TRACY CHAPMAN
''GREATEST HITS''
NOVEMBER 20 2015
77:30
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1 Telling Stories 03:58
2 Baby Can I Hold You 03:12
3 Change 05:04
4 The Promise 05:25
5 Open Arms 04:34
6 Subcity 05:10
7 Fast Car 04:56
8 Bang Bang Bang 04:22
9 Crossroads 04:12
10 Speak The Word 04:10
11 Smoke And Ashes 06:38
12 Sing For You (Single Version) 03:41
13 You're The One 03:05
14 Save Us All 03:45
15 All That You Have Is Your Soul 05:14
16 Talkin' Bout A Revolution 02:39
17 Give Me One Reason 04:28
18 Stand By Me (Live At The Late Show With David Letterman) 02:49
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ABOUT THE ALBUM
ELEKTRA/RHINO RECORDS TO RELEASE TRACY CHAPMAN’S GREATEST HITS ON NOVEMBER 20, 2015
ALBUM COMPILES OVER 25 YEARS OF MUSIC FOR THE FIRST
Tracy Chapman releases her long-awaited Greatest Hits album on November 20 through Elektra/Rhino Records. This new collection brings together, for the first time, classic tracks from Chapman’s celebrated career that now spans four decades and includes eight best-selling studio albums. Compiled by Chapman herself, the featured songs have also been newly remastered. Since her eponymous debut in 1988, Chapman has captivated audiences around the globe with her pure voice, evocative songs and intense spirit, and her ear for authenticity infuses these 18 tracks with a visceral and emotional resonance.
Tracy Chapman has created a body of work that has been as consistently compelling as it is honest and uncompromising, eloquently telling stories with perennial appeal that are at once personal and universal. Impervious to trends, she has commendably stayed her musical course, earning the approbation of fans, critics and peers, beginning in 1988 with the release of Tracy Chapman. The multi-platinum debut album earned three Grammy Awards and featured the classic singles ‘Fast Car’, ‘Talkin’ Bout A Revolution’, and ‘Baby Can I Hold You’. It went on to become one of the most successful debuts of all time, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide. To this day, it still makes regular appearances on album charts around the world, and is one of the most successful albums by a female artist in chart history. Chapman’s musical journey has continued with 1989’s Crossroads (RIAA platinum, internationally multi-platinum), 1992’s Matters Of The Heart (RIAA gold), 1995’s multi-platinum New Beginning (which featured the Grammy-winning single ‘Give Me One Reason’), 2000’s Telling Stories (RIAA gold, internationally platinum), 2002’s Let It Rain (internationally platinum), 2005’s Where You Live, and her eighth studio album, 2008’s Our Bright Future. Along the way, in addition to her four Grammys, Chapman has earned an American Music Award, two Brits, and a Billboard Music Award.
Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Chapman was awarded an academic scholarship to the prestigious Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut, and later attended Tufts University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology (in 2004 she received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from her alma mater). It was while she was there that she began singing in coffee houses, night clubs and street performing around Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Since her breakthrough performance at Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday concert in London in 1988, Tracy Chapman has appeared frequently in support of social and humanitarian causes, including Amnesty International’s Human Rights Now! Tour, the annual Bridge School benefit concerts, the Nelson Mandela Free South Africa Concert, Farm Aid, Tibetan Freedom Festival, Vote for Change, the Driving Votes tour, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and many others. Chapman made her theatre debut composing the music for a new production of Athol Fugard’s classic 1961 play Blood Knot, which opened at San Francisco’s A.C.T. in 2008, and was directed by Charles Randolph-Wright. In 2012, Chapman performed at the 35th annual Kennedy Center Honors, honouring Buddy Guy. In 2014, she sat on the domestic documentary jury at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2015, she was invited by David Letterman to sing ‘Stand By Me’ during his final season hosting The Late Show, commanding a stage entirely on her own for a performance – now included on this album – that demonstrated her enduring appeal and relevance.
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BIOGRAPHY/AMG
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracy Chapman helped restore singer/songwriters to the spotlight in the '80s. The multi-platinum success of Chapman's eponymous 1988 debut was unexpected, and it had lasting impact. Although Chapman was working from the same confessional singer/songwriter foundation that had been popularized in the '70s, her songs were fresh and powerful, driven by simple melodies and affecting lyrics. At the time of her first album, there were only a handful of artists performing such a style successfully, and her success ushered in a new era of singer/songwriters that lasted well into the '90s. Furthermore, her album helped usher in the era of political correctness -- along with 10,000 Maniacs and R.E.M., Chapman's liberal politics proved enormously influential on American college campuses in the late '80s. Of course, such implications meant that Chapman's subsequent recordings were greeted with mixed reactions, but after several years out of the spotlight, she managed to make a very successful comeback in 1996 with her fourth album, New Beginning, thanks to the Top Ten single "Give Me One Reason."
Raised in a working class neighborhood in Cleveland, OH, Chapman learned how to play guitar as a child, and began to write her own songs shortly afterward. Following high school, she won a minority placement scholarship and decided to attend Tufts University, where she studied anthropology and African studies. While at Tufts, she became fascinated with folk-rock and singer/songwriters, and began performing her own songs at coffeehouses. Eventually, she recorded a set of demos at the college radio station. One of her fellow students, Brian Koppelman, heard Chapman play and recommended her to his father, Charles Koppelman, who ran SBK Publishing. In 1986, she signed with SBK and Koppelman secured a management contract with Elliot Roberts, who had worked with Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Roberts and Koppelman helped Chapman sign to Elektra in 1987.
Chapman recorded her debut album with David Kershenbaum, and the resulting eponymous record was released in the spring of 1988. Tracy Chapman was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and she set out on the road supporting 10,000 Maniacs. Within a few months, she played at the internationally televised concert for Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday party, where her performance was greeted with thunderous applause. Soon, the single "Fast Car" began climbing the charts, eventually peaking at number six. The album's sales soared along with the single, and by the end of the year, the record had gone multi-platinum. Early the following year, the record won four Grammys, including Best New Artist.
It was an auspicious beginning to Chapman's career, and it was perhaps inevitable that her second album, 1989's darker, more political Crossroads, wasn't as successful. Although it was well-reviewed, the album wasn't as commercially successful, peaking at number nine and quickly falling down the charts. Following Crossroads, Chapman spent a few years in seclusion, returning in 1992 with Matters of the Heart. The album was greeted with mixed reviews and weak sales, and Chapman had fallen into cult status. Three years later, she returned with New Beginning, which received stronger reviews than its predecessor. The bluesy "Give Me One Reason" was pulled as the first single, and it slowly became a hit, sending the album into the U.S. Top Ten in early 1996. It was a quiet, successful comeback from an artist most observers had already consigned to forever languish in cult status. Telling Stories followed in early 2000. Let It Rain followed two years later. For 2005's Where You Live, Chapman co-produced the album with Tchad Blake. Our Bright Future, co-produced by Chapman and Larry Klein, appeared in 2008.
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