Boston is the debut studio album by American rock band Boston, released on August 25, 1976, by Epic Records. It was produced by band guitarist Tom Scholz and John Boylan. A multi-instrumentalist and engineer who had been involved in the Boston music scene since the late 1960s, Scholz started to write and record demos in his apartment basement with singer Brad Delp, but received numerous rejections from major record labels. The demo tape fell into the hands of CBS-owned Epic, which signed the band in 1975. The album is characterized for its unique blend of electronic effects, the Hammond organ, heavy guitar riffs, and early rock and roll to create what Scholz referred to as the "Boston sound".

Defying Epic Records's insistence on recording the album professionally in Los Angeles, Scholz and Boylan deceived label executives into believing the band was recording on the West Coast, when in reality, the bulk was being tracked solely by Scholz in his Massachusetts home. The album's contents are a complete recreation of the band's demo tape, and contain songs written and composed many years prior. The album's style was developed through Scholz's love for classical music, melodic hooks and early guitar-heavy rock groups such as the Kinks and the Yardbirds, as well as a number of analogue electronic effects developed by Scholz in his home studio. Besides Scholz, who played most of the instruments on nearly all of the tracks, and Delp, other musicians appear on the album, such as drummers Jim Masdea and Sib Hashian, guitarist Barry Goudreau and bassist Fran Sheehan. All except Masdea became full-time band members.

The album was released by Epic in August 1976 and broke sales records, becoming the best-selling debut LP in the US at the time, and winning the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Century Award for the best-selling debut album. The album's singles, "More Than a Feeling", "Peace of Mind" and "Foreplay/Long Time", were major hits, and nearly the entire album receives constant airplay on classic rock radio. The album is often regarded as a staple of 1970s rock and has been included on many lists of essential albums. It has sold at least 17 million copies in the United States alone and at least 20 million worldwide, making it one of the best-selling debut albums of all time.

Background

In the late 1960s, Tom Scholz began attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he first wrote music. By night, he played keyboards for bands in the Boston bar and club scene, where he collaborated with drummer Jim Masdea. The group received rejection slips from several labels - RCA, Capitol, Atlantic and Elektra among the most notable - and Epic Records rejected the tape flatly with a "very insulting letter" signed by company head Lennie Petze that opined the band "offered nothing new". The tape that received the most attention contained embryonic renditions of future songs that would appear on Boston's debut album. Delp departed shortly after that because "there just wasn't any money coming in."

All vocals were double-tracked except the lead vocal, and all the parts were done by Delp in quick succession.

Music

The styles of Boston have been categorized as hard rock and arena rock (though the latter had yet to have been coined at the time of the album's release). The tracks are described as "anthemic" and make use of layered melodies and vocal harmonies.

"More Than a Feeling" is an ode to daydreaming and contains a guitar solo reminiscent of "Telstar." with lyrics starting in New York City and then planning to hitch a ride to "head for the other side." This was the first song Delp re-recorded after the original Mother's Milk vocalist left.

Release

thumb|From left: Barry Goudreau, Tom Scholz, Sib Hashian, Brad Delp, Fran Sheehan, in 1976.

Boston was released by Epic Records on, according to varying sources, either August 23 or August 25, 1976. The album broke out of Cleveland first, and the following week, it had been added at 392 stations. Critics were kind to Boston; Rolling Stone wrote that "The group's affinity for heavy rock & roll provides a sense of dynamics that coheres magnetically with sophisticated progressive structures."

The album was certified gold in October 1976 and sold another 500,000 copies within 30 days, going platinum for the first time in November 1976.

By January 1977, the debut disc sold 2,000,000 copies, making it one of the fastest-selling debut albums in rock history. Boston sold 6,000,000 albums, including records, 8-tracks and cassettes by December 1977.

By 1986, the album had been certified for over 9,000,000 sales domestically, and Boston went diamond in 1990. By November 2003, the album was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of 17,000,000. Worldwide, the album has sold 20,000,000 copies.

The album is the second best-selling debut album of all time in the United States, after Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction. It is the joint eighth best-selling album in US history. Boston, along with the band's 1978 follow-up Don't Look Back, was remastered in 2006 by Scholz.

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|rev3 = The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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|rev5 = The Rolling Stone Record Guide

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The album soared, with three singles becoming Top 40 hits. All eight songs on the album received regular airplay on classic rock radio decades later. Taking a mere three weeks to earn an RIAA Gold Record Award (500,000 in unit sales) in 1976 and a Platinum Award (1,000,000 in unit sales) after three months on November 11, 1976, it was the fastest-selling debut album for any American group. It has continued to sell very well, accumulating 9,000,000 in sales by the 10th anniversary in 1986, reaching Diamond in 1990, and 17× platinum by 2003. All eight songs—most commonly the album's A-side—are in constant rotation on classic rock radio. The album was also ranked No. 43 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "Definitive 200" list. Vik Iyengar of AllMusic said the album is "essential for any fan of classic rock."

Boston

  • Brad Delp – vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, percussion
  • Tom Scholz – lead and rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar, special effects guitar, bass, organ, clavinet, percussion, producer, engineer
  • Sib Hashian – drums, percussion
  • Barry Goudreau – lead and rhythm guitar, guitar solos on "Long Time" and "Let Me Take You Home Tonight"
  • Fran Sheehan – bass on "Foreplay" and "Let Me Take You Home Tonight"

Additional musician and technical personnel

  • Jim Masdea – drums on "Rock & Roll Band"
  • John Boylan – producer
  • Warren Dewey – engineer
  • Deni King, Bruce Hensel, Doug Ryder – assistant engineer
  • Steve Hodge – assistant in mixing
  • Wally Traugott – LP mastering
  • Toby Mountain, Bill Ryan – remastering
  • Tom "Curly" Ruff – digital transfer

Additional personnel

  • Paul Ahern, Charles McKenzie – art direction
  • Kim Hart – design consulting
  • Jeff Albertson, Ron Pownall – photography
  • Paula Scher – cover designer
  • Roger Huyssen – cover illustration
  • Joel Zimmerman – reissue design

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

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! Chart (1976–77)

! Peak<br/>position

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! scope="row"| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)

| align="center"| 16

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! scope="row"| Finnish Albums (The Official Finnish Charts)

| align="center"| 20

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)

| align="center"| 24

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|}

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

|-

! Chart (1998)

! Peak<br/>position

|-

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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

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! Chart (2016)

! Peak<br/>position

|-

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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

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! Chart (2020)

! Peak<br/>position

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Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

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! scope="col" | Chart (1976)

! scope="col" | Position

|-

|-

! scope="col" | Chart (1977)

! scope="col" | Position

|-

! scope="row" | Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)

| 8

|-

! scope="row" | German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)

| 14

|-

! scope="row" | US Billboard 200

| 5

|}

Certifications

(Diamond)

See also

  • List of best-selling albums
  • List of best-selling albums in the United States
  • List of diamond-certified albums in Canada
  • Boston discography

References

  • Album online on Radio3Net a radio channel of Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company