George Best (album)

Last updated

George Best
TWPGeorgeBest.jpg
Studio album by
Released12 October 1987
Recorded1987, England
Genre Jangle pop, indie pop
Length38:28
Label Reception
Producer Chris Allison The Wedding Present
The Wedding Present chronology
George Best
(1987)
Tommy
(1988)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]

George Best is the debut album by The Wedding Present. It was released in October 1987 by their own record company, Reception Records.

Contents

After self-releasing five singles on Reception Records label, the band turned to recording their first album, continuing their collaboration with producer Chris Allison, who had produced their previous single, "My Favourite Dress". David Gedge's songwriting chronicles relationships breaking up or never taking off. A digression is CD bonus track "All About Eve", which is about apartheid, a subject Gedge came into contact with during his childhood in South Africa.

The band sought and received permission to name the album after Northern Irish football legend George Best. Best agreed to appear on promotional shots with the band.

The original Reception Records compact disc release added two bonus tracks from the B-side of single "Anyone Can Make a Mistake". All later CD re-releases of George Best, starting with the 1997 re-release by Canadian reissue label Pearls from the Past, added all tracks of 1988 singles "Nobody's Twisting Your Arm" and "Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?", including a cover of The Beatles' "Getting Better". By the time of the latter single's release, drummer Shaun Charman had been fired and replaced by Simon Smith.

In 2007, the band played a 20th anniversary tour of George Best, performing the album in its entirety. Following this, during the recording sessions for their 2008 album El Rey , the band made a live-in-the-studio recording of George Best with Steve Albini. The recording, mixed by Andrew Scheps, was released in September 2017 as George Best 30. [2] The 30th anniversary tour of George Best in 2017 was accompanied by the release of a documentary about the album, titled The Wedding Present: Something Left Behind. [3]

NME ranked it at number 489 in its 2014 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. [4]

Track listing

All tracks written by David Gedge except as noted.

Original release

Vinyl

Side A

  1. "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft"
  2. "What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?"
  3. "Don't Be So Hard"
  4. "A Million Miles"
  5. "All This and More"
  6. "My Favourite Dress" (album version)

Side B

  1. "Shatner"
  2. "Something and Nothing"
  3. "It's What You Want That Matters"
  4. "Give My Love to Kevin"
  5. "Anyone Can Make a Mistake"
  6. "You Can't Moan Can You?"

CD

  1. "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft" – 4:10
  2. "What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?" – 2:43
  3. "Don't Be So Hard" – 2:43
  4. "A Million Miles" – 3:33
  5. "All This and More" – 2:23
  6. "Getting Nowhere Fast" (Alan, Evans, Oldroyd, Swift) – 1:44
  7. "My Favourite Dress" (album version) – 4:14
  8. "Shatner" – 2:07
  9. "Something and Nothing" – 3:50
  10. "It's What You Want That Matters" – 3:26
  11. "Give My Love to Kevin" – 2:46
  12. "Anyone Can Make a Mistake" – 3:18
  13. "You Can't Moan Can You?" – 3:20
  14. "All About Eve" – 2:13

George Best +9 CD re-release

  1. "Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft"
  2. "What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?"
  3. "Don't Be So Hard"
  4. "A Million Miles"
  5. "All This and More"
  6. "Getting Nowhere Fast" (Alan, Evans, Oldroyd, Swift)
  7. "My Favourite Dress" (album version)
  8. "Shatner"
  9. "Something and Nothing"
  10. "It's What You Want That Matters"
  11. "Give My Love to Kevin"
  12. "Anyone Can Make a Mistake"
  13. "You Can't Moan, Can You?"
  14. "All About Eve"
  15. "Nobody's Twisting Your Arm"
  16. "Nothing Comes Easy"
  17. "Don't Laugh"
  18. "I'm Not Always So Stupid"
  19. "Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?"
  20. "Not from Where I'm Standing"
  21. "Give My Love to Kevin" (acoustic version)
  22. "Getting Better" (Lennon, McCartney)
  23. "Pourquoi Es-Tu Devenue Si Raisonnable?"

Has also been released as a 4x10" vinyl-box.

Personnel

The Wedding Present
Additional musician
Technical staff

Related Research Articles

<i>Rid of Me</i> 1993 studio album by PJ Harvey

Rid of Me is the second studio album by the English singer-songwriter PJ Harvey, released on 26 April 1993 by Island Records, approximately one year after the release of her critically acclaimed debut studio album Dry (1992). It marked a departure from Harvey's previous songwriting, being more raw and aggressive than its predecessor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shellac (band)</span> American rock band

Shellac is an American noise rock band from Chicago, Illinois, formed in 1992 by Steve Albini, Bob Weston and Todd Trainer. Their lineup remained consistent until Albini's death in May 2024.

Steve Albini was an American musician, audio engineer and music journalist, whose many recording projects have exerted an important influence on independent music since the 1980s. Most of his projects from 1997 onwards were recorded at the Electrical Audio studios in Chicago. Albini is occasionally credited as a record producer, though he disliked the term to describe his work, preferring the term "recording engineer" when credited, and refused to take royalties from bands recording in his studio, as he felt it would be unethical to do so.

