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Songs to Learn and Sing

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Released
  
11 November 1985

Length
  
40:09

Release date
  
15 November 1985

Genres
  
Post-punk, New wave

Recorded
  
1979–1985

Artist
  
Echo & the Bunnymen

Label
  
Sire Records

Songs to Learn & Sing httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumb8

Songs to Learn and Sing (1985)
  
Echo & the Bunnymen (1987)

Producers
  
Ian Broudie, Bill Drummond, David Balfe, Hugh Jones, Laurie Latham

Similar
  
Ocean Rain, Heaven Up Here, Crocodiles, Porcupine, Killing Moon: The Best of Ec

Songs to Learn & Sing is a compilation album by Echo & the Bunnymen which was released on 11 November 1985 and featured all of the singles the band had released up to that point. Released on LP, cassette and CD by Korova, WEA and Sire Records, the album received good reviews and reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and number 158 on the US Billboard 200.

Contents

Releases

Songs to Learn & Sing was first released as an LP, a cassette and a CD by Korova in the United Kingdom, WEA in Germany and Sire Records in the United States on 15 November 1985. The LP and cassette versions of the album have six tracks on side one and five tracks on side two. The album was also available as a limited edition picture disc and a limited edition album with a copy of the "The Pictures on My Wall" single. The album was reissued on 17 October 1990 by WEA.

The tracks included on the album are in chronological order and taken from the four studio albums that had been released up to that point as well including two non-album singles: "Rescue" from the Crocodiles album; "The Puppet", a non-album single; "Do It Clean", the B-side to "The Puppet"; "A Promise" from the Heaven Up Here album; "The Back of Love" and "The Cutter" from the Porcupine album; "Never Stop", a non-album single; "The Killing Moon", "Silver" and "Seven Seas" from the Ocean Rain album; and "Bring on the Dancing Horses" a new single.

Singles

Although the album is a compilation album it included one previously unreleased single — "Bring on the Dancing Horses" which was released on 14 November 1985. The single reached number 21 on the UK Singles Chart and number 15 on the Irish Singles Chart.

Reception

Allmusic rated the release four and a half stars out of five and describes the album as "a solid and comprehensive collection of the band's material". The album was listed in Rock Compact Disc magazine's list of 45 classic "British Indie Guitar Rock" albums. The album was also reasonably successful with the fans which was shown by the album reaching number 6 on the UK Albums Chart.

Track listing

All tracks written by Will Sergeant, Ian McCulloch, Les Pattinson and Pete de Freitas.

Note: track timings taken from original LP's labels.

  1. "Rescue" – 3:46
  2. "The Puppet" – 3:05
  3. "Do It Clean" – 2:43
  4. "A Promise" – 3:40
  5. "The Back of Love" – 3:13
  6. "The Cutter" – 3:55
  7. "Never Stop" – 3:29
  8. "The Killing Moon" – 5:46
  9. "Silver" – 3:17
  10. "Seven Seas" – 3:19
  11. "Bring on the Dancing Horses" – 3:56

Musicians

  • Ian McCulloch – vocals
  • Will Sergeant – guitar
  • Les Pattinson – bass
  • Pete de Freitas – drums

    • Production

  • Ian Broudie – producer ("Rescue", "The Back of Love", "The Cutter")
  • Bill Drummond – producer ("The Puppet", "Do It Clean")
  • David Balfe – producer ("The Puppet", "Do It Clean")
  • Hugh Jones – producer ("A Promise", "Never Stop")
  • The Bunnymen – producer ("A Promise", "The Killing Moon", "Silver", "Seven Seas")
  • Laurie Latham – producer ("Bring on the Dancing Horses")
  • Anton Corbijn – photography

    • Songs

    1Rescue4:30
    2The Puppet3:08
    3Do It Clean2:48

    References

    Songs to Learn & Sing Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA