Portal:Record production

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The Record Production Portal

Noted audio engineer Roger Nichols at a vintage Neve recording console

P:RECORD

This portal is focused on music production within the era of written records through sound recordings, digital downloads, and beyond. Its scope includes articles that document the considerations and mechanisms used by, and consistent with, the purview of the production element. As an art form, music predates transcription and simultaneously transcends descriptive limitations. As an industry, music has demonstrated consistent viability over time. The record producer conjoins these potential, and serves as a broker to bridge the demand (spawned by their aspirations) with supply and satisfaction. The results are measurable and attributable, derived from effort and skillful application of craft, to a manifestation of the art in its melodic form. (Read more)

The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, represent and supply music creators. Among the many individuals and organizations that operate in the industry are: the songwriters and composers who write songs and musical compositions; the singers, musicians, conductors, and bandleaders who perform the music; the record labels, music publishers, recording studios, music producers, audio engineers, retail and digital music stores, and performance rights organizations who create and sell recorded music and sheet music; and the booking agents, promoters, music venues, road crew, and audio engineers who help organize and sell concerts. (Read more)

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Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

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Internationalist is the third studio album by Australian alternative rock band Powderfinger. The album was released on 7 September 1998 and was often labelled Powderfinger's most adventurous work, with greater experimentation than in previous works.

Internationalist followed in the success of its predecessor, Double Allergic, and was certified five times platinum in Australia. Internationalist received four ARIA Music Awards, including "Album of the Year". The album produced four singles for the band; "The Day You Come", "Don't Wanna Be Left Out/Good-Day Ray", "Already Gone" and "Passenger", which all appeared on Triple J's Hottest 100 poll in two consecutive years. (Full article...)
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Theatre poster, 1879

H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London on 25 May 1878, and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical theatre piece up to that time. H.M.S. Pinafore was Gilbert and Sullivan's fourth operatic collaboration and their first international sensation.

The story takes place aboard the Royal Navy ship HMS Pinafore. The captain's daughter, Josephine, is in love with a lower-class sailor, Ralph Rackstraw, although her father intends her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. She abides by her father's wishes at first, but Sir Joseph's advocacy of the equality of humankind encourages Ralph and Josephine to overturn conventional social order. They declare their love for each other and eventually plan to elope. The Captain discovers this plan, but, as in many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, a surprise disclosure changes things dramatically near the end of the story. (Full article...)
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Fórmula, Vol. 1 is the debut studio album by American singer Romeo Santos, released on November 8, 2011, by Sony Music Latin. It is Santos's first album as a solo artist following the break-up of American bachata group Aventura, of which he was the lead singer. The record contains fifteen tracks, most of which were composed by Santos and co-produced with Ivan Chevere. The album experiments with the sound of bachata and other genres including R&B and flamenco. It features several Anglophone and Hispanophone guest artists including Usher, Tomatito, Mario Domm, and Lil Wayne. Recording for the album took place in 2011 at The Castle, Fight Klub, and EMG Studios in New York City. A deluxe edition of the album containing five extra tracks was released exclusively in Walmart retail stores in the United States.

In the U.S., Formula, Vol. 1 peaked at number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums and Billboard Tropical Albums charts and was the best-selling Latin album of 2012. It was certified three times platinum (Latin field) by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipping 300,000 copies and had sold 328,000 copies in the U.S. by February 2014. It ranked number thirteen, twenty-six, and seventy-seven on the Argentine, Mexican, and Spanish album charts respectively. (Full article...)
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Stereolab performing at the London Pitchfork Festival in 2021

Stereolab are an Anglo-French avant-pop band formed in London in 1990. Led by the songwriting team of Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier, the group's sound features influences from krautrock and 1960s French pop music, often incorporating a repetitive motorik beat with the use of vintage electronic keyboards and female vocals sung in English and French. Their lyrics have political and philosophical themes influenced by the Surrealist and Situationist art movements. While performing, they play in a more feedback-driven and guitar-oriented style. From the mid-1990s, the band began to draw from funk, jazz and Brazilian music.

Stereolab were formed by Gane (guitar and keyboards) and Sadier (vocals, keyboards and guitar) after the break-up of McCarthy. The two were romantically involved for fourteen years and are the group's only consistent members. Other longtime members included 1992 addition Mary Hansen (backing vocals, keyboards and guitar), who died in 2002, and 1993 addition Andy Ramsay (drums). The High Llamas' leader Sean O'Hagan (guitar and keyboards) was a member from 1993 to 1994 and continued appearing on later records for occasional guest appearances. (Full article...)
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Illustration of Thespis by D. H. Friston from The Illustrated London News, 1872, shows Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, Thespis and Mercury (right)

Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, is an operatic extravaganza that was the first collaboration between dramatist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. No musical score of Thespis was ever published, and most of the music has been lost. Gilbert and Sullivan went on to become the most famous and successful artistic partnership in Victorian England, creating a string of enduring comic opera hits, including H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado.

