Memphis Blues (album)
Encyclopedia
Memphis Blues is the eleventh studio album
by American singer Cyndi Lauper
, nominee for the Grammy Awards 2010, was released on June 22, 2010. The album sold over 600,000 copies worldwide. Memphis Blues was voted the 7th best album of 2010 by tabloid
global influence New York Post
.
account in December 2009 that she would be recording a blues
album. Sessions were held in March 2010 at Electrophonic Studios in Memphis, Tennessee
with producer Scott Bomar, her frequent collaborator Bill Wittman and special guests B. B. King
, Charlie Musselwhite
, Ann Peebles
and Allen Toussaint
.
.
Lauper appeared on The Joy Behar Show
on June 21, The Howard Stern Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show
on June 22, Good Morning America
on June 23 and Live with Regis and Kelly
on June 24.
Lauper was honored at the 2010 NARM Awards and performed several songs from the Memphis Blues album at the event.
Lauper appeared on The Early Show
on July 20. She performed "Crossroads" with Jonny Lang on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
on August 30.
, with moderately successful first week sales of more than 16,000 copies . The album is Lauper's third-highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 of her career, trailing only her first two releases, She's So Unusual
and True Colors
. The album remained at #1 on the Billboard Blues chart for thirteen weeks, totaling 40 weeks in the chart. In addition, seven songs from the album ranked in the Top 25 on Billboard' s Blues Digital Songs chart, including "Crossroads" at number one.
| align="center"| || Memphis Blues || Best Traditional Blues Album
||
|-
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by American singer Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, nominee for the Grammy Awards 2010, was released on June 22, 2010. The album sold over 600,000 copies worldwide. Memphis Blues was voted the 7th best album of 2010 by tabloid
Tabloid
A tabloid is a newspaper with compact page size smaller than broadsheet, although there is no standard for the precise dimensions of the tabloid newspaper format...
global influence New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
.
Background
Lauper announced via her official TwitterTwitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account in December 2009 that she would be recording a blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
album. Sessions were held in March 2010 at Electrophonic Studios in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
with producer Scott Bomar, her frequent collaborator Bill Wittman and special guests B. B. King
B. B. King
Riley B. King , known by the stage name B.B. King, is an American blues guitarist and singer-songwriter.Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at No.3 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. According to Edward M...
, Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
, Ann Peebles
Ann Peebles
Ann Peebles is an African American singer-songwriter who gained celebrity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label...
and Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint
Allen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
.
Promotion
Lauper performed songs from the album on The Late Show with David Letterman on June 14. Lauper is supporting the album with the Memphis Blues TourMemphis Blues Tour
The Memphis Blues Tour is the fourteenth concert tour by American recording artist, Cyndi Lauper. In support of her eleventh studio album, the tour visited the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe. During the trek, Lauper performed at numerous jazz festivals including the New Orleans Jazz &...
.
Lauper appeared on The Joy Behar Show
The Joy Behar Show
The Joy Behar Show is a news program and talk show that premiered on HLN on September 29, 2009. The show is hosted by Joy Behar, who is one of the five co-hosts of The View. The show originally aired in the 9:00PM EST slot and 8:00PM CST, but was moved to 10:00PM EST in January 2011...
on June 21, The Howard Stern Show and The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
The Ellen DeGeneres Show, often shortened to Ellen, is an American television talk show hosted by comedian/actress Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it is produced by Telepictures and airs in syndication, including stations owned by NBC Universal. For its first five seasons, the show...
on June 22, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
on June 23 and Live with Regis and Kelly
Live with Regis and Kelly
Live! with Kelly is a syndicated American television morning talk show, hosted by Kelly Ripa. The show has aired since 1983 in New York City and 1988 nationwide. Tony Pigg has been the show's announcer since its inception...
on June 24.
Lauper was honored at the 2010 NARM Awards and performed several songs from the Memphis Blues album at the event.
Lauper appeared on The Early Show
The Early Show
The Early Show is an American television morning news talk show broadcast by CBS from New York City. The program airs live from 7 to 9 a.m. Eastern Time Monday through Friday; most affiliates in the Central, Mountain, and Pacific time zones air the show on tape-delay from 7 to 9 a.m. local time. ...
on July 20. She performed "Crossroads" with Jonny Lang on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that initially aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, and resumed production on March 1, 2010. The fourth incarnation of the Tonight Show franchise made its debut on May 25, 1992, three days following Johnny...
on August 30.
Track listing
- "Just Your FoolJust Your Fool"Just Your Fool" is a song by Chicago blues musician Little Walter released in 1962 as Checker 1013. In 2010, Cyndi Lauper released the song as the lead single from her album Memphis Blues, which features Charlie Musselwhite...
