Lisa Stansfield

This article may require copy-editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (April 2008)

Lisa Stansfield is the eponymous fourth solo album by British pop / soul singer Lisa Stansfield, released in March 1997 on the BMG label in the UK and Arista Records in the United States. The album was produced by Stansfield's husband, Ian Devaney. It was Stansfield's first studio album in four years; So Natural, her third studio effort, was released in 1993.

The original album

In mid-Nineties, Lisa Stansfield was surely the most famous British soul singer in the world. Since her debut album, Affection, came out in 1989, producing some 6 singles, including her first international Number 1 song, "All Around the World" (then successfully re-interpreted with her own Number 1 idol, Barry White), Lisa had never stopped, with her first three albums all going platinum, and a dozen hit singles.

Her one eponymous album, actually out in 1997, after a long and deserved 4-year pause, follows in the musical footsteps of the previous record, which had seen, as mentioned, one of her childhood mates, Andy Morris (trumpeter, keyboardist and producer, with her at school, in the group called Blue Zone, and on her first two solo LP) leaving her band for good, while a closer collaboration of Stansfield with her husband Ian Devaney, also producer and musician, started out. The new winning formula is here reproposed (as 1992 Real Love had followed in the footsteps of the extraordinary first record), in enhanced version: more composers, more producers, more musicians (see infobox).

The new work sees Lisa Stansfield in splendid vocal form, fully dedicated to the purest kind of soul music, after her more dance and acid house-oriented debut, wrapped up in decidedly slower rhythms, even though more uptempo episodes are also featured, above all her two new UK Top 10 hit singles, "The Real Thing", and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels bootleg remix of her very first hit, "People Hold On", her actual solo debut, in 1989 original version, though along with producing duo Coldcut back then. The artist herself explains the album as being one of her most beautiful and easiest to do, the product of a wonderful Summer, with Ian stuck in the studio, while she went repeatedly walking out in the Sun, searching for inspiration, which she thinks can actually be felt listening to the many songs of what she defines as a 'sunny album'^[1].

Lisa's long absence from the scenes, far from risking to forget her, only increases the love and warmth of her loyal audience, pushing the album up to Number 2 in Great Britain, where only her debut long playing work had peaked. Totally, 7 singles are taken from this lucky record (one more than Affection), including the two mentioned UK Top 10 hits (exactly, "The Real Thing" gets to Number 7, while "People Hold On" high-spirited remix, originally an unauthorized bootleg, which soon becomes loved and acknowledged by Lisa herself, who has to have it on the first CD edition of the album, climbs the chart to peak at Number 4, seven positions higher than 1989 original version with Coldcut), and no less than 4 Number One hits in the United States Hot Dance Club Play chart. "People Hold On" was the first to reach #1, followed later at the top by "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up". "Never Gonna Fall" was the third #1 from the album, and "I'm Leavin'" became the last single from the album to reach the top. The seventh and last single, "Don't Cry for Me", didn't actually have the time or the possibility to enter the charts, as it was withdrawn from the market either shortly before or after release (following the different territories).

Among the other tracks (14 in the original vinyl record, her longest track listing ever, usually stuck on 13 songs, despite superstition - and seen the sales, she was undoubtedly right), the following must be remembered: "I Cried My Last Tear Last Night", an intense soul ballad; "Footsteps", with its acoustic guitar and lyrics which, following Nigel Williamson's review - who wrote the new sleeve notes for all of Lisa's 2003 remastered compact disc editions - might have been written by Carole King's pen ('Don't give up/You're not alone (...) If there's one set of footsteps/I'll be carrying you'); and the cover version of another soul tune, the most upbeat song of the record, "You Know How to Love Me", by Phyllis Hyman, first out in 1979, which almost seems to be the theme song of a TV cartoon.

Such an important work could not but feature a number of bonus tracks, which are different depending upon the multiple editions, including 1997 original CD version, which already contained "People Hold On" Dirty Rotten Scoundrels remix and an alternative remix of the second single and second UK Top 10 hit, "The Real Thing". The 2003 remastered CD edition features, obviously besides "People Hold On" bootleg remix (the remix of "The Real Thing" is instead omitted, this way becoming quite rare), two more tracks, originally not included on the album. These are "Breathtaking", B-side of the withdrawn last single "Don't Cry for Me", and "Baby Come Back", already included on the Japanese edition of the work.

