Especially for You is the first full-length album by the US rock band The Smithereens, released in July 1986 by Enigma Records.
The album is notable for the hit "Blood and Roses", which has been featured in multiple movie and TV productions. Producer Don Dixon's co-production work on R.E.M.'s Murmur and Reckoning albums added attention to the record's initial release. Two of its songs became hits on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart: "Blood and Roses" reached No. 14, while "Behind the Wall of Sleep" peaked at No. 23. The album reached No. 51 on the US Billboard 200 as well as No. 5 on the UK Indie Chart. It was certified platinum in the US for sales over 1,000,000 copies. The album today is highly regarded by most critics, and was one of Kurt Cobain's favorite albums, as noted in his journal.
Contents
Background
On April 5, 1985, the Smithereens booked themselves into the Record Plant in New York City and recorded five songs: "Blood and Roses", "Behind the Wall of Sleep", "Cigarette", "Crazy Mixed-Up Kid" and "Alone at Midnight". "All in one evening", according to drummer Dennis Diken. The plan was to shop the finished tapes to all the major and minor labels in the hope of securing a deal. Guitarist Jim Babjak: "After we completed the recordings, we submitted these songs to practically every label out there and were rejected by all except for a small label in California called Enigma." Don Dixon, who had co-produced the first two R.E.M. albums, was selected to produce the album. "We touched up the songs that were in the can and recorded another batch to fill out the album at the Record Plant", Babjak said. Recording and mixing took about 10 days in December 1985, with everything wrapping up on New Year's Eve. Enigma released Especially for You in July 1986. Lead vocalist Pat DiNizio: "This was like a greatest hits album from a band nobody’s heard of because we’d had those songs for five years."
Songs
"Strangers When We Meet" – to songwriter Pat DiNizio, the song was his attempt to rewrite the Beach Boys' "Don't Worry Baby", "but in the end it turned into something else altogether", he said. The title was taken from the 1960 film of the same name and the lyrics were directly inspired by the plot. Written in 1984 and considered by the band as the main "pop hit single" candidate on the album.
"Groovy Tuesday" – A recently written song, co-written by DiNizio, Steve Forbert and Mark Johnson. Forbert: "Pat DiNizio and I and Mark Johnson, we were drinking and hanging out and wanted to write something just really off the wall, kind of goofy. We were talking about psychedelic groups like The Flower Pot Men and The Chocolate Watchband and we just wanted to make up a song." Inspired by a listen to The Who Sell Out, the three songwriters picked up guitars and wrote the song. At one point "Groovy Tuesday" was set to be the title of the album.
"Cigarette" – Written in May 1984 on a train from Stockholm to Amsterdam the day after the Smithereens' first Scandinavian tour ended. DiNizio: "I was feeling lonely and disoriented and homesick, looking out the train window ... This was right around the time that cigarette smoking became extremely unpopular in the United States. But everyone we met in Europe seemed to be happily smoking their brains out! I remembered seeing films that celebrated the romance of the cigarette by showing a couple in bed sharing a smoke after sleeping together, or the actor Charles Boyer putting two cigarettes in his mouth and lighting them both at the same time and then handing one to his lover. That's what the song is about, really."
"I Don't Want to Lose You" – DiNizio: "Some of the first songs I wrote, while charming, are not great compositions. It’s someone learning how to write songs. Yet some of the songs—in fact my first composition, "I Don’t Want to Lose You" wound up on Especially for You and a lot of folks like that song."
"Time and Time Again" – One of the first songs DiNizio wrote, "definitely under the influence of early Lennon-McCartney", he said. "The main riff obviously owes a lot to "Oh, Pretty Woman" by the great Roy Orbison, although it took me years to recognize it!" The band's first recording of the song was a 1980 demo.
Personnel
Credits adapted from the album's liner notes.