Blue is the debut album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by American country singer LeAnn Rimes

LeAnn Rimes

LeAnn Rimes is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Patsy Cline-intended single "Blue" when Rimes was only age 13, resulting in her...

, released in the United States on July 9, 1996 (see 1996 in music

1996 in music

This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1996.-January:* January – At the trial of two American teenagers, Nicholaus McDonald and Brian Bassett, for the murder of Bassett's parents and young brother, defense lawyers attempt to lay the blame for the murders on the fact...

) by Curb Records

Curb Records

Curb Records is a record label started by Mike Curb originally as Sidewalk Records in 1963...

. It reached #3 on Billboard 200, and #1 on Top Country Albums.

Singles released from this album include, in order of release: "Blue", "Hurt Me", "One Way Ticket (Because I Can)", "Unchained Melody", and "The Light in Your Eyes". These songs all charted on Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Songs charts between 1996 and 1997; "Blue" and "The Light in Your Eyes" both reached top 10, while "Hurt Me" fell short off top 40. "One Way Ticket" is Rimes's only #1 hit on the country music charts.

When purchased at Target

Target Corporation

Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...

 stores during the 1996 Christmas season, the album included a bonus single of "Put a Little Holiday in Your Heart", with "Unchained Melody

Unchained Melody

"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. It has become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, by some counts having spawned over 500 versions in hundreds of different languages....

" on the B-side

A-side and B-side

A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...

. The former peaked at #3 on the country charts in 1997.

Reception

Allmusic rated Blue four out of five stars. Shawn M. Haney, who reviewed the album, called it "a delightful free-for-all of sassy pick-me-up country", and stated that "perhaps people of any age or style of interest will feel youthful again after a good listen and a half."

Track listing

Charts

Blue debuted at #4 on Billboard 200 with 123,000 copies sold in the week ending of July 27, 1996, it peaked at #3 in its second week with 129,500 copies sold.

Peak positions

Chart (1996)	Peak position
Australian Albums Chart	5
Canadian RPM Top Albums	20
Canadian RPM Country Albums	1
New Zealand Albums Chart	10
UK Albums Chart	99
US Billboard 200	3
US Billboard Top Country Albums	1
US Billboard Contemporary Christian	1

End-of-decade chart

Chart (1990–1999)	Position
US Billboard 200	41

Year-end chart

Chart (1996)	Position
Australian Albums Chart	24
Canadian RPM Country Albums	6
US Billboard 200	33
US Billboard Top Country Albums	4
Chart (1997)	Position
Australian Albums Chart	90
Canadian RPM Country Albums	2
US Billboard 200	6
US Billboard Top Country Albums	1
Chart (1998)	Position
US Billboard 200	135
US Billboard Top Country Albums	16

Sales

Release history

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	July 9, 1996	Curb Records Curb Records Curb Records is a record label started by Mike Curb originally as Sidewalk Records in 1963...	CD Compact Disc The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...	77821
Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	July 29, 1996			485075 2