A Date with The Smithereens

Untitled

A Date with the Smithereens is the fifth album by the New Jersey rock band The Smithereens, released in 1994. It is seen as a big change by the band, because the previous albums were a lot more pop music and this one had turned out to be more hard rock than the others. The title is supposed to be ironic in the fact that all the songs are mostly hate-inspired.

What's different about this album

It all started when hit record producer Butch Vig gave interest in and then left the band. This may have inspired some of the hate for this album. Butch Vig worked with artists Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins. The album was originally planned to be released about a year before it actually was, but Capitol Records was near dropping The Smithereens. The reason for this is that their previous album, Blow up, was not tolerated well by listeners and lost a lot of fans.

Recording

The Smithereens planned to start recording on the album in December of 1992, but the recording was postponed to February of 1993, because of The Smashing Pumpkins album Vig was working on. In July, Butch Vig gave up on the Smithereens, and shortly after, Capitol Records got rid of them.

RCA Debut

After The Smithereens were dropped by Capitol, they went to RCA records. As revenge at Capitol, they even considered naming the new album after Capitols president, but the idea was never used. In the end, the Smithereens decided to use their old producer, Don Dixon for the album.

Track listing

All song written By Pat DiNizio except *Jim Babjak

• 1. "War for my mind" 4:07
  2. "Everything I have is blue" 4:27
  3. "Miles from Nowhere" 4:18
  4. "Afternoon Tea" 3:54
  5. "Point of No Return" 4:06*
  6. "Sleep the Night away" 4:17
  7. "Love is Gone" 3:41*
  8. "Long Way Back again" 4:06
  9. "Gotti" 4:51
  10. "Sick of Seattle" 3:03
  11. "Can't go home anymore" 4:11
  12. "Life is so beautiful" 3:27

Personnel

• Pat DiNizio - Vocals, Guitar, and Harmonica
• Jim Babjak - Guitars and Vocals
• Dennis Diken - Drums, Percussion, and Vocals
• Mike Mesarios - Bass and Vocals

Guest Musicians

• Lou Reed - Guitar solos for "Point of No Return" and "Long Way Back Again"

Singles

Song	US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	US Mainstream Rock	UK
"Miles from Nowhere"	-	-	#17	-

About the album

"It's a pretty creepy record, isn't it?" -Pat DiNizio (Lead Singer, Guitarist)

"So why's it so dark? Well, I'm not a particularly happy person these days, and I do feel that society's going to hell in a handbag. You can hear that in the first song: 'Guess what, there's a black cloud inside of my head, don't mess around with me or you'll find yourself dead.' If you live in New York City, you can feel that way, like everyone around you is a walking time bomb." -Pat DiNizio

Aftermath

This album was not as well received as the other albums by fans. As a result of this, RCA dropped them after that album, leaving them without a record label for years.

The artwork and title

File:A Date with Elvis.jpg

Cover of A Date with Elvis

The album title is based off the 1959 album A Date with Elvis and the cover is based off a picture in a book Dennis Diken owned. Also, the font used for the title was based off the sleeve of a soundtrack album called "The theme from Ben Casey." As another reference to older albums, the cover includes the RCA Victor logo with Nipper the dog on it and it also included a logo saying "Living Stereo." The album came out on cassette, CD, and a box set of vinyl records. On the cassette and CD covers, the background color is red, but on the cover of the box set of records, the background color is light blue.

Sources

• Free John Gotti!
• The story behind the cover