" (featuring Charlie MusselwhiteCharlie MusselwhiteCharlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
) (Marion Walter JacobsLittle WalterLittle Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs , was an American blues harmonica player, whose revolutionary approach to his instrument has earned him comparisons to Charlie Parker and Jimi Hendrix, for innovation and impact on succeeding generations...
) – 3:35 - "Shattered Dreams" (featuring Allen ToussaintAllen ToussaintAllen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
) (Lowell FulsonLowell FulsonLowell Fulson was a big-voiced blues guitarist and songwriter, in the West Coast blues tradition. Fulson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He also recorded for business reasons as Lowell Fullsom and Lowell Fulsom...
, Washington Ferdinand) – 3:52 - "Early in the Mornin'Early in the Mornin' (Louis Jordan song)"Early in the Mornin" or "Early in the Morning" is a song that was recorded by Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five in 1947. It is an early example of a blues which incorporates Afro-Cuban rhythms and percussive instruments...
" (featuring Allen ToussaintAllen ToussaintAllen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
and B.B. King) (Leo Hickman, Louis JordanLouis JordanLouis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
, Dallas Bartley) – 3:51 - "Romance in the Dark" (Roxanne Seeman & Philipp Steinke) – 5:42
- "How Blue Can You Get?How Blue Can You Get"How Blue Can You Get" is a song that is a classic of the blues. A slow twelve-bar blues, the song is credited to jazz critic Leonard Feather and his wife, Jane Feather. It has been recorded by several blues and other artists; in 1964, it was a hit for B.B...
" (featuring Jonny LangJonny LangJonny Lang is a Grammy award-winning American blues, gospel, and rock singer, songwriter and recording artist. Lang's music is notable for both his unusual voice, which has been compared to that of a forty-year-old blues veteran, and for his guitar solos...
) (Jane Feather) – 5:21 - "Down Don't Bother Me" (featuring Charlie MusselwhiteCharlie MusselwhiteCharlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
) (Albert KingAlbert KingAlbert King was an American blues guitarist and singer, and a major influence in the world of blues guitar playing.-Career:...
) – 3:01 - "Don't Cry No More" (Don RobeyDon RobeyDon Robey was an American record label executive, songwriter and record producer, who used criminal means as part of his business model...
) – 2:43 - "Rollin' and Tumblin'Rollin' and Tumblin'"Rollin' and Tumblin" is a blues song that has been recorded hundreds of times by various artists. Considered as a traditional, it has been recorded with different lyrics and titles...
" (featuring Ann PeeblesAnn PeeblesAnn Peebles is an African American singer-songwriter who gained celebrity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label...
) (Traditional) (Muddy WatersMuddy WatersMcKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
) – 3:26 - "Down So Low" (Tracy NelsonTracy Nelson (singer)-Youth in Wisconsin:Nelson was born and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. There she first learned about R&B music from WLAC radio in Nashville. In her teens, Nelson sang folk music in coffeehouses and with a group called The Fuller's Wood Singers and was lead singer in a band called The Fabulous...
) – 3:53 - "Mother Earth" (featuring Allen Toussaint) (Memphis SlimMemphis SlimMemphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer, and composer. He led a series of bands that, reflecting the popular appeal of jump blues, included saxophones, bass, drums, and piano. A song he first cut in 1947, "Every Day I Have the Blues", has become a blues standard, recorded by many other...
, Peter Chatman) – 5:18 - "CrossroadsCross Road Blues"Cross Road Blues" is a song by Delta Blues singer Robert Johnson; released on a 78 rpm record in 1936 by Vocalion Records, catalogue 3519. The original version remained out of print after its initial release until the appearance of The Complete Recordings in 1990...
" (featuring Jonny Lang) (Robert Johnson) – 4:42 - "Wild Women Don't Have the BluesWild Women Don't Have the Blues"Wild Women Don't Have the Blues", "Wild Women Don't Get the Blues", or simply "Wild Women" is an American popular song composed by singer Ida Cox in the blues style, in 1924. It has a strong feminist message. From date, it has been performed by numerous musicians, notably by its composer Ida Cox...
" (Ida CoxIda CoxIda Cox was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings...
) [Amazon.com MP3, Latin America and Europe bonus track] – 3:22 - "I Don't Want to Cry" (featuring Leo GandelmanLéo GandelmanLéonardo Gandelman is a Brazilian saxophonist, composer and producer. He has played with Lulu Santos, and guest appeared in Titãs' single "Televisão"...
) (Chuck JacksonChuck JacksonChuck Jackson is an R&B singer who was one of the first artists to record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David successfully. He has performed with moderate success since 1961...
