Amanda Marshall: Amanda Marshall [EPIC]

Why you'll love it

This 180g reissue comes in a gatefold jacket. The album went diamond in Canada and produced six Top 40 hits, and "Birmingham" reached No. 3 here before crossing onto the Billboard Hot 100.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Before the hits, Amanda Marshall was a Toronto teenager with Royal Conservatory training, singing in bars on Queen Street West, the same strip our flagship shop calls home. Jeff Healey heard that voice and took her on tour, and after a few years of hard miles she signed to Epic and made this debut with producer David Tyson.

"Let It Rain" opens with a gospel-sized chorus, "Fall From Grace" and "Beautiful Goodbye" show off the ballad side, and "Sitting On Top Of The World" and "Dark Horse" rock out. "Birmingham" carries the heaviest story and the biggest hook, and Tyson, with Tony DeFranco assisting, keeps every arrangement built around her voice.

It made her one of the biggest Canadian voices of the decade, and Elton John even name-checked her on The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Thirty years on, these songs still sound like a Saturday night on Queen West, minus the cover charge.

Also at Kops: more Amanda Marshall on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Epic (cat# 19658822151), a reissue of the 1995 album.