Songbird | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Compilation album by | ||||
Released | May 19, 1998 | |||
Length | 42:51 | |||
Label | Blix Street | |||
Producer |
| |||
Eva Cassidy chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Rolling Stone | [2] |
Songbird is a compilation album of songs by American singer Eva Cassidy. It was released through Blix Street on May 19, 1998, two years after her death in 1996.
Five tracks ("Wade in the Water", "Wayfaring Stranger", "Songbird", "Time is a Healer" and "I Know You by Heart") are from Cassidy's album Eva by Heart . Four tracks ("Fields of Gold", "Autumn Leaves", "People Get Ready" and "Oh Had I a Golden Thread") are from her album Live at Blues Alley . The remaining track, "Over the Rainbow", is from the album The Other Side . The compilation album was certified Gold by the CRIA (50,000 units) in 2003. [3] It was certified Gold by the RIAA in 2001 and Platinum in 2008 for shipments in excess of one million copies. [4]
In 2018, a twentieth anniversary edition of the album was released, titled Songbird 20. [5] [6]
In May 1996, Eva Cassidy released the live album Live at Blues Alley , which would be the last album released before her death six months later, at the age of 33. Near the end of Cassidy's life, local folk singer Grace Griffith sent a copy of the album to Bill Straw, the head of her label, Blix Street Records. [7]
"It didn't take a genius to figure it out," Straw told The New York Times . "The moment I listened to that tape, I knew this was one of the best singers I'd ever heard." [7]
Straw approached the Cassidy family to put together a new album. In 1998, a compilation of tracks from Cassidy's three released recordings was assembled into what would become Songbird. This CD lingered in relative obscurity for two years until it was given airplay by Terry Wogan on his wide-reaching BBC Radio 2 show Wake Up to Wogan , following recommendation by his producer Paul Walters. The album sold 100,000 more copies in the following months. The New York Times spoke of her "silken soprano voice with a wide and seemingly effortless range, unerring pitch and a gift for phrasing that at times was heart-stoppingly eloquent." [7]
The album was originally released in 1998, eighteen months on from Cassidy's death. At this point, she was virtually unknown in the United Kingdom, and Songbird only charted in the nether-regions of the UK Albums Chart. Two years after the album's release, however, Cassidy's music was brought to the attention of British audiences when her versions of "Fields of Gold" and "Over the Rainbow" were played by Mike Harding and Terry Wogan on BBC Radio 2. [8] Following an overwhelming response, a camcorder recording of "Over the Rainbow", taken at Blues Alley in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. by her friend Bryan McCulley, was shown on BBC Two's Top of the Pops 2 . [9] Shortly afterwards, Songbird climbed to the top of the UK Albums Chart. [10] It ended up being the eighth-biggest-selling album of 2001, and it has subsequently been certified 6× Platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and has worldwide sales in excess of 5 million copies. [11]
# | Title | Written by | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Fields of Gold" | Sting | 4:42 |
2. | "Wade in the Water" | Traditional | 4:02 |
3. | "Autumn Leaves" | Joseph Kosma, Johnny Mercer, Jacques Prévert | 4:41 |
4. | "Wayfaring Stranger" | Traditional | 4:26 |
5. | "Songbird" | Christine McVie | 3:43 |
6. | "Time Is a Healer" | Diane Scanlon, Greg Smith | 4:16 |
7. | "I Know You By Heart" | Eve Nelson, Scanlon | 3:59 |
8. | "People Get Ready" | Curtis Mayfield | 3:16 |
9. | "Oh, Had I a Golden Thread" | Pete Seeger | 4:49 |
10. | "Over the Rainbow" | Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg | 4:57 |
# | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
11. | "Songbird (Acoustic)" | 2:52 |
12. | "Wade in the Water (Acoustic)" | 2:39 |
13. | "People Get Ready (Acoustic)" | 3:27 |
14. | "Autumn Leaves (Acoustic)" | 4:00 |
The tracks from Live at Blues Alley sound like studio cuts because Cassidy's stage patter and the audience applause have been removed.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [30] | Platinum | 70,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada) [31] | Gold | 50,000^ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [32] | 2× Platinum | 100,000^ |
Norway (IFPI Norway) [33] | Platinum | 50,000* |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [34] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
Sweden (GLF) [35] | Gold | 40,000^ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [36] | Gold | 25,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [37] | 6× Platinum | 1,910,000 [11] |
United States (RIAA) [38] | Platinum | 1,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Formats | Editions | Labels | Refs. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Various | May 19, 1998 | Standard | Blix Street Records, Inc | [39] | |
2 March 2018 |
| Deluxe | [40] | ||
Eva Marie Cassidy was an American singer and musician known for her interpretations of jazz, folk, and blues music, sung with a powerful, emotive soprano voice. In 1992, she released her first album, The Other Side, a set of duets with go-go musician Chuck Brown, followed by the 1996 live solo album titled Live at Blues Alley. Although she had been honored by the Washington Area Music Association, she was virtually unknown outside her native Washington, D.C., at the time of her death from melanoma at the age of 33 in 1996.
Conspiracy of One is the sixth studio album by American rock band the Offspring, released on November 14, 2000, by Columbia Records. By the time of its release, the band had come out in support of peer-to-peer file sharing, claiming it would not hurt sales. Conspiracy of One was originally planned to be released directly on their website before retail, until Columbia Records threatened to sue and the album ended up as a physical release. The album was the last to feature drummer Ron Welty, who was fired from the band in 2003 and went on to form his own band Steady Ground.
"Over the Rainbow", also known as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", is a ballad by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg. It was written for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, in which it was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role as Dorothy Gale. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and became Garland's signature song.