Thespis premièred in London at the Gaiety Theatre on 26 December 1871. Like many productions at that theatre, it was written in a broad, burlesque style, considerably different from Gilbert and Sullivan's later works. It was a success, for a Christmas entertainment of the time, and closed on 8 March 1872, after a run of 63 performances. It was advertised as "An entirely original Grotesque Opera in Two Acts". (Full article...)
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Ho Ho Ho, also known as VH-1 Presents RuPaul: Ho Ho Ho, is a Christmas album and the third studio album by American singer and drag queen RuPaul. Released on October 28, 1997, by the record label Rhino, it is RuPaul's first album featuring Christmas music and serves as a follow-up to his 1996 album Foxy Lady. RuPaul co-produced the album with Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato from the production company World of Wonder. Ho Ho Ho consists of thirteen tracks, including ten covers of Christmas standards and carols, and three original songs written by Joe Carrano and RuPaul. Music critics frequently described the album as an example of camp though RuPaul clarified that it included several more serious covers, specifically "All Alone on Christmas" and "Hard Candy Christmas".

Ho Ho Ho was praised by critics following its release and during retrospective reviews; its cheerful and humorous compositions were frequently cited as the album's highlights, though some commentators responded negatively to the record's use of humor and the lack of clarity in its overall message. It was included in a 2016 parody list discussing the alt-right, the "War on Christmas", and the bathroom bill. The album peaked at number 27 on the Heatseekers Albums Billboard chart, selling a little more than 4,000 copies in one week. To support the record, RuPaul filmed a television special as part of his VH1 talk show The RuPaul Show. (Full article...)
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Doolittle is the second studio album by the American alternative rock band Pixies, released on April 17, 1989, on 4AD. The album was an instant critical success and became the band's breakthrough album. Doolittle was especially well received in Europe, where the British music weeklies Melody Maker and Sounds named it their album of the year. Pixies' main songwriter and lead vocalist Black Francis wrote the idiosyncratic lyrics, which allude to surrealist imagery, biblical violence, and descriptions of torture and death.

The album is praised for its "quiet/loud" dynamic, which was achieved through subdued verses that are founded on Kim Deal's bass patterns and David Lovering's drums. The peaks in tone and volume were achieved through the addition of distorted guitars by Francis and Joey Santiago. This technique influenced the development of early-1990s grunge music; Kurt Cobain said Doolittle was one of his favorite records and that its songs heavily influenced Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit". (Full article...)
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The Idiot is the debut studio album by the American musician Iggy Pop, released on March 18, 1977, through RCA Records. It was produced by David Bowie and primarily recorded at the Château d'Hérouville in Hérouville, France. The album followed the break-up of Pop's band the Stooges in 1974 and a period of drug addiction for both Pop and Bowie, after which the two moved to Europe in an effort to kick their addictions.

Described by Pop as "a cross between James Brown and Kraftwerk", The Idiot marks a departure from the proto-punk of the Stooges to a more subdued, mechanical sound with electronic overtones. Recording for it began at the château in June 1976 and continued into July. Further sessions took place at Musicland Studios in Munich in August. Bowie composed most of the music and contributed a major portion of the instrumentation. Pop wrote most of the lyrics in response to the music Bowie was creating. The album's title was taken from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name, while Erich Heckel's painting Roquairol inspired its artwork. (Full article...)
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Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall is the sixth album (and first live album) by the Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, released through Geffen Records in December 2007. The album consists of live recordings from his sold-out June 14–15, 2006, tribute concerts at Carnegie Hall to the American actress and singer Judy Garland. Backed by a 36-piece orchestra conducted by Stephen Oremus, Wainwright recreated Garland's April 23, 1961, concert, often considered "the greatest night in show business history". Garland's 1961 double album, Judy at Carnegie Hall, a comeback performance with more than 25 American pop and jazz standards, was highly successful, initially spending 95 weeks on the Billboard charts and garnering five Grammy Awards (including Album of the Year, Best Album Cover, Best Solo Vocal Performance – Female and Best Engineering Contribution – Popular Recording).

For his album, Wainwright was also recognized by the Grammy Awards, earning a 2009 nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. While the tribute concerts were popular and the album was well received by critics, album sales were limited. Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall managed to chart in three nations, peaking at number 84 in Belgium, number 88 in the Netherlands and number 171 on the United States' Billboard 200. (Full article...)
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Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the debut studio album by the American hip-hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, released on November 9, 1993, by Loud Records and RCA Records. The recording sessions took place during late 1992 to early 1993 at Firehouse Studio in New York City, and the album was produced by the group's de facto leader RZA. Its title originates from the martial arts films Enter the Dragon (1973) and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978).

