Chris Spedding could be engaged again, in addition to some solo albums Spedding has also worked as a studio musician for Elton John , Tom Waits , Brian Ferry and others. In the piece "Blues in the Night" the band was supported by the harmonica player Paul Jones , who became known together with Manfred Mann in the 1960s .

Special Bonus Edition

The Special Bonus Edition of the album was released on September 22nd, 2006 , which includes three new titles and a 90-minute bonus DVD . The majority of the live recordings on the DVD were recorded at a concert in Düsseldorf , with further recordings made in Amsterdam .

Among the new titles is a cover version of the Beatles hit " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds " from 1967, which Katie Melua recorded at Abbey Road Studios , where the Beatles also worked. In the run-up to the CD, she released the single "It's Only Pain" on September 8, 2006, the title is also included on the CD of the Special Bonus Edition .

Simon Singh on Nine Million Bicycles

The first single from the album caused a sensation outside the music scene. The trigger was an article titled Katie Melua's bad science by the physicist and science journalist Simon Singh in the English newspaper The Guardian on September 30, 2005. In it, Singh is angry about the verse:

"We are 12 billion light-years from the edge,
That's a guess,
No one can ever say it's true,
But I know that I will always be with you."

Singh wrote that this text was scientifically unsustainable. First of all, the distance to the edge of the (observable) universe is not 12, but 13.7 billion light years . In addition, he is bothered by the statement that this information is only an assumption that no one can say whether it is correct. Rather, this information is based on scientifically founded facts and is a good estimate, which can, however, be revised. Singh therefore proposed to change the text as follows:

“We are 13.7 billion light-years from the edge of the observable universe,
That's a good estimate with well-defined error bars,
Scientists say it's true, but acknowledge that it may be refined,
And with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you. "

The result was a lively discussion between supporters and opponents of Singh's views. During an episode of the British broadcaster BBC Radio 4's Today radio show , Katie Melua introduced the new "Singh version" of the title, but decided to continue using Mike Batt's version as it was more pleasant to sing.

However, the article is less than a criticism of Katie Melua's scientific knowledge, but more than an advertisement for Singh's book Big Bang: The origin of the cosmos and the invention of modern science , and the sales of the single did not suffer from Singh's statements, so “ Nine Million Bicycles ” made it to number 5 in the UK charts and thus the best chart position of all their singles to date.

List of titles

The names of the respective composers are given in brackets.

CD
  1. Shy Boy (Mike Batt)
  2. Nine Million Bicycles (Batt)
  3. Piece by Piece (Katie Melua)
  4. Half Way up the Hindu Kush (Melua, Batt)
  5. Blues in the Night ( Harold Arlen , Johnny Mercer )
  6. Spiders' Web (Melua)
  7. Blue Shoes (Batt)
  8. On the Road Again ( Floyd Jones , Alan Wilson )
  9. Thankyou, Stars (Batt)
  10. Just Like Heaven ( Robert Smith , Porl Thompson , Simon Gallup , Laurence Tolhurst , Boris Williams )
  11. I Cried for You (Melua)
  12. I Do Believe in Love (Melua)
    Special Edition Bonus Titles:
  13. It's Only Pain (Batt)
  14. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ( John Lennon , Paul McCartney )
  15. Sometimes When I'm Dreaming (Batt)
Bonus DVD
  1. Piece by piece - moment by moment
    1. Shy boy
    2. Nine Million Bicyles
    3. Blues in the night
    4. Spider's Web
    5. Fancy ( Bobbie Gentry )
    6. I cried for you
    7. Halfway up the Hindu Kush
    8. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
    9. Just Like Heaven
    10. Piece by piece
    11. On the Road Again
    12. Crawling up a Hill ( John Mayall )
    13. Spaceman ( Babylon Zoo )
    14. The Closest Thing to Crazy (Batt)
    15. Mockingbird Song (Batt)
    16. Faraway Voice (Melua)
  2. Extras
    1. Nine Million Bicycles
    2. I cried for you
    3. Spider's Web

Chart placements

country Entry date Best placement Duration
Germany October 10, 2005 2 (2 weeks) 138
Finland January 2006 23 3
France October 1, 2005 13 102
Italy 2
New Zealand October 24, 2005 16 11
Netherlands 1
Norway October 2005 1 67
Austria October 16, 2005 5 63
Poland 1
Sweden October 20, 2005 6th 47
Switzerland October 9, 2005 3 116
United Kingdom October 2005 1
United States
  Billboard Top Jazz Albums
  Billboard 200
  Billboard Top Heatseekers		 2006
3
108
2

Awards

Single releases

title Chart placements publication
DE CH AT UK US
Nine Million Bicycles 31 - - 5 2005
I Cried for You / Just Like Heaven - - - 35 2005
Spiders' Web 67 54 - 52 2006
It's only pain 80 - - 41 2006
Shy boy - - - - 2006

- not in the charts

See also

swell

Individual evidence:

  1. ↑ Announcement of August 22, 2006 about the Special Bonus Edition on the official German website of Katie Melua  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of August 27, 2006)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.astoriamedia.de  
  2. ↑ Article by Simon Singh in the Guardian on the single Nine Million Bicycles
  3. ↑ Telegraph.co.uk: Interview with Katie Melua - How Katie put the science back into songwriting (English), October 16, 2005
  4. ↑ a b Everyhit.com (as of August 27, 2006)
  5. ↑ musicline.de ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (As of May 16, 2008) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.musicline.de
  6. ↑ finnishcharts.com (as of September 10, 2006)
  7. ↑ lescharts.com (as of September 10, 2006)
  8. ↑ charts.org.nz (as of September 10, 2006)
  9. ↑ norwegiancharts.com (as of September 10, 2006)
  10. ↑ austriancharts.at (as of August 27, 2006)
  11. ↑ swedishcharts.com (as of September 10, 2006)
  12. ↑ a b hitparade.ch (as of August 27, 2006)
  13. ↑ Gold / platinum database - Bundesverband Musikindustrie e. V.
  14. ↑ ifpi.at (as of August 27, 2006)

General sources:

1. Booklet for the CD Piece by Piece
2. Booklet for the CD Call Off the Search

Web links