A Woman & a Man

Last updated
A Woman & a Man
BelindaCarlisleAWomanandaMan.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 11, 1996 (1996-09-11)
Recorded1996
Studio
Genre Pop
Length43:14
Label
Producer
Belinda Carlisle chronology
Real
(1993)
A Woman & a Man
(1996)
A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits
(1999)
Singles from A Woman & a Man
  1. "In Too Deep"
    Released: July 1, 1996
  2. "Always Breaking My Heart"
    Released: September 9, 1996
  3. "Love in the Key of C"
    Released: November 18, 1996
  4. "California"
    Released: February 17, 1997

A Woman & a Man is the sixth studio album by American singer Belinda Carlisle, released in the United Kingdom on September 23, 1996, by Chrysalis Records (then part of the EMI Group, like Carlisle's former label Virgin Records). The album contains songs written by Rick Nowels, Maria Vidal, Ellen Shipley, Charlotte Caffey, Neil Finn and Roxette co-founder Per Gessle who also produced one of the tracks.

Contents

It was released in the United States in 1997 (see 1997 in music) on the Ark 21 Records label. There was special DTS (surround sound) version released with a slightly different track listing compared to the original; it was only ten tracks long and did not include "Listen to Love", "Love Doesn't Live Here" and "Always Breaking My Heart" but instead had covers of the songs "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon and "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" by Shel Silverstein.

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Entertainment Weekly C− [2]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
Music Week Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]

The album received mixed reviews. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album four stars out of five saying it is a "mature collection of adult pop, with cool keyboards and subtle arrangements that often make the record sound like background music". However, he also noted that "Carlisle has rarely been in better voice". [1] Entertainment Weekly's Steven Mirkin gave the album C− saying that "Carlisle has neither the voice nor personality to overcome her album's cold, emotionally sterile core." [2]

Commercial reception

The album entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 12. It outsold Carlisle's previous album, Real , and was certified Gold by BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. The album revived Carlisle's career in the singles chart – producing three top twenty hits (two of them top ten). It was released in the US but failed to chart on the Billboard 200 album chart with a total sales of 17,000 copies. [5]

The album charted on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart on November 11, 1996, at No. 31 with only one single released to radio at the time. It only spent ten weeks in the top one hundred making the album her last charting album on the charts. It was Carlisle's last album to chart in Austria, peaking at No. 36 and stayed in the charts for two weeks. It was Carlisle's lowest charting album in Sweden, peaking at No. 44 and only spending one week in the charts. In Italy, the album peaked at No. 35.

The singles had some success in various countries. "In Too Deep" was the first song released from the album and became a top ten hit in the UK and a top twenty in Australia. "Always Breaking My Heart", written and produced by Per Gessle of Roxette, was the second song released from the album; it also reached the top ten in the UK. "Love in the Key of C", the third song released, became Carlisle's tenth top twenty UK hit. The fourth single, "California", was Carlisle's final UK Top 40 hit.

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."In Too Deep" Rick Nowels 4:05
2."California"Rick Nowels, Billy Steinberg, María Vidal2:59
3."A Woman and a Man"Robbie Seidman, María Vidal5:12
4."Remember September"Rick Nowels, Ellen Shipley 4:32
5."Listen to Love"Christopher García, John Ingoldby, Ralph McCarthy4:09
6."Always Breaking My Heart" Per Gessle 3:12
7."Love Doesn't Live Here"Per Gessle4:09
8."He Goes On" Neil Finn 3:13
9."Kneel at Your Feet" Charlotte Caffey, Tom Caffey, Belinda Carlisle4:18
10."Love in the Key of C"Rick Nowels3:50
11."My Heart Goes Out to You" Anders Bagge, Rick Nowels, Allen Rich3:35
Japanese bonus tracks
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
12."The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" Shel Silverstein 3:50
13."Love Walks In"Charlotte Caffey, Tom Caffey3:19

American DTS (Surround Sound) version

(The regular American version had the same track listing as the UK version)

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."In Too Deep"Rick Nowels4:08
2."California"Rick Nowels, Billy Steinberg, María Vidal2:56
3."A Woman and a Man"Robbie Seidman, María Vidal5:10
4."Jealous Guy" John Lennon 4:07
5."Remember September"Rick Nowels, Ellen Shipley4:21
6."He Goes On"Neil Finn3:12
7."Kneel at Your Feet"Charlotte Caffey, Tom Caffey, Belinda Carlisle4:25
8."Love in the Key of C"Rick Nowels3:59
9."My Heart Goes Out to You"Anders Bagge, Rick Nowels, Allen Rich3:24
10."The Ballad of Lucy Jordan"Shel Silverstein3:50

Personnel

Production

Charts

Chart performance for A Woman & a Man
Chart (1996)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [6] 31
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [7] 36
European Albums ( Music & Media ) [8] 36
Japanese Albums (Oricon) [9] 34
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan) [10] 44
UK Albums (OCC) [11] 12

Certifications and sales

Certifications and sales for A Woman & a Man
RegionCertification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI) [12] Gold100,000^
United States17,000 [5]

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Release history

RegionDateLabelFormatCatalog
JapanSeptember 11, 1996 EMI CD TOCP-50002
United KingdomSeptember 23, 1996 Chrysalis Records 724385354526
AustraliaOctober 16, 1996853545-2

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References

  1. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. A Woman & a Man at AllMusic
  2. 1 2 Mirkin, Steven (August 1, 1997). "Music Review - A Woman & a Man (1997)". EW.com. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009.
  3. Sullivan, Caroline (September 20, 1996). "Music: This Week's Pop CD Releases". The Guardian .
  4. "Reviews: Albums" (PDF). Music Week . September 14, 1995. p. 26. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
  5. 1 2 Keith Caulfield "Ask Billboard". Billboard . Retrieved September 23, 2007.
  6. "Australiancharts.com – Belinda Carlisle – A Woman & a Man". Hung Medien. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
  7. "Austriancharts.at – Belinda Carlisle – A Woman & a Man" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  8. "European Top 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media . Vol. 13, no. 41. October 12, 1996. p. 17. OCLC   29800226 via World Radio History.
  9. オリコンランキング情報サービス「you大樹」 (in Japanese). Oricon. Archived from the original on May 20, 2011. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  10. "Swedishcharts.com – Belinda Carlisle – A Woman & a Man". Hung Medien. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  11. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
  12. "British album certifications – Belinda Carlisle – A Woman and a Man". British Phonographic Industry. May 1, 1997. Retrieved May 18, 2021.