The distinctive, gritty sound of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) created a blueprint for hardcore hip-hop during the 1990s, and helped return New York City hip-hop to national prominence. Its sound also became greatly influential in modern hip-hop production, while the group members' explicit, humorous, and free-associative lyrics have served as a template for many subsequent rap records. Serving as a landmark release in the era of hip-hop known as the East Coast Renaissance, its influence helped lead the way for several other East Coast rappers, including Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, and Jay-Z. (Full article...)
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Mother's Milk is the fourth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on August 16, 1989 by EMI Records. After the death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak and the subsequent departure of drummer Jack Irons, vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea regrouped with the addition of guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith. Frusciante's influence altered the band's sound by placing more emphasis on melody than rhythm, which had dominated the band's previous material. Returning producer Michael Beinhorn favored heavy metal guitar riffs as well as overdubbing. Frusciante perceived Beinhorn's taste as excessive, and as a result, the two constantly fought over the album's guitar sound.

Mother's Milk was a greater commercial success than the band's first three albums, peaking at number 52 on the US Billboard 200. It received widespread airplay for the three singles which are the cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground", "Knock Me Down" and "Taste the Pain", and it became their first gold record in early 1990. Although it was not met with the same positive critical reception that its predecessor The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) had garnered, Mother's Milk was the first step for the band in achieving international success and, according to Amy Hanson of AllMusic, "turned the tide and transformed the band from underground funk-rocking rappers to mainstream bad boys with seemingly very little effort." (Full article...)
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Cover of the score, 1919

The Bartered Bride (Czech: Prodaná nevěsta, The Sold Bride) is a comic opera in three acts by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, to a libretto by Karel Sabina. The work is generally regarded as a major contribution towards the development of Czech music. It was composed during the period 1863 to 1866, and first performed at the Provisional Theatre, Prague, on 30 May 1866 in a two-act format with spoken dialogue. Set in a country village and with realistic characters, it tells the story of how, after a late surprise revelation, true love prevails over the combined efforts of ambitious parents and a scheming marriage broker.

The opera was not immediately successful, and was revised and extended in the following four years. In its final version, premiered in 1870, it rapidly gained popularity and eventually became a worldwide success. Until this time, the Czech national opera had only been represented by minor, rarely performed works. This opera, Smetana's second, was part of his quest to create a truly Czech operatic genre. Smetana's musical treatment made considerable use of traditional Bohemian dance forms, such as the polka and furiant, and, although he largely avoided the direct quotation of folksong, he nevertheless created music considered by Czechs to be quintessentially Czech in spirit. The overture, often played as a concert piece independently from the opera, was, unusually, composed before almost any of the other music had been written. (Full article...)

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... that to promote the Buffalo Club, Rising Tide Records sent packages of plastic buffalo to music industry executives in Nashville?
... that until the release of the documentary Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop, sexual abuse claims involving record producer Johnny Kitagawa went widely unreported in Japanese media?
... that Light Vessel 95 is now a recording studio?
... that when Divine's song "Lately" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998, it became the first number-one single for the performers, the songwriters, the producers, and the record labels?
... that one critic interpreted a SZA song as being about her fears about the growing influence of AI in the music industry?
... that according to Billboard magazine, Laufey created a blueprint for jazz music in the modern music industry and helped push it back into the mainstream?

Born this day

Birthdays in Music: February 2

Graham Nash, Brit guitarist and vocalist with The Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young), turns 83.
Ross Valory, American guitarist with Journey, Steve Miller Band, and Todd Rundgren, turns 76.
Billy Mohler, American bassist with The Calling and Abandoned Pools, turns 50.
Shakira, (born Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll) Colombian pop music singer, songwriter, and record producer, turns 48.
Emre Aydın, Turkish singer-songwriter, turns 44.
Jacqueline Laviolette, American vocalist for Girl Authority, turns 33.
Danielle White, American singer and former member of American Juniors, turns 33.

Tom Smothers (Record production, 1937 –December 26, 2023), American musician and comic with the Smothers Brothers, would have turned 88 this year.
Eva Cassidy (Record production, 1963 –November 2, 1996), American singer, would have turned 62 this year.
Bob Day (musician) (Record production, 1942 –November 11, 2013), Brit pop music vocalist with The Allisons, would have turned 83 this year.
Alan Caddy (Record production, 1940 –August 16, 2000), Brit guitarist with The Tornados, would have turned 85 this year.
Skip Battin (Record production, 1934 –July 06, 2003), (born Clyde Battin) American singer-songwriter and bassist with The Byrds, would have turned 91 this year.
David Whitfield (Record production, 1925 –January 15, 1980), Brit tenor vocalist, would have turned 100 this year.
Jascha Heifetz (Record production, 1901 –December 10, 1987), Lithuanian violinist, would have turned 124 this year.
Fritz Kreisler (Record production, 1875 –January 29, 1962), Austrian composer and violinist, would have turned 150 this year.

