Never Ever (All Saints song)
"Never Ever" is a song by British-Canadian girl group All Saints. Written by All Saints member Shaznay Lewis along with co-writers Robert Jazayeri and Sean Mather, using the tune from the famous British folk song “Amazing Grace”, produced by Cameron McVey and Magnus Fiennes, it was released on 10 November 1997 as the second single from their debut album, All Saints; the song appeared on their compilations All Hits, Pure Shores: The Very Best of All Saints and their remix compilation The Remix Album. Lyrically, the song talks about the girls feeling their first expressions after a sudden break-up, where the girls query what they did wrong in the relationship. "Never Ever" is All Saints' highest charting single to date, peaking at the top of the charts in countries including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, while it peaked in the top 10 in countries including Ireland, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway and the United States. As of March 2013, it is the second best selling single by a girl group of all time in the United Kingdom, only behind "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls.
Two music videos were shot for the single: the European and Australian version, an American version, due to the mass success in those countries. The North American featured the group in a church, while the European/Australian version featured the group near a swimming pool and in their homes. At the 1998 Brit Awards, "Never Ever" won British Video of the Year. After the success of their debut single "I Know Where It's At", the group decided to record and produce their debut full-length studio album. "Never Ever" was released as the second single from their first album All Saints. The song was written by All Saints member Shaznay Lewis along with co-writers Robert Jazayeri and S. Mather, was produced by Cameron McVey and Magnus Fiennes. Lewis wrote the song after splitting up with a boyfriend, but the music conveyed the impression that all would be well. Soon after they signed their first major label deal with London Records, she discovered that the rest of the group - Melanie Blatt and the Canadian sisters Nicole and Natalie Appleton - had presented the label head with a tape of vocal recordings they had made without her.
It was their version of Lewis's own song "Never Ever". "He asked who had written it, so they were forced to come back and get me. Looking back on it, pretty low. I think that's why the whole time I knew that if I didn't write I'd be out on my ear", Lewis commented. All Saints flew to the United States, where the song was recorded and produced by Mather and Jazayeri. Due to control issues, London Records brought in Cameron McVey to do additional production on the track because of time/distance constraints and Cameron's relationship with Lewis. Lewis was in tears over the success of "Never Ever", since it was written about a personal broken relationship, said, "I never believed that so much good could come out of such a bad situation." All Saints recorded the vocals in Washington, D. C. except for the intro, recorded at Battery Studios in London and was kept from the original demo. This was because the mood could not be replicated and everyone agreed to keep the demo vocals. However, the song's producing and writing caused controversy.
Robert Jazayeri, who wrote the song, issued a writ against All Saints, they were granted 40% of the publishing rights to the track. After he was not satisfied, Jazayeri filed a lawsuit towards the group's record label London Records and All Saints' management, settled amicably by the parties; the song is set in common time at a tempo of 67 beats per minute and uses the melody from the British folk song “Amazing Grace” as its main hook. The lyrics are about the girls' first expressions after a sad break-up, the girls ask what they did wrong in the relationship. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic described the musical content as an "extraordinary gospel-tinged" song. Nick Butler from Sputnikmusic described the musical content as a "power ballad". "Never Ever" received positive reviews from music critics. Nick Butler from Sputnikmusic stated, "'Never Ever' is a fantastic song. Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic named the song as a highlight on its album, said it "lead the way" for All Saints' career.
He reviewed the All Hits record and said the track was a "basic hit", but called it a standout. Billboard named the song #47 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time. "Never Ever" debuted at number three on the UK Singles Chart, before rising to number one for a sole week. The song remains the group's longest single on those charts and stayed in the top 10 for 15 weeks, but charted for 26 weeks, it has sold over 1.36 million copies in the UK as of September 2017. It is the second best selling single by a girl group of all time in the UK, only behind "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls; the song debuted at number 30 on the Australian Singles Chart and rose to number one, staying there for seven consecutive weeks and stayed in the charts for 22 weeks. It was successful in the charts and was certified 2× Platinum by Australian Recording Industry Association, with sales of 140,000; the song was successful in New Zealand as well, debuting at number one and staying there for five consecutive weeks.