Silver Side Up is the third studio album by Canadian rock band Nickelback, released on September 11, 2001. According to AllMusic, Silver Side Up continued Nickelback's tradition of "dark high-octane rock" from the band's first two albums. It reached number one in Canada, Austria, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The album was certified 8× Platinum in Canada, 6× Platinum in the US, and 3× Platinum in the UK.
Call off the Search is the debut studio album by British jazz and blues singer Katie Melua, released in 2003.
Enrique is the debut English album and fourth studio album by Enrique Iglesias recorded in English and released on 23 November 1999. The album launched two number one US Billboard Hot 100 hits, "Bailamos" and "Be with You".
The Look of Love is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer Diana Krall, released on September 18, 2001, by Verve Records. It became Krall's first album to top the Canadian Albums Chart. In 2002, the album earned Al Schmitt the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and received the Juno Award for Album of the Year in Canada.
Hot Shot is the fifth studio album released by Jamaican-American singer Shaggy. The album was first released on 8 August 2000, in the United States, before being issued in the United Kingdom on 9 October 2000, with a revised track listing. The revised UK edition was also released in Europe, but without the song "Why You Mad at Me?". The album was reissued in the UK on 26 March 2001. Hot Shot went on to be certified six times platinum in the United States by the RIAA, and was the second best-selling album of 2001 in that country. The album has sold over nine million copies worldwide. A remix album, entitled Hot Shot Ultramix, was released in June 2002. Four singles were released from the album: "It Wasn't Me", "Angel", "Luv Me, Luv Me" and the double A-side single "Dance & Shout / Hope".
The Essential Ozzy Osbourne is a compilation album by British heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne, released in 2003. It reached No. 81 on US charts and No. 21 in the UK. Tracks featured here from the first two albums are the re-recorded versions from recent reissues as well as the remixed Bark at the Moon tracks. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA on 5 February 2005 with an excess of 500,000 copies sold, then certified Platinum by the RIAA on 3 March 2016. This compilation was re-released in 2009 as a Limited Edition 3.0 package with an additional disc of bonus songs that were not on the original release.
Piece by Piece is the second studio album by British jazz and blues singer Katie Melua. It was released on 26 September 2005 by Dramatico Records. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at #1 with 120,459 copies sold in its first week.
The Hits – Chapter One, also known as Greatest Hits – Chapter One internationally, is the first greatest hits album released by American boy band, the Backstreet Boys. The album features 15 songs by the group, as well as a new song, "Drowning". "Drowning" was the album's only single, peaking at number four on the UK Singles Chart and charting in the top 10 in several countries.
Ronan is the self-titled debut solo album by Irish singer-songwriter and Boyzone frontman, Ronan Keating. It was released by Polydor Records on 31 July 2000, and became a commercial success.
Collection is a greatest hits album by American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, released on October 30, 2001, by Elektra Records and WEA International.
American entertainer Cher has released 27 studio albums, 11 compilation albums, two soundtrack albums, and three live albums. Widely recognized as the Goddess of Pop, Cher has sold over 100 million records worldwide and a further 40 million as part of Sonny & Cher, making her one of the best-selling female recording artists in history. Billboard ranked her as the 109th Greatest Artist of all time and the 49th Greatest Hot 100 Artist of all time. According to RIAA, she has sold 12.5 million albums in the United States. Her signature hit "Believe" has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, and it is the UK's best-selling single by a female artist in history, and one of the best-selling physical singles of all time.
Coast to Coast is the second studio album by Irish boy band Westlife. It was released on 6 November 2000 by RCA Records. Five hit singles were released from the album: "Against All Odds", "My Love", "What Makes a Man", "I Lay My Love on You" and "When You're Looking Like That". The album was a commercial success in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, selling 1.8 million copies in Britain alone. The album was the third-best selling of 2000 in Britain. As of October 2001, it sold seven million copies worldwide.
Simply Eva is the eighth posthumous album by Eva Cassidy, released on 25 January 2011, fifteen years after her death in 1996. It's a collection of 11 acoustic tracks with Cassidy herself on the guitar and an a cappella version of "I Know You By Heart". The Blues Alley version of "Over the Rainbow", which was not included in the Live at Blues Alley album, is on this album. Digital downloads include the Christmas single "Silent Night" as a bonus track. Simply Eva hit #4 on the UK Charts on February 13, 2011, and was certified silver and gold on February 18, 2011. The album debuted at #52 on the Canadian Albums Chart.
This article is a discography of Eva Cassidy, an American vocalist known for her interpretations of jazz, blues, folk, gospel, country and pop classics.
The Very Best of Dolly Parton is a compilation album by Dolly Parton, released 7 March 2007. It was certified platinum in Australia, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Chaos and the Calm is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter James Bay. It was first released on 23 March 2015 via Republic Records.
Nightbird is a 2-CD plus 1-DVD live album by American singer Eva Cassidy, released posthumously in November 2015, nineteen years after her death. The album was recorded at the Blues Alley club in Washington, D.C. in January 1996. Some of the tracks had previously been released on the 1996 album, Live at Blues Alley. The recordings have been remixed and remastered from the original tapes. Of the 31 songs, 12 are previously unreleased, including the title track "Nightbird", as well as the jazz standards "It Don't Mean a Thing " and "Fever". Of the 12 unreleased tracks, eight are previously unheard songs. The DVD which accompanies the 2 audio CDs contains 12 songs from the same set, of which 9 were previously included on the 2004 DVD release Eva Cassidy Sings and the remaining 3 are released for the first time.