List of musical events • Anniversaries • More birthdays...

Selected albums - load new batch

These are all Good articles, which meet a core set of high editorial standards.

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Kid A is the fourth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released on 2 October 2000 by Parlophone. It was recorded with their producer, Nigel Godrich, in Paris, Copenhagen, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. Departing from their earlier sound, Radiohead incorporated influences from electronic music, krautrock, jazz and 20th-century classical music, with a wider range of instruments and effects. The singer, Thom Yorke, wrote impersonal and abstract lyrics, cutting up phrases and assembling them at random.

In a departure from industry practice, Radiohead released no singles and conducted few interviews and photoshoots. Instead, they released short animations and became one of the first major acts to use the internet for promotion. Bootlegs of early performances were shared on filesharing services, and Kid A was leaked before release. In 2000, Radiohead toured Europe in a custom-built tent without corporate logos. (Full article...)
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Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the United Kingdom, and on 10 October 1970 in the United States. It was recorded at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK, while it reached number 55 in the US, eventually going gold there.

The cover was designed by Hipgnosis, and was the band's first not to feature their name, or have photographs of them on any part of it. This was a trend that would continue on subsequent covers throughout the 1970s. The cover shows a Holstein cow on a meadow landscape. (Full article...)
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FutureSex/LoveSounds is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake, released on September 8, 2006, by Jive Records and Zomba. Following a three-year writing hiatus, Timberlake conceived the album in collaboration with producer Timbaland and the latter's colleague Danja primarily at Timbaland's Thomas Crown Studios. By comparison with Timberlake's debut album Justified (2002), FutureSex/LoveSounds was influenced by a wider range of genres including techno, electro-funk, trance, and rock. It features reprises and interludes interspersed with the album's full songs.

FutureSex/LoveSounds received mostly positive reviews from critics, who noted its wide range of influences and eclectic sound. The album produced six singles that attained chart success; including US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles: "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around... Comes Around". With "Summer Love", the album achieved four US Mainstream Top 40 number-one songs. Many music publications considered it among the best albums of the 2000s. Aside from earning numerous best-of-the-decade lists, the album received several Grammy Award nominations, including Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album, while its singles won in their respective categories. It has been certified multi-platinum in many countries worldwide, and has sold over 10 million copies, with four million in the United States. (Full article...)
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#1's is the first greatest hits album by American girl group Destiny's Child. It was released on October 21, 2005, by Columbia Records, Music World Entertainment and Sony Urban Music.

Following a two-year hiatus during which each member released solo albums to varying levels of success, Destiny's Child reunited during the summer of 2004 to record their fifth and final studio album Destiny Fulfilled, which was released that November to widespread commercial success. To further promote the album, the group embarked on the world tour Destiny Fulfilled... and Lovin' It in April 2005. During its Barcelona show on June 11, Kelly Rowland announced the group's disbandment for after the tour's conclusion. However, before formally disbanding, they decided to release #1's, featuring their highest-charting singles alongside three new tracks. (Full article...)
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Indicud is the third studio album by American rapper Kid Cudi. It was released on April 16, 2013, by GOOD Music, Wicked Awesome Records, and Republic Records. It was the first album of Cudi's solo career to not be an installment of his Man on the Moon series. The album's cover artwork was designed by Kid Cudi himself, who also served as an executive producer of Indicud. It was Cudi's goal to make more uptempo and positive music with the album. He described it as a completely new format compared to his previous albums.

The album's record production was handled entirely by Cudi as well, with only record producer Hit-Boy co-producing one track, while Cudi's WZRD bandmate Dot da Genius, provided drums on two. The album features guest appearances from King Chip, Kendrick Lamar, Too Short, RZA, ASAP Rocky, Father John Misty, Michael Bolton and Haim. (Full article...)
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Ven Conmigo (English: Come with Me) is the second studio album by American singer Selena, released on November 12, 1990, by EMI Latin. The singer's brother, A.B. Quintanilla III remained her principal record producer and songwriter after her debut album's moderate success. Selena's Los Dinos band composed and arranged seven of the album's ten tracks; local songwriter Johnny Herrera also provided songs for Selena to record. Ven Conmigo contains half cumbias and half rancheras, though the album includes other genres. Its musical compositions are varied and demonstrate an evolving maturity in Selena's basic Tejano sound. The album's structure and track organization were unconventional compared with other Tejano music albums. The songs on Ven Conmigo are mostly love songs or songs following a woman's struggles after many failed relationships.

