A Woman and a Man

For the 1971 Egyptian film, see A Woman and a Man (film).
A Woman and a Man
Studio album by Belinda Carlisle
Released September 11, 1996 (1996-09-11)
Recorded The Journey Room, Malibu, California
Genre Pop
Length 43:14 (Original version)
39:32 (U.S. version)
Label Chrysalis
Producer David Tickle
Belinda Carlisle chronology
Real
(1993)		 A Woman and a Man
(1996)		 A Place on Earth: The Greatest Hits
(1999)
Singles from A Woman and 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 and a Man is the sixth studio album by American singer Belinda Carlisle, released in the United Kingdom on September 23, 1996 by Chrysalis Records. It was the first album Carlisle had released since departing Virgin Records. The album is full of songs that show how Carlisle's style had matured compared to her earlier releases, written by Rick Nowels, Maria Vidal, Ellen Shipley, Charlotte Caffey, Neil Finn and Roxette cofounder Per Gessle who also produced one of the tracks.

It was released in the United States in 1997 (see 1997 in music) on the Ark 21 Records label. The track listing was different 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.

Contents

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Entertainment Weekly (C-) [2]

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

It made its debut on the UK Albums Chart on September 30, 1996 at number twelve. It became a successful album, in UK it outselling her previous album, Real, and reviving her career in the singles chart – producing two top tens and a top twenty. It spent a short time in the top seventy-five falling out of it after just five weeks and was in the top two hundred for thirteen weeks accrediting gold by BPI. It was released in the U.S. but failed to chart on the Billboard 200 album charts with total sales of 17,000 copies.[3]

The album charted on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart on November 11, 1996 at number thirty-one 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 as well peaking at number thirty-six and stayed in the charts for two weeks. Of all Carlisle's albums this was her lowest charting in Sweden peaking at number forty-four and only spending one week in the charts.In Italy, A Woman and a Man peaked #35 for one week.

The singles had a fair share of success in most music markets. "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" was the second song released from the album, written and produced by Per Gessle of Roxette. It too was a top ten hit in the UK and Carlisle's second hit from this album. "Love in the Key of C" the third song released, became Carlisle's tenth top twenty hit. "California" was the final and fourth song released and was not as successful as the others but managed to chart in the top forty in the UK.

Track listing

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

American version

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "In Too Deep"   Nowels 4:08
2. "California"   Nowels, Steinberg, Vidal 2:56
3. "A Woman and a Man"   Seidman, Vidal 5:10
4. "Jealous Guy"   John Lennon 4:07
5. "Remember September"   Nowels, Shipley 4:21
6. "He Goes On"   Finn 3:12
7. "Kneel at Your Feet"   Caffey, Caffey, Carlisle 4:25
8. "Love in the Key of C"   Nowels 3:59
9. "My Heart Goes Out to You"   Bagge, Nowels, Rich 3:24
10. "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan"   Silverstein 3:50

Charts & certifications

Peak Positions

Chart (1996) Peak
Position
Australian Albums Chart[4] 31
Austrian Albums Chart[4] 36
Japanese Oricon Albums Chart[5] 34
Swedish Albums Chart[4] 44
UK Albums Chart[6] 12

Certifications

Region Certification Sales/shipments
United Kingdom (BPI)[7] Gold 100,000^
United States 17,000[3]

^shipments figures based on certification alone

Release history

Region Date Label Format Catalog
Japan September 11, 1996 EMI CD TOCP-50002
United Kingdom September 23, 1996 Chrysalis Records 724385354526
Australia October 16, 1996 853545-2

Personnel

  • Rory Kaplan – piano, keyboards (tracks 1 and 2), drum programming
  • Brian Lapin – assistant engineer, mixing
  • Louis Metoyer – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, guitar
  • Clarence Ofwerman – keyboards, programming, producer
  • Ellen Shipley – background vocals (track 1)
  • David Tickle – producer, engineer, mixing
  • Maria Vidal – background vocals (track 1)
  • Ellen Von Unwerth – photography
  • Brian Wilson – background vocals (track 2)
  • Randy Wine – engineer, mixing
  • Steve Wren – drums (tracks 1 and 2)
  • Red Young – organ

References

  1. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. A Woman and a Man at Allmusic
  2. ^ a b {{cite web|url=http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,288888,00.html|title= Entertainment Weekly Review|first=Steven|last= Mirkin ]
  3. ^ a b Keith Caulfield "Ask Billboard". Billboard. Retrieved September 23, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c [1]. australianchart.com. Retrieved 25 June 2011.
  5. ^ "Japan Chart Position". http://ranking.oricon.co.jp/free_contents/search/ranking_list.asp?itemcd=262463&samecd=1&chart_kbn=11A&linkcd=30034638. Retrieved August 2, 2007. 
  6. ^ "UK Chart Position". http://www.everyhit.com/searchsec.php. Retrieved October 26, 2006. 
  7. ^ "British album certifications – Belinda Carlisle – A Woman and a Man". British Phonographic Industry. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx.  Enter A Woman and a Man in the field Search. Select Title in the field Search by. Select album in the field By Format. Click Go
Belinda Carlisle
Studio albums
Belinda · Heaven on Earth · Runaway Horses · Live Your Life Be Free · Real · A Woman and a Man · Voila
Compilations
Singles
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