Cinerama are an English indie pop band, headed up by David Gedge, the frontman for The Wedding Present. The band is known for combining rock guitar music with string and woodwind sounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wedding Present</span> British indie band

The Wedding Present are an English indie rock group formed in 1985 in Leeds, England, by members of The Lost Pandas. The band has been led by vocalist and guitarist David Gedge, the band's only constant member.

<i>Human After All</i> 2005 studio album by Daft Punk

Human After All is the third studio album by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, first released on 14 March 2005 through Virgin Records. Unlike their previous studio album Discovery (2001), whose sound was inspired by disco and garage house and produced over the period of two years, Human After All was more minimalistic and improvisational with a mixture of heavier guitars and electronics, and was produced in six weeks.

Girls at Our Best! were an English post-punk band, founded in Leeds, England in 1979 under the name The Butterflies. They had several UK Independent Singles Chart hits during their three-year existence.

<i>Tommy</i> (The Wedding Present album) 1988 compilation album by The Wedding Present

Tommy is a compilation by The Wedding Present gathering their first four singles, their B-sides and selected tracks from two early radio sessions. It was released in July 1988 by their own record company, Reception Records.

<i>Ukrainian John Peel Sessions</i> 1989 compilation album by The Wedding Present

Ukrainian John Peel Sessions is a compilation album by The Wedding Present, originally gathering their first three Ukrainian language John Peel radio sessions. It was scheduled to be released in late 1988 by their own record company, Reception Records, but was ultimately released in February 1989 by their new record label RCA.

<i>Bizarro</i> (album) 1989 studio album by The Wedding Present

Bizarro is the second studio album by The Wedding Present. It was released in October 1989 by their record label, RCA.

<i>Seamonsters</i> 1991 studio album by The Wedding Present

Seamonsters is the third studio album by English rock band The Wedding Present. It was recorded in ten days in 1991 by American producer Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. Albini had earlier recorded two EPs with the group; Brassneck and 3 Songs and, with those records, Seamonsters has a rougher, harsher sound than the group's earlier two albums.

<i>Take Fountain</i> 2005 studio album by The Wedding Present

Take Fountain is the sixth studio album by The Wedding Present. It was released in the UK on 14 February 2005, through Scopitones Records, and a day later in the US through Manifesto Records.

Peter Solowka or Solovka is a musician of Ukrainian and Yugoslavian descent. He has been involved in music since 1985, most notably as guitarist with The Wedding Present from their inception until 1991, and then with The Ukrainians until the present day.

Comparison of <i>Star Trek</i> and <i>Star Wars</i> Science fiction media comparison

Star Trek and Star Wars are American media franchises which present alternative scenarios of space adventure. The two franchises proliferate in this setting of storytelling, and each has offered various forms of media productions for decades. Each franchise comprises billions of dollars of intellectual property, employment for thousands and entertainment for many more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Allison</span> British record producer

Christopher John Allison is a British record producer and founder/head of Sonic360 Records. His work has been associated with artists such as The Beta Band, Coldplay, Walter Becker, Kinky, Plastilina Mosh, Emmanuel Jal, The Wedding Present and Shack.

<i>El Rey</i> (The Wedding Present album) 2008 studio album by The Wedding Present

El Rey is the seventh studio album by The Wedding Present. It was released in the US on May 20, 2008, by Manifesto Records, and on May 26, 2008, in the UK by Vibrant Records/Pinnacle Records. The album was the band's first album since 2005's Take Fountain. El Rey was preceded by the first single "The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend" as a digital download only.

Simon Smith has been the drummer with several British Indie rock bands, most notably The Wedding Present from Leeds, which he joined in 1988, and also worked with its offshoot The Ukrainians.

<i>Valentina</i> (album) 2012 studio album by The Wedding Present

Valentina is the eighth studio album by English rock band The Wedding Present. It was released in the UK on 19 March 2012 by their record label, Scopitones. The North America release date was 20 March 2012, Japan 21 March 2012 and Oceania 23 March 2012.

<i>Going, Going...</i> 2016 studio album by The Wedding Present

Going, Going... is the ninth studio album by English rock band The Wedding Present. It was released on 2 September 2016 in the UK and 2 December 2016 in the US, by their record label, Scopitones. It is a 20-song double multimedia album – each song has its own video included – that is also a travelogue about a journey across North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mistakes (Tove Styrke song)</span> 2017 single by Tove Styrke

"Mistakes" is a song by Swedish singer Tove Styrke from her third studio album, Sway (2018). Styrke wrote the song with Elof Loelv, who handled the production. The inspiration behind the song originated from Styrke wanting to embrace being imperfect and making mistakes. It was released as the album's second single on 15 September 2017 through Sony Music. The electropop song features a vocoder-backed chorus and lyrics that describe the protagonist's willingness to take risks in a relationship. The instrumental incorporates sound effects and samples from various sources that correspond to the lyrics.

References

  1. Abebe, Nitsuh. "George Best – The Wedding Present". AllMusic . Retrieved 14 February 2018.
  2. "THE WEDDING PRESENT RE-RECORD 'GEORGE BEST' WITH STEVE ALBINI - scopitones.co.uk". scopitones.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017.
  3. "GEORGE BEST DOCUMENTARY | scopitones.co.uk". scopitones.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  4. "Rocklist.net....NME: The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time : October 2013". www.rocklistmusic.co.uk.