It was the group's only number one single in that country. It stayed in the charts for 13 weeks in total; the song was successful in European markets. It debuted at number 10 in the Swedish Singles Chart, peaked at three for one week and stayed in the charts for 20 weeks, it was certifie
Dutch Top 40
The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart compiled by Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965, it remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974. Joost den Draaijer was the initiator of the top 40 in the Netherlands. On January 2, 1965, the first Top 40 was compiled, with its first #1 hit "I Feel Fine" by The Beatles. In 1974, the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40 bought the Top 40 and named it De Nederlandse Top 40; the Dutch Top 40 is one of the three official charts in the Netherlands, the other two being the Single Top 100, based on pure sales and streaming and the Mega Top 50 which, like the Dutch Top 40 includes airplay data. From 1993 until 2018, the Top 40 was broadcast by Radio 538. Qmusic is airing the Dutch Top 40 on radio. Domien Verschuuren presents the program every Friday afternoon from 14.00 until 18.00. For most of its history, the Top 40 was based on sales figures of record stores; these were collected through telephone surveys.
As of 1999, the airplay of a limited number of radio stations was included. Between 2006 and 2014, download figures were added to the mix, they were removed again because download sales could be manipulated by record companies or artists. As of February 2014, the chart is a combination of airplay and social media trends; the more a song gets played on the radio, the higher its ranking in the Top 40. To compute year-end chart positions, the weekly #1 positions get 40 points, the #2 positions get 39 points, etc; these weekly scores are added up and sorted by single to determine the ranking. The Tipparade, listing candidates for the Top 40, is based on sales, streaming and recommendations from both the general public and the music industry. There is a set of rules, of which some have existed since 1972, that have been maintained up until 2012; some of these have been criticised as a hindrance. Since late 1971, singles had to remain at least two weeks in the charts. If a single no longer belongs in the top 40, these are placed on #40.
Example: Missy Elliott's "Lose Control": Remained two weeks on #40 in the chart, because it did not sell enough and wasn't played enough on the radio. There have been two exceptions for this, though: In October 1994, Pet Shop Boys's "Yesterday, When I Was Mad" stayed in the charts for only 1 week due to an error in the compilation, in late September 2007, Kus's "4 meiden" just didn't sell enough to stay in the charts for 2 weeks. Since 1983, singles that move up in the chart by a large number of positions are assigned superstip status; these singles were not allowed to fall down in chart position in the following week. If a superstip single had a comparatively lower sales/airplay statistics a week it would remain stuck on the same chart position until a second week of drop, by which time it may appear as if it dropped hard in chart positions. Example: Guus Meeuwis's "Ik wil dat ons land juicht": The song entered the chart at #11, rose up to #5 in its second week; the following week it remained on the # 5 position.
The following two weeks, it went from #5 to #39. Because of this rule, this single was the biggest fall down in the Dutch Top 40. However, this was not always the case. Sometimes singles with a superstip status did drop, for example. Re-entry only took place when the single re-entered within the top 30, if differently, these re-entried singles were ignored. Since 2005, there were no re-entries, until Michael Jackson died in 2009. Since, singles only re-entered the charts posthumously, but since 2012, "normal" re-entries started to occur again. Singles with double A-side are noted separately in the top 40. Example: Robbie Williams' first single off his 2005 album Intensive Care was "Tripping" with the B-side being "Make Me Pure". While "Tripping" topped the chart by peaking at #1, "Make Me Pure" peaked at #15 in the Top 40; this is a listing of significant milestones based upon the Dutch Top 40 charts. 16 weeksCalvin Harris featuring Dua Lipa — "One Kiss" 15 weeksEd Sheeran — "Shape of You" Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber — "Despacito" 13 weeksGusttavo Lima — "Balada" 12 weeksMarco Borsato — "Dromen zijn bedrog" 11 weeksBryan Adams — " I Do It for You" Marco Borsato — "Rood" André Hazes and Gerard Joling — "Blijf bij mij" Bruno Mars — "Just the Way You Are" Michel Teló — "Ai se eu te pego!"
