Boston is the eponymous debut studio album by American rock band Boston. Produced by Tom Scholz and John Boylan, it was released on August 25, 1976, in the United States by Epic Records. Scholz had studied classical piano in his childhood and became involved in the Boston music scene in the late 1960s. He subsequently started to concentrate on demos recorded in his apartment basement with singer Brad Delp; they had received numerous rejection letters from major record labels in the early 1970s. By 1975 the demo tape had fallen into the hands of CBS-owned Epic Records, who signed them.
Epic wanted the band to record in Los Angeles with a record producer, but Scholz was unwilling and wanted to record the album in his basement studio, so he hired Boylan to run interference with the label. In an elaborate ruse, Scholz tricked the label into thinking the band was recording on the West Coast, when in reality, the bulk was being tracked solely by Scholz at 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, often referred to as the “Boston sound”, was developed through Scholz’s love of classical music, melodic hooks and 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. Scholz would later found Scholz Research & Development, Inc. to market many of his inventions that he used in developing the sound on the album.
Besides Scholz, who played most of the instruments on nearly all of the tracks, and Delp, other musicians appear on the album. Drummer Jim Masdea worked extensively with Scholz during the writing, arranging, and demo process and plays drums on one song on the final album, “Rock & Roll Band”. Sib Hashian plays drums on the rest of the tracks. Guitarist Barry Goudreau and bassist Fran Sheehan, who joined the band after most of the tracks had been recorded, contribute some overdubs to “Foreplay/Long Time” and appear in the final track on the album, “Let Me Take You Home Tonight”, which was recorded separately from the rest of the album.
The album was released by Epic in August 1976 and sold extremely well, breaking sales records, becoming the best-selling debut LP in the US at the time, and winning the RIAA Century Award as best selling debut album. The album’s singles, most notably “More Than a Feeling” and “Long Time”, were both AM and FM hits, and nearly the entire album receives constant rotation on classic rock radio. The album has been referred to as a landmark in 1970s rock and has been included on many lists of essential albums. It has sold 17 million copies in the United States alone and 25 million worldwide.
- “More Than a Feeling” 4:46
- “Peace of Mind” 5:02
- “Foreplay/Long Time” 7:47
- “Rock & Roll Band” 3:00
- “Smokin'” 4:20
- “Hitch a Ride” 4:12
- “Something About You” 3:48
- “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” 4:44
Tom Scholz – electric guitars, lead guitar, acoustic guitars, clavinet, organ, bass guitar, design consultant, remastering, liner notes, production, engineering
Brad Delp – lead and harmony vocals; acoustic guitar on “Let Me Take You Home Tonight”
Sib Hashian – drums all tracks except “Rock & Roll Band”
Jim Masdea – drums on “Rock & Roll Band”
Barry Goudreau – rhythm guitars, lead guitars on “Foreplay/Long Time” and “Let Me Take You Home Tonight”
Fran Sheehan – bass guitar on “Foreplay” and “Let Me Take You Home Tonight”
Life, Love & Hope is the sixth studio album by American rock band Boston. It was released on December 3, 2013 by Frontiers Records, making it their first studio album in eleven years. It is the first album released following the death of Brad Delp in 2007, whose vocals are posthumously featured on the songs “Didn’t Mean to Fall in Love”, “Sail Away”, “Someone”, and “Te Quiero Mia”, the last of which being a re-arrangement of “I Had a Good Time”, from Corporate America.
Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by the American rock band Boston. The album, released on June 3, 1997, features songs originally released on both the Epic and MCA labels, as well as three previously unreleased recordings (“Tell Me”, “Higher Power” and “The Star-Spangled Banner”). Tom Scholz, the band’s leader, felt that the album’s sound quality was not up to his standards, so a remastered version of the album was released in 2009 with a slightly different track listing. Boston embarked on a tour for this album both times it was released.
Boston is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, which had its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s. Centered on multi-instrumentalist founder and leader Tom Scholz, who played the majority of instruments on the debut album, the band is a staple of classic rock. Boston’s best-known works include the songs “More Than a Feeling”, “Peace of Mind”, “Foreplay/Long Time”, “Rock and Roll Band”, “Smokin'”, “Don’t Look Back”, “A Man I’ll Never Be”, and “Amanda”. The band has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, including 31 million albums in the United States, of which 17 million were from its self-titled debut album and seven million were for its second album, Don’t Look Back, making the group one of the world’s best-selling artists. Altogether, the band has released six studio albums over a career spanning over 40 years. Boston was ranked the 63rd best hard rock artist by VH1.
This week on Sounds of The 70s we feature music from: Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Ringo Starr, Donna Summer, Spinners, Chicago, Barry Manilow, Marshall Tucker Band and more . . .
This week on Sounds of The 80’s: Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Murphy, Kenny Rogers, Dire Straits, Robert John, Prince, Ramones, Air Supply, Steely Dan, America, Boston, Elton John, Poison, Stevie Nicks, Queen, Men At Work and many many more .. . 
On Brit Rock this week music from Gary Moore, AC/DC, Jeff Lynne, Extreme, Billy Idol, Faith No More, Fish, Aerosmith,Quireboys, Black Crowes, Stranglers, Boston, Deep Purple, Killers, The Eagles, Chris Cornell, The Fray, Kings Of Leon, U2, The Scorpions, Genesis, Dire Straits, Whitesnake, Sammy Hagar, Frijid Pink, Queen, Cinderella, Foreigner, Russ Ballard, Peter Gabriel, Gun, The Hooters, ZZ Top, Richard Marx, Ozzy Osbourne, Genesis, Rainbow. Join Dominic Forbes 12pm ET on RadioMaxMusic. Encore at 12am Sunday morning.
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