A Woman and a Man – 1996
A Woman and a Man is the sixth studio album by American singer Belinda Carlisle, released in the United Kingdom on September 23, 1996 by Chrysalis Records (then part of the EMI Group, like Carlisle’s former label Virgin Records). The album contains songs written by Rick Nowels, Maria Vidal, Ellen Shipley, Charlotte Caffey, Neil Finn and Roxette co-founder Per Gessle who also produced one of the tracks.
It was released in the United States in 1997 (see 1997 in music) on the Ark 21 Records label. There was special DTS (surround sound) version released with a slightly different track listing compared to the original; it was only ten tracks long and did not include “Listen to Love”, “Love Doesn’t Live Here” and “Always Breaking My Heart” but instead had covers of the songs “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon and “The Ballad of Lucy Jordan” by Shel Silverstein.
The album entered the UK Albums Chart at #12. It outsold Carlisle’s previous album, Real, and was certified Gold by BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies. The album revived Carlisle’s career in the singles chart – producing three top-twenty hits (two of them top-ten). It was released in the U.S. but failed to chart on the Billboard 200 album chart with a total sales of 17,000 copies.
The album charted on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart on November 11, 1996 at #31 with only one single released to radio at the time. It only spent ten weeks in the top one hundred making the album her last charting album on the charts. It was Carlisle’s last album to chart in Austria, peaking at #36 and stayed in the charts for two weeks. It was Carlisle’s lowest charting album in Sweden, peaking at #44 and only spending one week in the charts. In Italy, the album peaked at #35.
The singles had some success in various countries. “In Too Deep” was the first song released from the album and became a top ten hit in the UK and a top twenty in Australia. “Always Breaking My Heart” was the second song released from the album, written and produced by Per Gessle of Roxette, which was also a top ten hit in the UK. “Love in the Key of C” the third song released, became Carlisle’s tenth top twenty UK hit. “California” was the fourth single released and was Carlisle’s final UK Top 40 hit before retiring.
Track listing
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. “In Too Deep” Rick Nowels 4:05
2. “California” Rick Nowels, Billy Steinberg, María Vidal 2:59
3. “A Woman And A Man” Robbie Seidman, María Vidal 5:12
4. “Remember September” Rick Nowels, Ellen Shipley 4:32
5. “Listen To Love” Christopher García, John Ingoldby, Ralph McCarthy 4:09
6. “Always Breaking My Heart” Per Gessle 3:12
7. “Love Doesn’t Live Here” Per Gessle 4:09
8. “He Goes On” Neil Finn 3:13
9. “Kneel At Your Feet” Charlotte Caffey, Tom Caffey, Belinda Carlisle 4:18
10. “Love in the Key of C” Rick Nowels 3:50
11. “My Heart Goes Out to You” Anders Bagge, Rick Nowels, Allen Rich 3:35
Personnel
Lorenzo Agius – photography
Nick Beggs – bass (tracks 1–5 and 7), stick
Andy Brown – conductor
Belinda Carlisle – vocals (tracks 1–11)
Paulinho Da Costa – percussion (tracks 1–5 and 8–10)
Caroline Dale – string arrangements
Steve Farris – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Per Gessle – electric guitar, background vocals, producer
Phil Grande – guitar (tracks 1 and 2)
Andres Herlin – bass guitar
Jonas Isacsson – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Davey Johnstone – mandolin (track 1)
Rory Kaplan – piano, keyboards (tracks 1 and 2), drum programming
Brian Lapin – assistant engineer, mixing
Louis Metoyer – acoustic guitar, electric guitar, guitar
Clarence Ofwerman – keyboards, programming, producer
Ellen Shipley – background vocals (track 1)
David Tickle – producer, engineer, mixing
Maria Vidal – background vocals (track 1)
Ellen Von Unwerth – photography
Brian Wilson – background vocals (track 2)
Randy Wine – engineer, mixing
Steve Wren – drums (tracks 1 and 2)
Red Young – organ