) [Latin America bonus track] – 4:27
Weekly charts
Memphis Blues debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard Top Blues chart and at number #26 on the official Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
, with moderately successful first week sales of more than 16,000 copies . The album is Lauper's third-highest-charting album on the Billboard 200 of her career, trailing only her first two releases, She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual
She's So Unusual is the debut studio album by American pop singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper. Released in 1983 by Portrait Records, the album catapulted Lauper to stardom with such hits as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", "All Through the Night", and "Money Changes...
and True Colors
True Colors
*Unreleased tracks:**"Heading for the Moon" appeared as the B-side of "True Colors".**"Heartbeats", which was just an extended mix of the "Change of Heart" bass & drums, appeared on the 12" single of "Change of Heart"....
. The album remained at #1 on the Billboard Blues chart for thirteen weeks, totaling 40 weeks in the chart. In addition, seven songs from the album ranked in the Top 25 on Billboard
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... 200 |
26 |
| Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Blues Albums Year-End Chart |
1 |
| Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Blues Albums |
1 |
| Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Digital Albums |
21 |
| Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Independent Albums |
2 |
| Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Tastemaker Albums |
12 |
| Belgium Albums Chart (Wallonia) | 79 |
| Belgium Albums Chart (Flanders) | 77 |
| Cashbox Top Popular Albums | 19 |
| Cashbox Top Blues Albums | 1 |
| Canadian Albums Chart | 45 |
| German Albums Chart | 77 |
| Greek Albums Chart | 45 |
| Swiss Albums Chart | 77 |
| French Albums Chart | 31 |
| Japanese Albums Chart | 11 |
| UK Independent Albums | 13 |
| UK Albums Chart | 103 |
Singles
| Year | Songs | Peak positions | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Billboard Digital Blues Songs | Cashbox Blues Songs | Canadian Blues Songs | New Zealand Blues Songs | Japan Blues Songs | Irish Singles Chart | ||||||
| 2010 | "Just Your Fool Just Your Fool "Just Your Fool" is a song by Chicago blues musician Little Walter released in 1962 as Checker 1013. In 2010, Cyndi Lauper released the song as the lead single from her album Memphis Blues, which features Charlie Musselwhite... " |
1 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 66 | ||||
| "Crossroads" | 1 | 50 | — | — | 15 | — | |||||
| "How Blue Can You Get?" | 5 | — | 5 | 20 | — | — | |||||
| "Rollin' and Tumblin'" | 2 | — | 3 | 2 | 4 | — | |||||
| "Early in the Mornin'" | 1 | 15 | 5 | 2 | 5 | — | |||||
| "Romance in the Dark" | 17 | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| "Shattered Dreams" | 25 | — | — | — | 1 | — | |||||
| "I Don't Want to Cry" | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | |||||
Grammy
|-| align="center"| || Memphis Blues || Best Traditional Blues Album
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album
The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album was awarded from 1983 to 2011. From 2001 to 2003 the award recipients included the producers and engineers as well as the artists...
||
|-
Personnel
- Scott Bomar – productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
- B.B. King – guest vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
- Jonny LangJonny LangJonny Lang is a Grammy award-winning American blues, gospel, and rock singer, songwriter and recording artist. Lang's music is notable for both his unusual voice, which has been compared to that of a forty-year-old blues veteran, and for his guitar solos...
– vocals - Cyndi LauperCyndi LauperCynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
– production, vocals - Charlie MusselwhiteCharlie MusselwhiteCharlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
- harmonica - Ann PeeblesAnn PeeblesAnn Peebles is an African American singer-songwriter who gained celebrity for her Memphis soul albums of the 1970s on the Hi Records label...
– guest vocals - "Skip" Charles PittsCharles PittsCharles "Skip" Pitts is an American soul / blues guitarist whose distinctive "wah-wah" style can be heard on Isaac Hayes' title track from the 1971 movie Shaft....
- Lester Snell
- Allen ToussaintAllen ToussaintAllen Toussaint is an American musician, composer, record producer, and influential figure in New Orleans R&B.Many of Toussaint's songs have become familiar through numerous cover versions, including "Working in the Coalmine", "Ride Your Pony", "Fortune Teller", "Play Something Sweet ", "Southern...
– keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments... - William Wittman
- Howard GrimesHoward GrimesHoward Lee Grimes is an American drummer, best known as a member of the Hi Rhythm Section on records by Al Green, Ann Peebles and others in the 1970s....
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Leroy HodgesLeroy HodgesElectric bass player Leroy "Flick" Hodges is a relatively unknown soul musician.Paired with either Booker T. & the MGs's drummer Al Jackson or Stax staff drummer Howard Grimes, Leroy and The Hodges Brothers were the backing musicians for Al Green, Ann Peebles and several other soul, gospel and...
– bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Marc Franklin – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
- Derrick WilliamsDerrick WilliamsDerrick Williams is an American football wide receiver who is currently a free agent. He was selected by the Detroit Lions with the 18th pick of the 3rd round of the 2009 NFL Draft...
– tenor sax - Kirk Smothers – baritone sax