The First of a Million Kisses was the first album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by Fairground Attraction

Fairground Attraction

Fairground Attraction were a British acoustic pop band. They are best known for their hit single "Perfect", and for helping to launch the career of lead vocalist Eddi Reader.-Career:...

, released in 1988.

The album was a characteristic blend of folk, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

, country, and Cajun

Cajun

Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...

 elements (all but one of its songs being written by Nevin). Released in May 1988, it followed the success of the band's first single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, "Perfect

Perfect (Fairground Attraction song)

"Perfect" is the title to Fairground Attraction's first single, released in March 1988.The single reached number one on the 9 May 1988 UK Singles Chart, where it stayed for one week, and stayed in the chart for thirteen weeks. It also reached number one in South Africa as well as in Australia for...

," by entering the album chart at number three, and rising to number two. It was the only album released by the band before their break-up in 1990.

Three other singles were released from the album: "Find My Love" (which reached number seven on the UK chart), "A Smile in a Whisper", and "Clare".

It won the award for best album at the 1989 BRIT Awards

Brit Awards

The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...

, and was certified platinum.

Band

• Eddi Reader
  Eddi Reader
  Eddi Reader MBE is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known both for her work with Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo career. She is the recipient of three BRIT Awards and has topped both the album and singles charts...
  
   - lead vocals
• Mark E. Nevin - guitar
  Guitar
  The 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...
  
  s
• Simon Edwards - guitarrón
  Guitarrón
  See also: Guitarrón ChilenoThe guitarrón mexicano or Mexican guitarron, is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican 6-string acoustic bass played in mariachi groups...
  
  
• Ray Dodds - drums
  Drum kit
  A 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 ....
  
   & percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A 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...
  
  

Guests

• Kim Burton - accordion
  Accordion
  The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
  
  , tiny harp, piano
  Piano
  The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
  
  
• Roger Beaujolais - vibes
  Vibraphone
  The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
  
  , glockenspiel
  Glockenspiel
  A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
  
  
• Anthony Thistlethwaite
  Anthony Thistlethwaite
  Anthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is a British multi-instrumentalist best known as a founder member of the folk-rock group The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.After a year busking in Paris, playing tenor saxophone around the streets of the Latin...
  
   - mandolin
  Mandolin
  A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
  
  
• Steve Forster - mandolin
• Ian Shaw - backing vocals
• Will Hasty - clarinet
  Clarinet
  The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
  
  

Track-listing

1. "A Smile in a Whisper"
2. "Perfect
   Perfect (Fairground Attraction song)
   "Perfect" is the title to Fairground Attraction's first single, released in March 1988.The single reached number one on the 9 May 1988 UK Singles Chart, where it stayed for one week, and stayed in the chart for thirteen weeks. It also reached number one in South Africa as well as in Australia for...
   
   "
3. "Moon on the Rain"
4. "Find My Love"
5. "Fairground Attraction"
6. "The Wind Knows My Name"
7. "Clare"
8. "Comedy Waltz"
9. "The Moon Is Mine"
10. "Station Street"
11. "Whispers"
12. "Allelujah"

The following two tracks are available only on CD issues of the album:

• 13. "Falling Backwards"
• 14. "Mythology"

(all tracks written by Nevin, except 11 by Reader)

Cover

The photo on the album cover is from Magnum Photographer

Magnum Photos

Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...

 Elliot Erwitt and was taken in 1955.