It's a Shame About Ray | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 2, 1992 | |||
Recorded | 1991–1992 | |||
Studio | Cherokee (Hollywood) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 29:46 (original release) 33:28 (re-release) 57:20 (deluxe edition) | |||
Label | Atlantic | |||
Producer | The Robb Brothers | |||
Lemonheads chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [6] |
Chicago Tribune | [7] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [8] |
Mojo | [9] |
NME | 8/10 [10] |
Pitchfork | 8.4/10 [11] |
Q | [12] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [13] |
Select | 4/5 [14] |
Uncut | [15] |
It's a Shame About Ray is the fifth album by American alternative rock band the Lemonheads, released on June 2, 1992. The album was produced by the Robb Brothers. At the time of principal recording, the band consisted of Evan Dando (lead vocals, guitar), Juliana Hatfield (bass, backing vocals) and David Ryan (drums). Though not originally on the album, the band's cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" was added to the album in later pressings after it had become a major worldwide radio hit, and it features a later lineup of the band with Nic Dalton on bass.
The title track was inspired by a quote that band leader Evan Dando had seen in a Sydney newspaper in reference to a kid called Ray who kept getting kicked out of every school he went to. [16]
The album became an international hit for the band, reaching #31 in the UK Top 100 as well as #5 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S. The song was later included at #138 on Pitchfork's "Top 200 Tracks of the 90s" list. [17] The music video features Johnny Depp. [18]
Actress Polly Noonan and her car appear on the cover of the album. [19]
After its initial release, the album was reissued with a cover of the song "Mrs. Robinson", written by Paul Simon and originally recorded by Simon & Garfunkel. The Lemonheads' version was recorded to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the film The Graduate. The band recorded the song in Berlin while on tour, with Nic Dalton on bass guitar. It was released as a single.
The album was reissued by Rhino in 2008 as a collector's edition that includes several demo versions of album tracks, the B-side song "Shaky Ground" and a DVD containing the previously released (on VHS) Two Weeks in Australia.
The Lemonheads toured Australia in late 2010, playing the album in its entirety along with songs from their other albums. [20]
The band performed the entire album at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire on September 14–15, 2005, as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties–curated Don't Look Back concert series, with "Mrs. Robinson" missing from the setlist.[ citation needed ]
The band performed the album in its entirety while opening for certain dates of Jawbreaker's 2022 spring tour. [21]
All songs by Evan Dando unless otherwise stated.
Chart (1992) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA) [22] | 23 |
UK Albums (OCC) [23] | 33 |
US Billboard 200 [24] | 36 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [25] | Gold | 35,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [26] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [27] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
The Lemonheads are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston in 1986 by Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz. Dando has remained the band's only constant member. After their initial punk-influenced releases and tours as an independent/college rock band in the late 1980s, the Lemonheads' popularity with a mass audience grew in 1992 with the major label album It's a Shame about Ray, which was produced, engineered, and mixed by The Robb Brothers. This was followed by a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson", which eventually became one of the band's most successful singles. The Lemonheads were active until 1997 before going on hiatus, but reformed with a new lineup in 2005 and released The Lemonheads the following year. The band released its latest album, Varshons 2, in February 2019.
Car Button Cloth is the seventh studio album by the Lemonheads, and the last under their contract with Atlantic Records. The band, as it were, consisted mostly of Dando himself playing many instruments, including his usual guitars and lead vocals, and Patrick Murphy on drums, along with a series of session musicians and producer Bryce Goggin filling in on other instruments. Following the recording of the album, Bill Gibson, who had played bass on several tracks, joined the band for the supporting tour along with Dando and Murphy.
Evan Griffith Dando is an American musician and the frontman of the rock band the Lemonheads. He has also embarked on a solo career and collaborated on songs with various artists. In December 2015, Dando was inducted into the Boston Music Awards Hall of Fame.
Smudge are an Australian rock and indie pop trio formed in 1991 by Paul Duncan on bass guitar, Alison Galloway on drums and Tom Morgan on guitar and vocals. Morgan is known outside Australia as a song writing collaborator of Evan Dando and his band, the Lemonheads. In 1994 Duncan was replaced on bass guitar by Adam Yee and in 1997 Pete Kelly joined on guitar. Smudge signed with Half a Cow to issue four studio albums, Manilow (1994), Hot Smoke and Sassafras (1994), You Me Carpark. .. Now (1996) and Real McCoy Wrong Sinatra (1998), before going into hiatus from late 1999. Since 2002, Smudge play a few times a year. There has been no new music since 1998.
Sneeze are an Australian pop rock band formed in 1991 by Nic Dalton on vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, and drums, and Tom Morgan on vocals and guitar. They issued four albums, Sneeze (1993), The Four Seezons (1997), Lost the Spirit to Rock & Roll (2001) and Just The Blues Sped Up. As of mid-2019, Sneeze have been working on new material.