After Ven Conmigo's release, the band hired guitarist Chris Pérez who introduced his hard rock sound to the band's music and performances, and further diversified Selena's repertoire. Her promotional tour for the album attracted upwards of 60,000 attendees to her shows, and critics praised the singer's stage presence. The album's single, "Baila Esta Cumbia" was the most played song on local Tejano music radio stations for over a month and helped Selena to tour in Mexico. Ven Conmigo peaked at number three on the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart, her then-highest peaking album. It received critical acclaim, bringing Selena recognition as a Tejano singer and establishing her as a commercial threat. (Full article...)
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Streetcleaner is the debut studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 13 November 1989 through Earache Records and was reissued with a second disc of previously unreleased material on 21 June 2010. The album is widely acclaimed by critics and is often cited as a landmark release in industrial metal; though not the genre's first release, Streetcleaner helped define what industrial metal would become.

Recorded in three distinct sessions and partially refined from pre-Godflesh demos, Streetcleaner is a weighty, bleak album that blends heavy metal with industrial music by means of production-emphasised bass, distorted guitar and, most importantly, machine percussion. Unlike many metal albums, guitar is employed to create screeching noise rather than discrete riffs, and the drums and bass are louder than is typical. Streetcleaner was supported by a series of concerts where Godflesh played alongside Napalm Death, and it was on the North American leg of the tour that the band began to gain significant international traction. (Full article...)
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And Their Name Was Treason is the debut studio album by the American rock band A Day to Remember, released on May 10, 2005 through Indianola Records. It followed their second self-released EP, which was produced the same year. The album was the band's only release under Indianola; its success led the group sign to Victory Records. Several songs on the album were written during the band members' teenage years. Recorded in the producer's bedroom, the album contains audio excerpts from several films. The band toured in the United States to help promote the album. The album has since sold over 10,000 copies. A re-recorded version of the album, titled Old Record, was released in October 2008 by Victory. The band members later admitted that they were forced to do the re-recording at the request of label owner Tony Brummel and were given two days to do so which resulted in them only re-recording the instrumentals and leaving the vocals as it was on the original album. The reissue charted at number 16 on the Heatseekers Album Chart in the U.S. (Full article...)
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Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded, although Let It Be (1970) was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly recorded in April, July, and August 1969, and topped the record charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A double A-side single from the album, "Something" / "Come Together", was released in October, which also topped the charts in the US.

Abbey Road incorporates styles such as rock, pop, blues, and progressive rock, and makes prominent use of the Moog synthesiser and guitar played through a Leslie speaker unit. It is also notable for having a long medley of songs on side two that have subsequently been covered as one suite by other notable artists. The album was recorded in a more collegial atmosphere than the Get Back / Let It Be sessions earlier in the year, but there were still significant confrontations within the band, particularly over Paul McCartney's song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and John Lennon did not perform on several tracks. By the time the album was released, Lennon had left the group, though this was not publicly announced until McCartney also quit the following year. (Full article...)
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The Glow Pt. 2 (occasionally with The Glow in quotes, or with "Two" spelt out) is the third studio album by American indie folk and indie rock project the Microphones. It was released on September 11, 2001, through K Records and later through P.W. Elverum & Sun, Ltd. Recording was done on analog equipment at Dub Narcotic, Olympia, Washington, from May 2000 to March 2001. The album takes influences from numerous music genres such as black metal, ambient and avant-garde, as well as non-musical sources like the American drama television show Twin Peaks and primary member Phil Elverum's relationship to Khaela Maricich. Elverum was responsible for the album's production in its entirety.

Musically, The Glow Pt. 2 diverts from the band's previous studio release It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, and features experimental production, alongside musical techniques and lyrics that often reference nature and the Pacific Northwest. For promotion, Elverum embarked on The Paper Opera Tour with Calvin Johnson and Khaela Maricich, before going on a solo tour of North America. In the years following its release, the album has been reissued multiple times, with the first in 2007 including a disc of bonus material. An immediate critical success, it has since appeared in multiple rankings of the best albums of the 2000s, and is considered by many music critics to be the Microphones' best work and an important release in the lo-fi genre. (Full article...)
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Green Bullfrog is a blues album recorded by an ad hoc band and produced by Derek Lawrence. The bulk of the album was recorded over two sessions at De Lane Lea Studios, London in 1970, with later string and brass overdubs. It was originally released in 1971, with reissues in 1980 and 1991.

