Breakfast in America
Encyclopedia
Breakfast in America was seen as a departure for the band, with its pop sound deviating from the progressive rock stylings that defined their earlier work. Rolling Stone
were receptive to the band's new direction, writing, "Breakfast in America is a textbook-perfect album of post-Beatles, keyboard-centered English art rock that strikes the shrewdest possible balance between quasi-symphonic classicism and rock & roll. Whereas Supertramp's earlier LPs were bogged down by swatches of meandering, Genesis-like esoterica, the songs here are extraordinarily melodic and concisely structured, reflecting these musicians' saturation in American pop since their move to Los Angeles in 1977." Breakfast in America would become Supertramp's most popular album. According to Allmusic, who awarded the album 4.5/5 stars, it had, by the 1990s, sold in excess of 18 million copies worldwide. It has sold well over 20 million copies to date.
In the 1987 edition of the The World Critics List, music critic Joel Whitburn
ranked Breakfast in America the fourth greatest album of all time. In the 1994 edition of The Guinness All Time Top 1000 Albums
, Breakfast in America was voted #207 in the all-time greatest rock and pop albums, and it was voted the 69th greatest British rock album of all time in a 2006 Classic Rock
industry poll. Triple M
listeners voted the album #43 in the "100 Greatest Albums of All Time". Recognising the band's disfavour among music critics during their career, Q magazine
ranked Breakfast in America second on its "Records it's OK to Love" list in 2006.
2002 A&M reissue
On 11 June 2002 A&M Records
reissued Breakfast in America with full original album art plus the label art from side one recreated on the CD. It was mastered from the original master tapes by Greg Calbi and Jay Messina at Sterling Sound, New York, 2002. The reissue was supervised by Bill Levenson with art direction by Vartan and design by Mike Diehl, with production coordination by Beth Stempel. It is notable for its limited use of dynamic range compression and peak limiting, rejecting the loudness war
trends of modern CD releases.
2010 Deluxe Edition
A deluxe edition was released on October 4, 2010 including a second disc with songs recorded live in 1979, in particular songs not appearing on the live album Paris
.
2010 Super Deluxe Edition
A super deluxe edition, which was released on 6 December 2010, includes the 2 disc Deluxe Edition CD, Vinyl LP, Poster, DVD, hardcover book, and other memorabilia.
Additional personnel
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
were receptive to the band's new direction, writing, "Breakfast in America is a textbook-perfect album of post-Beatles, keyboard-centered English art rock that strikes the shrewdest possible balance between quasi-symphonic classicism and rock & roll. Whereas Supertramp's earlier LPs were bogged down by swatches of meandering, Genesis-like esoterica, the songs here are extraordinarily melodic and concisely structured, reflecting these musicians' saturation in American pop since their move to Los Angeles in 1977." Breakfast in America would become Supertramp's most popular album. According to Allmusic, who awarded the album 4.5/5 stars, it had, by the 1990s, sold in excess of 18 million copies worldwide. It has sold well over 20 million copies to date.
In the 1987 edition of the The World Critics List, music critic Joel Whitburn
Joel Whitburn
Joel Carver Whitburn is an American author and music historian.Whitburn founded Record Research Inc. in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1970, and put together a team of researchers to examine in detail all of Billboards music and video charts...
ranked Breakfast in America the fourth greatest album of all time. In the 1994 edition of The Guinness All Time Top 1000 Albums
Guinness World Records
Guinness World Records, known until 2000 as The Guinness Book of Records , is a reference book published annually, containing a collection of world records, both human achievements and the extremes of the natural world...
, Breakfast in America was voted #207 in the all-time greatest rock and pop albums, and it was voted the 69th greatest British rock album of all time in a 2006 Classic Rock
Classic Rock (magazine)
Classic Rock is a British magazine dedicated to the radio format of classic rock, published by Future Publishing, who are also responsible for its "sister" publication Metal Hammer. Although firmly focusing on key bands from the 1960s through early 1990s, it also includes articles and reviews of...
industry poll. Triple M
4MMM
4MMM is one of Brisbane, Australia's commercial FM Rock radio stations, primarily targeted at those in the 25-50 age group...
listeners voted the album #43 in the "100 Greatest Albums of All Time". Recognising the band's disfavour among music critics during their career, Q magazine
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
ranked Breakfast in America second on its "Records it's OK to Love" list in 2006.
Reissues
The album was first re-released as a remaster on Gold CD from MFSL.2002 A&M reissue
On 11 June 2002 A&M Records
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that operates under the mantle of its Interscope-Geffen-A&M division.-Beginnings:...
reissued Breakfast in America with full original album art plus the label art from side one recreated on the CD. It was mastered from the original master tapes by Greg Calbi and Jay Messina at Sterling Sound, New York, 2002. The reissue was supervised by Bill Levenson with art direction by Vartan and design by Mike Diehl, with production coordination by Beth Stempel. It is notable for its limited use of dynamic range compression and peak limiting, rejecting the loudness war
Loudness war
The loudness war or loudness race is a pejorative term for the apparent competition to digitally master and release recordings with increasing loudness.The phenomenon was first reported with respect to mastering practices for 7" singles...
trends of modern CD releases.