Achievements

In short, the original LP and MC both include 14 tracks; the first CD edition of 1997 contains 16 tracks; the remastered compact disc edition of 2003 features 17 songs.

Totally, 7 singles were taken out the album: 4 in the United Kingdom and continental Europe ("People Hold On" bootleg remix by Dirty Rotten Scoundrel, "The Real Thing", "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up", and "The Line"), and 3 more in the United States ("Never Gonna Fall", "I'm Leavin'", and "Don't Cry for Me"), though the latter was withdrawn from the market.

The album got to Number 2 in the UK, Number 55 in the U.S., and Number 57 in Australia, while it made the Top 15 in Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. As concerns the singles, "People Hold On" remix, and "The Real Thing" peaked at Number 4 and Number 9, respectively, in the UK Singles Chart, while 4 singles went to Number 1 in the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play ("People Hold On" remix, "Never Never Gonna Give You Up", "Never Gonna Fall", and "I'm Leavin'").

The 2003 remastered CD edition contains 3 bonus tracks, including the B-side "Breathtaking" (originally coupled with "Don't Cry for Me"), and another previously unreleased song, "Baby Come Back", from the Japanese edition of the original album.

Finally, it must be remembered that "The Real Thing" has become one of her most successful singles ever; in Italy, for example, by peaking at Number 4, it has become her third bestselling single there, after "Change" and "All Around the World" which reached Number 2 and Number 3, respectively, while the album itself reached Number 68 in the Italian yearly Top 100 album charts of 1997. The whole album was so successful in the U.S. that a remixed version of it was released by request of the dance community there in 1998, including 6 tracks in different versions for 9 remixes totally.

The remix album

In 1998, Lisa Stansfield was indeed re-released as a remix album, for the U.S. dance market only, including 9 dance-oriented remixes of the following 6 tracks from the fourth eponymous long playing of the previous year: "I'm Leavin'" (in 2 different remixes), "Never Never Gonna Give You Up" (also 2 remixed versions), "Never Gonna Fall" (again 2 remixes), "The Real Thing", "The Line", and "People Hold On".

The latter is in fact once again reproposed in the bootleg remix version, such was the success of the original remix by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, already included on the first 1997 edition of the CD - Lisa loved this song so much that, not only she wanted it on the album, but she also put it on the remix album, and, considering it was also released as a single, in the first place, this makes the song featured 3 times in 3 different locations, all authorized by the singer herself, who left the remix completely unaltered.

The 1998 remix album is less known as The #1 Remixes (EP), which is a little bit weird, since this is actually its official title, the one featured on the sleeve, though the title which is most commonly referred to is Lisa Stansfield - The Remix Album, this way either meaning the artist and the 1997 eponymous record, including the original versions of all subsequent remixes.

Track listing

1997 original album

1. "Never Gonna Fall" - 5:16
2. "The Real Thing" - 4:20
3. "I'm Leavin'" - 4:38
4. "Suzanne" - 4:59
5. "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up" - 5:02
6. "Don't Cry for Me" - 5:03
7. "The Line" - 4:26
8. "The Very Thought of You" - 5:23
9. "You Know How to Love Me" - 5:32
10. "I Cried My Last Tear Last Night" - 4:13
11. "Honest" - 4:54
12. "Somewhere in Time" - 4:44
13. "Got Me Missing You" - 4:43
14. "Footsteps" - 3:48

Bonus tracks on 1997 CD edition

• (15) "The Real Thing" (Touch Mix) - 5:36
• (16) "People Hold On" (Bootleg Mix) - 3:42

Bonus tracks on 2003 remastered CD edition

• (15) "People Hold On" (Bootleg Mix) - 3:42
• (16) "Breathtaking" (B-side of the single "Don't Cry for Me") - 4:50
• (17) "Baby Come Back" (bonus track on Lisa Stansfield album Japanese edition) - 3:34

Singles taken from the album

• "People Hold On" (Bootleg Mix)
• "The Real Thing"
• "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up"
• "The Line"
• "Never Gonna Fall"
• "I'm Leavin'"
• "Don't Cry for Me"

Charts

Album

Singles

References