Hard Candy is the fourth studio album by Counting Crows, released in the United Kingdom on June 7, 2002 and the following day in the United States.
The album features the hidden track "Big Yellow Taxi", a Joni Mitchell cover. This was one of their biggest radio hits from the album, however, re-releases of the album were revised to mention the song. Originally the song did not include Vanessa Carlton and the standard version caught the ear of a producer who added it to the movie Two Weeks Notice adding Carlton's voice to the track. This version topped the VH-1 charts and American Top 40 for a while. A new version of the song "Holiday in Spain", recorded as a duet in two languages, turning into a "round" before the final choruses with the Dutch band BLØF, became a #1 hit in the Netherlands.
Reviews hailed the album as the best release since their debut, with the albums of the mid-1990s being "long, and drawn out", likely due to Duritz' state of mind at that time, one reviewer happily announced that, "Hard Candy is crisp and tight, packed with three- and four-minute shots of radio friendly fare", and that during a time when hard rock is the standard, the band are not afraid of a sound that is in the title track, compared to the Byrds, and with its "Allman-esque" twin guitars, echoes The Band in "If I Could Give All My Love (Richard Manuel Is Dead)".[8] So far the album has received a score of 69 out of 100 based on "generally favorable reviews" from Metacritic.
Tracklist
| 1 | Butterfly In Reverse (written by Adam Duritz, Ryan Adams, Charles Gillingham) Vocals - Ryan Adams | 2:48 |
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Performance statistics
| Title | Times played | Debut | Last played |
|---|---|---|---|
| Butterfly In Reverse | Never played live |
Notes
Tracklist
| 1 | Hard Candy
Vocals – David Gibbs, Matthew Sweet |
|
| 2 | American Girls
Vocals – Sheryl Crow |
|
| 3 | Good Time | |
| 4 | If I Could Give All My Love -or- Richard Manuel Is Dead | |
| 5 | Goodnight L.A. | |
| 6 | Butterfly In Reverse
Flugelhorn – Jerry HeyVocals – Ryan Adams |
|
| 7 | Miami | |
| 8 | New Frontier | |
| 9 | Carriage
Trumpet – Andre "Don" Carter* |
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| 10 | Black And Blue
Vocals – Leona Naess |
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| 11 | Why Should You Come When I Call? | |
| 12 | Up All Night (Frankie Miller Goes To Hollywood)
Percussion – Ethan Johns |
|
| 13 | Holiday In Spain | |
| 14 | 4 White Stallions | |
| 15 | You Ain't Going Nowhere | |
| 16 | Big Yellow Taxi
Vocals – Vanessa Carlton |
Companies, etc.
- Phonographic Copyright (p) – Geffen Records
- Copyright (c) – Geffen Records
- Licensed To – Polydor Ltd.
- Made By – EDC, Germany
Credits
- Co-producer – Carl Glanville, Ethan Johns, Ron Fair
- Producer – Steve Lillywhite
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Butterfly in Reverse - Counting Crows