2010 Deluxe Edition
A deluxe edition was released on October 4, 2010 including a second disc with songs recorded live in 1979, in particular songs not appearing on the live album Paris
Paris (Supertramp album)
Paris is a live album by progressive rock band Supertramp, released in 1980 . The album was recorded on Supertramp's Breakfast in America tour in November 1979 in Paris, France at the Pavillon de Paris, a venue which was once a slaughterhouse...
.
2010 Super Deluxe Edition
A super deluxe edition, which was released on 6 December 2010, includes the 2 disc Deluxe Edition CD, Vinyl LP, Poster, DVD, hardcover book, and other memorabilia.
Track listing
Deluxe Edition Disc 2
- "The Logical Song" (Live At Pavillon de Paris) – 4:06
- "Goodbye Stranger" (Live At Pavillon de Paris) – 6:11
- "Breakfast In America" (Live At Wembley) – 3:05
- "Oh Darling" (Live In Miami) – 4:21
- "Take The Long Way Home" (Live At Wembley) – 4:48
- "Another Man's Woman" (Live At Pavillon de Paris) – 7:32
- "Even In The Quietest Moments" (Live At Pavillon de Paris) – 5:36
- "Rudy" (Live At Wembley) – 7:29
- "Downstream" (Live At Pavillon de Paris) – 3:28
- "Give A Little Bit" (Live At Pavillon de Paris) – 4:03
- "From Now On" (Live At Wembley) – 6:53
- "Child Of Vision" (Live At Pavillon de Paris) – 7:32
Personnel
- Rick DaviesRick DaviesRick Davies is an English musician, best known as the founder and keyboardist of progressive rock band Supertramp...
– keyboards, vocals, harmonica - John HelliwellJohn HelliwellJohn Helliwell is an English musician and the saxophonist and occasional keyboardist and woodwind player for the rock band Supertramp...
– saxophones, vocals, woodwindsWoodwind instrumentA woodwind instrument is a musical instrument which produces sound when the player blows air against a sharp edge or through a reed, causing the air within its resonator to vibrate... - Roger HodgsonRoger HodgsonCharles Roger Pomfret Hodgson is a British musician and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman, and founding member, of progressive rock band Supertramp....
– guitars, keyboards, vocals - Bob SiebenbergBob SiebenbergBob Siebenberg, also known as Bob C. Benberg, is an American musician, best known as a member of British progressive rock band Supertramp, playing drums and percussion...
– drums - Dougie ThomsonDougie ThomsonDouglas Campbell "Dougie" Thomson is a Scottish musician, born in Glasgow and raised in the Rutherglen area of the city. He is best known as the former bass guitarist of progressive rock band Supertramp.-Career:...
– bass
Additional personnel
- Slyde Hyde – tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
, tubaTubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
Production
- Producers: Peter Henderson, Supertramp
- Rehearsal: Southcombe Studios, Burbank, CA
- Recording: The Village Recorder/Studio B, Los Angeles, CA
- Mixing: Crystal Sound/Studio B, Los Angeles, CA
- Engineer: Peter Henderson of Air London
- Assistant engineers: Lenise Bent, Jeff Harris
- Re-Mastering (2002): Greg Calbi, Jay Messina
- Oberheim Programming: Gary Mielke
- Concert sound engineer: Russel Pope
- Art direction: Mike Doud, Mick Haggerty
- Design: Mick Haggerty
- Cover design: Mick Haggerty
- Cover art concept: Mike Doud
- Artwork: Mike Doud
- Photography: Mark Hanauer
- Cover photo: Aaron RapoportAaron RapoportAaron Rapoport is an American photographer, best known for his photographs of music artists.-Biography:In a career that spans over three decades, Rapoport has photographed in a wide variety of areas including commercial photography. His photography of album/CD covers is particularly well known...
Album
| Chart (1979) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Kent Music Report Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998... |
1 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 1 |
| Canadian Albums Chart RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... |
1 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
1 |
| French Albums Chart | 1 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 3 |
| Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
2 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart | 1 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
1 |
| Swedish Top 60 Albums | 2 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
3 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| West German Albums Chart | 1 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (1979) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart | 1 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 2 |
| Canadian Albums Chart | 1 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 6 |
| Japanese Albums Chart Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... |
29 |
| UK Albums Chart | 4 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 5 |
Certifications & Sales
Awards
Grammy Awards| Year | Winner | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Breakfast in America | Best Recording Package Grammy Award for Best Recording Package The Grammy Award for Best Recording Package is one of a series of Grammy Awards presented for the visual look of an album. It is presented to the art director of the winning album, not to the performer, except if the performer is also the art director.... |
| 1980 | Breakfast in America | Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical The Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical has been awarded since 1959. The award had several minor name changes:*In 1959 the award was known as Best Engineered Record - Non-Classical... |
| Year | Nominated | Category |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Breakfast in America | Album of the Year Grammy Award for Album of the Year The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys. It has been awarded since 1959 and though it was originally presented to the artist alone, the award is now presented to the artist, the producer, the engineer and/or mixer and the mastering engineer... |