The album listed pseudonyms in the credits for contractual reasons and was commercially unsuccessful. The musicians were eventually confirmed as including Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice, Procol Harum's Matthew Fisher, Chas & Dave's Chas Hodges and session guitarists Albert Lee and Big Jim Sullivan. (Full article...)
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The Halo 2 Original Soundtrack is the soundtrack for Bungie's 2004 video game Halo 2. The soundtrack was released as two separate volumes, released almost two years apart. Volume 1, released at the same time as Halo 2 on November 9, 2004, contains arranged instrumental pieces written by Martin O'Donnell and his partner Michael Salvatori, as well as "inspired-by" tracks from bands Incubus, Hoobastank and Breaking Benjamin. Volume 2 was released on April 25, 2006, and contains all the game music arranged in a suite form.

O'Donnell, who had previously composed the music for Bungie games such as Myth and Halo: Combat Evolved, sought to develop the "Halo sound" of the previous game as well as introduce new sounds and influences to the music. The music was based on what was happening in the game, rather than using leitmotifs or theme repetitively. The music was recorded in pieces with a fifty-piece orchestra at Studio X in Seattle, Washington. To mark its release both Microsoft and Sumthing Else Music Works planned an aggressive marketing campaign. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various record production-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The studio at Ridge Radio in Caterham, England (from Recording studio)
Image 2The TEAC 2340, a popular early (1973) home multitrack recorder, four tracks on ¼ inch tape (from Multitrack recording)
Image 3The Siemens Studio for Electronic Music c. 1956. (from Recording studio)
Image 4Neve VR60, a multitrack mixing console. Above the console are a range of studio monitor speakers. (from Recording studio)
Image 5Danny Knicely records with Furnace Mountain Band in Virginia (2012) (from Recording studio)
Image 6Digital audio interface for the Pro Tools computer-based hard disk multitrack recording system. Digital audio quality is measured in data resolution per channel. (from Multitrack recording)
Image 7Control room at the Tec de Monterrey, Mexico City Campus (from Recording studio)
Image 8Korg D888 eight-track digital recorder (from Multitrack recording)
Image 9A selection of instruments at a music studio, including a grand piano (from Recording studio)
Image 10Donna Summer wearing headphones during a recording session in 1977 (from Recording studio)
Image 11Engineers and producers watch a trumpet player from a window in the control room during a recording session. (from Recording studio)
Image 12Home studio setup (from Recording studio)
Image 13Mixing desk with twenty inputs and eight outputs (from Multitrack recording)
Image 14Scully 280 eight-track recorder at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music (from Multitrack recording)
Image 15Hip hop producer and rapper RZA in a music studio with two collaborators. Pictured in the foreground is a synthesizer keyboard and a number of vinyl records; both of these items are key tools that producers and DJs use to create hip hop beats. (from Hip-hop production)
Image 16The TASCAM 85 16B analog tape multitrack recorder can record 16 tracks of audio on 1-inch (2.54cm) magnetic tape. Professional analog units of 24 tracks on 2-inch tape were common, with specialty tape heads providing 8, or even 16 tracks on the same tape width (8 tracks for greater fidelity). (from Multitrack recording)

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Featured lists have been determined by the Wikipedia community to be the best lists on English Wikipedia.

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The Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical is an honor presented to producers for quality remixed recordings at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".

The award was first presented as the Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical at the 40th Grammy Awards in 1998 to Frankie Knuckles. While the award was under this name, it was presented without specifying a work; when it shifted to its current name in 2002 works were named. According to the category description guide for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the award is presented "to recognize an individual(s) who takes previously recorded material and adds or alters it in such a way as to create a new and unique performance". The prize is given to the remixer(s), not the original artist(s). (Full article...)
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Cootie Williams topped the final Harlem Hit Parade chart with "Somebody's Gotta Go".

At the start of 1945, Billboard magazine published a chart ranking the "most popular records in Harlem" under the title of the Harlem Hit Parade. Placings were based on a survey of record stores primarily in the Harlem district of New York City, an area which has historically been noted for its African American population and called the "black capital of America". This chart was published for the final time in the issue dated February 10. The following week the magazine launched a new chart in its place, Most Played Juke Box Race Records, based not on retail sales but on the number of times songs had been played in jukeboxes, although records' peak positions and numbers of weeks on chart were carried over; "race records" was a term then in common usage for recordings by black artists. The two charts are considered part of the lineage of the magazine's multimetric R&B chart, which since 2005 has been published under the title Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs.

