The Beacon Street Collection
Encyclopedia
In 1994, before recording of the album had even begun, No Doubt released two seven-inch singles for their fans. The first was "Squeal", a song written by Eric Stefani, detailing a criminal's reaction to her partner's betrayal to the police. They had agreed to be "in this together" but, after he "squeals
", she resolves to "kill the narc
who wrote it and said it [that she was guilty of a crime]". The single's B-side was "My Room Is Still Clean", written by Tony Kanal
and recorded live at the Icehouse in Fullerton, California
on February 13, 1993.
The second single was "Doghouse", written by Eric Stefani. It is about a man who is bullied and dominated by his girlfriend and is unwilling to force the situation to change. The song uses the metaphor of a dog and its master to illustrate the nature of the relationship, saying that she had got him "by the reins" and he has been "conditioned
" by her. The single's B-side was "You Can't Teach an Ol' Dog New Tricks", written by Eric Stefani.
and at No Doubt's shows. Its rawer sound proved popular with the band's fans and the band's first batch of one thousand copies sold out within only a few month after its release. Interscope realised the band's potential and allowed them to record their third album, Tragic Kingdom
in various Los Angeles
studios
, "wherever they could get a deal on a studio". During a recording session, the band was introduced to Paul Palmer, who was interested in mixing the new album. He owned his own record label Trauma Records
, which was associated with Interscope. Interscope willingly sublicensed the project to Trauma Records in 1995 and Tragic Kingdom got the personal focus that comes from a small company.
By the end of the year, 100,000 copies of The Beacon Street Collection had been sold, over three times as many as their first album, No Doubt. These sales were mostly due to the release of Tragic Kingdom, which was released seven months after The Beacon Street Collection in October 1995. Tragic Kingdom was a massive commercial success, reaching sales of over 10 million in the USA and 16 million worldwide
, peaking at number one on several charts and being certified
"diamond"(10,000,000 units=Diamond album) in the US and Canada and "platinum" in the UK and Australia. This success created an extensive interest in the band's back catalog so, in October 1997, The Beacon Street Collection was re-released on Interscope.
In an interview with Axcess Magazine in April 1996, Gwen Stefani described the release of The Beacon Street Collection as "one of the best things [they] ever did because [they] were able to take some songs that would have probably gotten lost and document them".
". Entertainment Weekly
, in 1997, called it "more focused than Tragic Kingdom" with "reggae
frat-house grooves and perky horns", and complimented "Gwen's
feisty Kewpie-doll wail" and the "swaying ballads", attributing it to "the band's willing spirit". Rock on the Net retrospectively called the album "a raw expression of their sound" and describing it as "80s punk
with 90s grunge.
Additional personnel
All information is from the Allmusic [ page] and No Doubt
's official website discography.
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...
", she resolves to "kill the narc
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
who wrote it and said it [that she was guilty of a crime]". The single's B-side was "My Room Is Still Clean", written by Tony Kanal
Tony Kanal
Tony Kanal is an English musician, record producer and songwriter. Kanal is the bassist for the American rock band No Doubt...
and recorded live at the Icehouse in Fullerton, California
Fullerton, California
Fullerton is a city located in northern Orange County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 135,161.It was founded in 1887 by George and Edward Amerige and named for George H. Fullerton, who secured the land on behalf of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway...
on February 13, 1993.
The second single was "Doghouse", written by Eric Stefani. It is about a man who is bullied and dominated by his girlfriend and is unwilling to force the situation to change. The song uses the metaphor of a dog and its master to illustrate the nature of the relationship, saying that she had got him "by the reins" and he has been "conditioned
Dog training
Dog training is the process of teaching skills or behaviors to a dog. This can include teaching a dog to respond to certain commands, or helping the dog learn coping skills for stressful environments. Dog training often includes operant conditioning, classical conditioning, or non-associative...
" by her. The single's B-side was "You Can't Teach an Ol' Dog New Tricks", written by Eric Stefani.
Reception
Significance
On its original release in March 1995, The Beacon Street Collection was only available in local record stores in Orange County, CaliforniaOrange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
and at No Doubt's shows. Its rawer sound proved popular with the band's fans and the band's first batch of one thousand copies sold out within only a few month after its release. Interscope realised the band's potential and allowed them to record their third album, Tragic Kingdom
Tragic Kingdom
Tragic Kingdom is the third studio album by the American third wave ska band No Doubt. It was released on October 10, 1995, on Trauma Records, a division of Interscope Records. The album was produced by Matthew Wilder, mixed by Paul Palmer, and recorded in 11 studios in the Greater Los Angeles Area...
in various Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
studios
Recording studio
A recording studio is a facility for sound recording and mixing. Ideally both the recording and monitoring spaces are specially designed by an acoustician to achieve optimum acoustic properties...
