WHEN THE GIRL
GOES DOWN
THAT'S THE WAY
I LIKE IT
(The Forgotten Album )
Crack a Smile... and More!
is the fifth
studio album
from the American
hard rock band
The record was released on
March 14, 2000.
The album features
guitarist
Blues Saraceno,
who was hired as
the band's new
lead guitarist
following the firing of
Richie Kotzen
in late 1993.
Saraceno appeared on
the band's last
album release
Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986–1996
in 1996,
which featured
two new tracks
with him on
lead guitar.
Those two new tracks
re-appear on this album
along with thirteen
new songs
and
five bonus tracks.
The album moved around
12,000 copies
in its first week of release
to debut at
#131 on the
Billboard
200 album chart.
Musical Style
Crack a Smile,'
while replete with guitar
performances comparable
with those on
Poison's previous studio record,
Native Tongue,
contains few traces of
the seriousness
of that record.
Production and Marketing
The life cycle of
Crack a Smile,
which began in 1994,
was brought to an
abrupt halt in May 1994,
when vocalist
Bret Michaels
lost control of his Ferrari.
Michaels suffered
a broken nose,
ribs,
jaw and fingers,
and lost
four teeth.
After his recovery,
the band continued
recording in 1995.
However,
to the band's dismay,
Capitol Records
had by this time
decided to put the album
"on hold",
and instead released a
Greatest Hits record
in 1996.
It was not until
March 14, 2000,
that the record was
finally released.
The album's eventual release
was prompted by
strong fan demand,
with promotional copies
and bootlegs selling for
$50 or more.
In order to compete with
the bootleg release,
Capitol took the unusual step
of throwing in
additional bonus tracks
to the album.
The bootleg version
of the album
contained the original
12 album tracks,
6 songs from
Poison's
MTV Unplugged performance,
and their cover
of the Kiss classic
"Rock and Roll All Nite."
The final version
of the album,
titled
Crack a Smile...and More!,
contained the original
12 album tracks,
two studio outtakes,
one unnamed demo,
"Face the Hangman"
previously released
only as a B-side
on European singles for
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
and four
of the songs from
MTV Unplugged.
Saraceno was given \
considerable creative freedom
and his writing and performing
contributions dominated
the album.
The album's studio tracks
were recorded at
Devonshire Studios,
Hollywood, California.
Saraceno plays on
these new songs
(tracks 1–15),
and original guitarist
C.C. DeVille
plays on the
remaining bonus tracks,
which are tracks
recorded before this time.
The songs
"Sexual Thing"
and
"Lay Your Body Down"
were first released on
Poison's Greatest Hits: 1986–1996
as bonus new tracks.
NOTES :
On This Upload
The Last 4 Tracks
(MTV Unplugged)
is One Track
No comments:
Post a Comment