In the issue of Billboard dated January 6, the Ink Spots and Ella Fitzgerald topped the Harlem Hit Parade with "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall", retaining the top spot from the previous week. The song remained at number one through the issue dated February 3 for a final total of 11 weeks atop the chart. It was displaced by "Somebody's Gotta Go" by Cootie Williams and his Orchestra on the final chart published under the Harlem Hit Parade title. It was the first number one for Williams but would prove to be the final charting song of his career. The following week, Pvt. Cecil Gant topped the first Most Played Juke Box Race Records listing with "I Wonder". Gant spent two weeks at number one before being displaced by Roosevelt Sykes with his recording of the same song. Both versions would be the only number one for their respective artists. (Full article...)
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Marty Robbins spent 10 weeks at number one with "Don't Worry".

Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1961, nine different singles topped the chart, which at the time was published under the title Hot C&W Sides, C&W being an abbreviation for country and western. Chart placings were based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores.

Each of the nine number ones during the year was by a different artist. In the first issue of 1961, dated January 9,^[A] Johnny Horton reached number one with "North To Alaska", replacing Ferlin Husky's "Wings Of A Dove", the final chart-topper of 1960. Horton's single spent five weeks at number one before Husky's song returned to the top of the chart for two further weeks. "North to Alaska" was a posthumous number one for Horton, who had died in an automobile accident the previous November. Following Husky's spell in the top spot, Marty Robbins had the longest unbroken run at number one of the year, spending ten consecutive weeks atop the chart with "Don't Worry". Immediately after this run, Faron Young had a nine-week spell atop the listing with "Hello Walls", an early songwriting success for Willie Nelson, who would go on to be one of the most successful and celebrated singers in country music history. Despite continuing to chart regularly, Young would not reach number one again until 1972. (Full article...)
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Florida Georgia Line's song "Cruise" spent a record-breaking 24 weeks at number one on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay are charts that rank the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. Hot Country Songs ranks songs based on digital downloads, streaming, and airplay not only from country stations but from stations of all formats, a methodology introduced in 2012. Country Airplay, which was published for the first time in 2012, is based solely on country radio airplay, a methodology which had previously been used for several decades for Hot Country Songs.

At the start of the year, the number one song on the Hot Country Songs listing was "Cruise" by the duo Florida Georgia Line. After falling from the top spot at the end of January, the song rebounded to the top in April, beginning a run of 19 consecutive weeks at number one. Its final total was 24 weeks at the top of the chart, breaking the record which had stood since the 1940s for the most cumulative weeks spent atop one of Billboard's country song charts. This revival of the song's fortunes was due to the late spring release of a remix featuring rapper Nelly, which proved extremely popular on pop music radio. Thanks to the incorporation into the chart's methodology of airplay data from all radio formats, this support from top 40 radio allowed "Cruise" to hold the top spot throughout the summer. The remix did not prove as popular on country radio, however, and by the late summer, the song was in the unusual position of topping the Hot Country Songs chart but receiving so few plays on country stations that it did not appear in the 60-position airplay listing at all. (Full article...)
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"Not Strong Enough" by Boygenius is the most recent recipient

The Grammy Award for Best Rock Song is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality songs in the rock music genre. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".

The award, reserved for songwriters, was first presented to English musician Sting in 1992. According to the category description guide for the 52nd Grammy Awards, the award honors new songs (containing both melody and lyrics) or songs "first achieving prominence" during the period of eligibility. Songs containing prominent samples or interpolations are not eligible. (Full article...)
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The UK Singles Chart is the official record chart in the United Kingdom. In the 1970s, it was compiled weekly by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB) on behalf of the British record industry with a one-week break each Christmas. Prior to 1969 many music papers compiled their own sales charts but, on 15 February 1969, the BMRB was commissioned in a joint venture by the BBC and Record Retailer to compile the chart. BMRB compiled the first chart from postal returns of sales logs from 250 record shops. The sampling cost approximately £52,000 and shops were randomly chosen and submitted figures for sales taken up to the close of trade on Saturday. The data was compiled on Monday and given to the BBC on Tuesday to be announced on Johnnie Walker's afternoon show and later published in Record Retailer (rebranded Music Week in 1972). However, the BMRB often struggled to have the full sample of sales figures returned by post. The 1971 postal strike meant that data had to be collected by telephone but this was deemed inadequate for a national chart, and by 1973 the BMRB was using motorcycle couriers to collect sales figures.

In terms of number-one singles, ABBA were the most successful group of the decade having seven singles reach the top spot. The longest duration of a single at number-one was nine weeks and this was achieved on three occasions: "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen in 1975; "Mull of Kintyre" / "Girls' School" by Wings in 1977 and "You're the One That I Want" by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in 1978. Thirteen records were released that sold over one-million copies within the decade and "Mull of Kintyre" also became the first ever single to sell over two-million copies. In doing so it became the best-ever selling single beating the benchmark set by The Beatles' song "She Loves You" in 1963. "Mull of Kintyre" was also the biggest selling song of the decade and was not surpassed in physical sales until 1984 when Band Aid released "Do They Know It's Christmas?". (Full article...)
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Music recording certifications are typically awarded by the worldwide music industry based on the total units sold, streamed, or shipped to retailers. These awards and their requirements are defined by the various certifying bodies representing the music industry in various countries and territories worldwide. The standard certification awards given consist of Gold, Platinum, and sometimes Diamond awards, in ascending order; the UK and Australia also have a Silver certification, ranking below Gold. In most cases, a "Multi-Platinum" or "Multi-Diamond" award is given for multiples of the Platinum or Diamond requirements.