Come on Feel the Lemonheads is the sixth studio album by the American alternative rock band the Lemonheads. It was released on October 12, 1993. Produced by The Robb Brothers, the band lineup consisted of Evan Dando, Nic Dalton and David Ryan (drums), along with former bassist Juliana Hatfield singing backing vocals on several tracks. The album was written by Dando and his songwriting partner Tom Morgan. Following the success of their prior album, It's a Shame About Ray, the band had attracted considerable media attention as alternative rock darlings, and some big-name guest musicians appeared on the album as well, including the Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle and funk musician Rick James. The song "Into Your Arms", a cover version of a song written and recorded previously by Dalton's former band, became the Lemonheads' biggest charting hit.
Godstar were a psychedelic pop band which formed in 1991. The group's founding mainstay, Nic Dalton, is a multi-instrumentalist who was also in The Plunderers, Sneeze and The Lemonheads, and ran the Half A Cow record label. Other members were Robyn St Clare The Hummingbirds, Alison Galloway on drums (ex-Jupiter) and Tom Morgan on guitar and vocals. In September 1993 the band toured nationally promoting their debut studio album, Sleeper. In July 1995 their second album, Coastal, appeared and was followed by another national tour. The group disbanded later that year. Dalton's Half a Cow label issued further Godstar material under the name The Godstar Reminder. Around this time, Dalton formed other groups including The Kombi Nation, The Ultimate Vanilla and Chewee. Galloway and Morgan were also members of Smudge, an indie pop band, during their time with Godstar.
"Mrs. Robinson" is a song by American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel from their fourth studio album, Bookends (1968). The writing of the song was begun before the 1967 film The Graduate, which contained only fragments of it. The full song was released as a single on April 5, 1968, by Columbia Records. Produced by Simon & Garfunkel and Roy Halee, the song was written by Paul Simon, who offered parts of it to movie director Mike Nichols alongside Art Garfunkel after Nichols rejected two other songs intended for the film. The Graduate's soundtrack album uses two short versions of "Mrs. Robinson". The song was additionally released on the Mrs. Robinson EP in 1968, which also includes three other songs from the film: "April Come She Will", "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", and "The Sound of Silence".
Jesse Peretz is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band that formed in 1986. Peretz left the band as a musician shortly before its breakout album, It's a Shame About Ray, was released, but stayed on as the band photographer. After leaving The Lemonheads, he began to work extensively as a director, first in short-form works such as television commercials and music videos, later transitioning to feature films and television series. His directorial work includes the films Our Idiot Brother and Juliet, Naked, and the TV series Girls.
The Lemonheads is the eighth studio album by the Lemonheads and the first after their return from a nine-year hiatus.
Ben Deily is an American musician and songwriter, most famous as one of the founders, writers and lead singers of the Boston-based alternative rock band The Lemonheads. Deily and Dando met while students at the Commonwealth School in Boston.
Lovey is the fourth studio album by the alternative rock band The Lemonheads. It was released in 1990 on Atlantic Records, the group's first for the record company.
Lick is the third album by The Lemonheads and the last to feature founding member Ben Deily. It was released in 1989 and was the group's last album before signing to major label Atlantic. A typo on the album itself erroneously states its release date as 1988. As with their first two albums, it was re-released as a CD in 1992, with two bonus tracks.
The Best of the Lemonheads: The Atlantic Years is a compilation album by alternative rock band The Lemonheads. The American release is considered "criminally brief at 12 tracks" by one critic, with the international version adding seven extra tracks.
"Into Your Arms" is a 1989 song by Australian duo Love Positions, consisting of Robyn St. Clare and Nic Dalton. In 1992, Dalton joined American alternative rock band the Lemonheads, who covered the song on their sixth studio album, Come on Feel the Lemonheads (1993). The song was released as the album's lead single in October 1993 by Atlantic Records and reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, remaining atop the chart for nine straight weeks, a record at the time that they shared with U2. The song also reached number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 and charted in Australia, Canada, and the UK; in the latter country, it was a top-20 hit.
This is a comprehensive listing of official releases by The Lemonheads.
Hate Your Friends is the debut album of the American alternative rock band The Lemonheads. Produced and released on Boston-based indie label Taang Records and licensed for simultaneous release to several other labels worldwide, the album showcases the band's early sound and punk roots. Hate Your Friends is also one of only three albums to feature the Lemonheads' original lineup with Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz.
Creator is the second album by American alternative rock band The Lemonheads. It was issued twice, as an LP in 1988, and as a CD in 1992, which included three bonus live tracks, recorded at the radio station VPRO in The Netherlands. It is one of only three albums to feature the full original lineup of Evan Dando, Ben Deily, and Jesse Peretz.
Nicholas James "Nic" Dalton is an Australian multi-instrumentalist and record label owner. He was a member of various Australian bands including, The Plunderers (1984–95), Godstar (1991–95) and Sneeze (1991–present); as well playing with Ratcat and The Hummingbirds. He was the bass guitarist for American band, The Lemonheads in the early 1990s. He also runs the record label Half a Cow, which he co-founded 1990. His current bands are The Sticker Club and, until recently, the Gloomchasers.
"It's a Shame About Ray" is a song by American alternative rock band the Lemonheads from their album of the same name. Written by frontman Evan Dando and his friend and occasional songwriting partner Tom Morgan, the song was inspired by a headline in an Australian newspaper. The song was released as a single in October 1992, charting in the UK. It has since received positive reception from critics.
Lovey is certainly not the confident, accessible grunge of Ray