, "wherever they could get a deal on a studio". During a recording session, the band was introduced to Paul Palmer, who was interested in mixing the new album. He owned his own record label Trauma Records
Trauma Records
Trauma Records is a Los Angeles independent record label created in 1993 by Paul Palmer and Rob Kahane. Trauma Records had a Joint Venture Agreement with Interscope Records that included financing and distribution through Interscope Records....
, which was associated with Interscope. Interscope willingly sublicensed the project to Trauma Records in 1995 and Tragic Kingdom got the personal focus that comes from a small company.
By the end of the year, 100,000 copies of The Beacon Street Collection had been sold, over three times as many as their first album, No Doubt. These sales were mostly due to the release of Tragic Kingdom, which was released seven months after The Beacon Street Collection in October 1995. Tragic Kingdom was a massive commercial success, reaching sales of over 10 million in the USA and 16 million worldwide
, peaking at number one on several charts and being certified
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
"diamond"(10,000,000 units=Diamond album) in the US and Canada and "platinum" in the UK and Australia. This success created an extensive interest in the band's back catalog so, in October 1997, The Beacon Street Collection was re-released on Interscope.
In an interview with Axcess Magazine in April 1996, Gwen Stefani described the release of The Beacon Street Collection as "one of the best things [they] ever did because [they] were able to take some songs that would have probably gotten lost and document them".
Critical
Allmusic called the album "finer than the [band's] debut", and described it as containing more of a "raw sound inspired [...] by punk" than the style of No Doubt's first album, which was heavily "synth and new waveNew Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, in 1997, called it "more focused than Tragic Kingdom" with "reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
frat-house grooves and perky horns", and complimented "Gwen's
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
feisty Kewpie-doll wail" and the "swaying ballads", attributing it to "the band's willing spirit". Rock on the Net retrospectively called the album "a raw expression of their sound" and describing it as "80s punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
with 90s grunge.
Track listing
Personnel
No Doubt- Tom DumontTom DumontTom Dumont is an American guitarist and producer. Dumont is a member of third wave ska band No Doubt, and during the band's hiatus, he began Invincible Overlord as a side project and produced Matt Costa's Songs We Sing.-Life and career:The Dumont family lived in Irvine, California...
- guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Tony KanalTony KanalTony Kanal is an English musician, record producer and songwriter. Kanal is the bassist for the American rock band No Doubt...
- bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Eric StefaniEric StefaniEric Matthew Stefani is an American musician, composer, writer and animator, best known as a former member of the pop rock band No Doubt. He is the older brother of Gwen Stefani and is also a former animator on the animated sitcom The Simpsons.-Biography:Stefani attended Loara High School in...
- keyboardKeyboard 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... - Gwen StefaniGwen StefaniGwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
- 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... - Adrian YoungAdrian YoungAdrian Samuel Young is the drummer for the rock band No Doubt.-Biography:Young's parents were hippies. He has four brothers: Alex, Damian, Jeff and Aaron. His father is a teacher in Cypress CA and his stepmother, Jeanne, is currently suffering from ALS...
- percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, 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 ....
Additional personnel
- Bradley NowellBradley NowellBradley James Nowell was an American musician who served as lead singer and guitarist of the Californian band Sublime. He died at the age of 28 from a heroin overdose shortly before the release of Sublime's self-titled major label debut.Raised in Long Beach, California, Nowell developed an...
- vocals - Phil Jordan - 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...
- Gabrial McNairGabrial McNairGabrial "Gabe" McNair is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, most famous for his work in No Doubt since 1993 as a trombonist, keyboardist, and backing vocalist. He recorded and toured with Green Day during the Nimrod and Warning tours, playing trombone and tenor saxophone...
- percussion, tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate... - Eric Carpenter - saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
Production
- Producer: No Doubt
- Engineers: Ray Blair, Tom Dumont, Colin Mitchell
- Mixing: Tom Dumont, Nicholas Hexum, Colin Mitchell, No Doubt, Scott Ralston, Adrian Young
- Mixing assistants: Nick HexumNick HexumNicholas Lofton Hexum is an American musician, currently the vocalist and rhythm guitarist for the alternative rock band 311.-Early life:Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Hexum went to Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska...
, Scott Ralston, Adrian Young - Mastering: Robert Vosgien
- Advisor: Albhy GalutenAlbhy GalutenAlbhy Galuten is a Grammy Award-winning American record producer, composer, musician, orchestrator and technology executive.He produced 18 number 1 singles with songs and albums selling over 100,000,000 copies...
- Design: Gwen Stefani
- Layout design: Matt Wignall
- Liner notes: No Doubt
Release history
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 1995 | Beacon Street Records | CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,... |
3 |
| 1997 | Sea Creature Records/Interscope Interscope Records Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:... |
CD | 90156 |
All information is from the Allmusic [ page] and No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
's official website discography.