Many music industries around the world are represented by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The IFPI operates in 66 countries and services affiliated industry associations in 45 countries. In some cases, the IFPI is merely affiliated with the already operational certification bodies of a country, but in many countries with lesser-developed industries, the IFPI acts as the sole certifying body servicing the country or region's music industry. Still other countries not represented by the IFPI have certifying bodies operating independently, such as individual record companies which service the country or region's music industry as a whole. (Full article...)
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Wham!'s "Last Christmas", originally released in 1984, was the 2024 Christmas number one.

In the United Kingdom, Christmas number ones are singles that top the UK Singles Chart in the week in which Christmas Day falls. The singles have often been novelty songs, charity songs or songs with a Christmas theme. Historically, the volume of record sales in the UK has peaked at Christmas.

The Christmas number one is considered especially prestigious. Christmas number-one singles have often also been the best-selling song of the year, though in recent years they have been released by reality television contestants and charity efforts. The Christmas number is announced by BBC Radio 1 on the Friday before Christmas. The most recent Christmas number one single is "Last Christmas" by Wham!. (Full article...)
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Barbara Mandrell topped the chart with "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool", which came to be regarded as her signature song.

Hot Country Songs is a chart that ranks the top-performing country music songs in the United States, published by Billboard magazine. In 1981, 48 different singles topped the chart, then published under the title Hot Country Singles, in 52 issues of the magazine, based on playlists submitted by country music radio stations and sales reports submitted by stores.

Alabama, Razzy Bailey, T. G. Sheppard and Hank Williams Jr. tied for the most number ones of the year, with three chart-toppers each. As Alabama's "Feels So Right" was one of the few songs to spend a second week at number one, the band had the highest total number of weeks in the top spot, with four. Ten other acts achieved more than one number one in 1981. Several acts topped the chart for the first time in 1981: Charly McClain with "Who's Cheatin' Who", Sylvia with "Drifter", Rosanne Cash with "Seven Year Ache", Earl Thomas Conley with "Fire and Smoke", Ronnie McDowell with "Older Women", Steve Wariner with "All Roads Lead to You", and the duo of David Frizzell and Shelly West with "You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma". Shelly West's appearance at number one fell between two chart-toppers achieved in 1981 by her mother, Dottie West. (Full article...)
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Pee Wee King ended the year at number one on all three charts.

In 1951 Billboard magazine published three charts covering the best-performing country music songs in the United States: Most-Played Juke Box (Country & Western) Records, Best-Selling Retail Folk (Country & Western) Records and Country & Western Records Most Played By Folk Disk Jockeys. The juke box chart was compiled based on a "weekly survey among a selected group of jukebox operators whose locations require country and western records", the best sellers chart based on a "survey among a selected group of retail stores, the majority of whose customers purchase country and western records", and the jockeys chart based on a "weekly survey among a select list of over 400 disk jockeys specializing in country and western tunes". The juke box chart would be discontinued in 1957 and the other two charts merged in 1958 to form a multimetric chart, which has been published weekly since that date and since 2005 has been entitled Hot Country Songs.

In the first issue of Billboard of 1951, each chart had a different number one, although two were by the same artist. Lefty Frizzell was atop both the juke box and jockeys charts, with "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time" and "I Love You a Thousand Ways" respectively, while the best sellers chart was headed by Hank Snow with "The Golden Rocket". During the year, each of the three charts had a song spend more than ten consecutive weeks at number one: Frizzell had an unbroken run of eleven weeks in the top spot of the best sellers chart with "Always Late (with Your Kisses)" and had a similar run at number one on the jockeys chart with "I Want to Be with You Always". The longest run at number one on any of the charts, however, was the fourteen consecutive weeks which Tennessee Ernie spent atop the juke box chart with "Shotgun Boogie". Frizzell reached number one for the first time in late 1950 and achieved five chart-toppers within 18 months, but soon afterwards his chart performance began to decline, his career suffering in part due to issues in his personal life. He was the only artist with four number-one country songs in 1951; Snow and Eddy Arnold each had three. Hank Williams had two number ones on the jockeys chart, but none on either of the other two charts. (Full article...)