Robin Thicke featuring T. I. & Pharrell Williams — "Blurred Lines" Avicii — "Wake Me Up" Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne — "Rather Be" OMI — "Cheerleader" Davina Michelle — "Duurt te lang" 10 weeksHeintje — "Ich bau' dir ein Schloß" 4 Non Blondes — "What's Up? Vangelis — "Conquest of Paradise" Céline Dion — "My Heart Will Go On" Owl City — "Fireflies" Alexis Jordan — "Happiness" Mike Posner — "I Took a Pill in Ibiza BLØF featuring Geike Arnaert — "Zoutelande" Source: 49 weeksPharrell Williams — "Happy" 41 weeksCorry en de Rekels — "Huilen is voor jou te laat" 40 weeksTrio Hellenique / Polis & Les Helleniques / Duo Akropolis / Mikis Theodorakis — "Zorba's Dance" The Scorpions — "Hello Josephine" 39 weeksJane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg — "Je t'aime... moi non plus" 38 weeksGotye featuring Kimbra — "Somebody That I Used to Know" (2011
ARIA Charts
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the official Australian music chart in June 1988, succeeding the Kent Music Report, Australia's national charts since 1974; the Go-Set charts were Australia's first national singles and albums charts published from 5 October 1966 until 24 August 1974. Succeeding Go-Set, the Kent Music Report began issuing the national top 100 charts in Australia from May 1974; the compiler, David Kent published Australia's national charts from 1940–1974 in a retrospective fashion using state based data. In mid 1983, the Australian Recording Industry Association commenced licensing the Kent Music Report chart; the first printed national top 50 chart available in record stores, branded the Countdown chart, was dated the week ending 10 July 1983. ARIA began compiling its own charts in-house from the chart survey dated 13 June 1988, corresponding with the printed top 50 chart dated week ending 26 June 1988.
Various artists compilation albums were included in the albums chart, as they had been on the Kent Report chart, until 2 July 1989, when a separate Compilations chart was created. The ARIA Report, detailing the top 100 singles and albums charts, was first available via subscription in January 1990; the printed top 50 chart ceased publication in June 1998, but resumed publication in the year. The printed top 50 chart again ceased publication at the end of 2000; the ARIA charts are based on data collected from digital retailers in Australia. Data of physical sales come from retailers such as Sanity and JB Hi-Fi, while data of digital sales come from online retailers such as iTunes. Since 17 February 1997, all physical sales data contributing towards the chart has been recorded electronically at point of sale. In March 1991, "Do the Bartman" by The Simpsons was the first single to reach #1 in Australia, not available on 7 inch vinyl, but cassingle only. Starting from 8 October 2006, due to low physical single sales at the time, the ARIA singles chart included online data as well as physical sales.
In 2006, it was announced that the Brazin retailing group, comprising major retailers HMV, Sanity and Virgin music/DVD stores would no longer contribute sales data to the ARIA charts. However, after a five-month absence, Brazin re-commenced contributing sales figures to the ARIA Charts on 26 November 2006; the ARIA website publishes the top 50 singles and albums charts, top 40 digital tracks chart, top 20 dance singles chart. The ARIA Report is available via paid e-mail subscription each week; these reports are uploaded to the Pandora Archive periodically. On 5 February 2006, the ARIA Chart Show was a radio program launched on the Nova network and broadcast throughout Australia, playing the official ARIA top 50 singles; the live music program was hosted by Jabba each Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm. From 1 June 2013 to 3 September 2016, the Take 40 Australia radio program broadcast the official ARIA top 40 singles on Saturday afternoons from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm, on each state's Hit Network-owned radio station.
The show was aired before the top 50 chart, dated for the following Monday, is published on the ARIA website at 6:00 pm. The charts were published online at 6:00 pm each Sunday. ARIA Top 100 Singles Chart ARIA Top 100 Albums Chart ARIA Top 100 Physical Albums Chart ARIA Top 50 Digital Tracks Chart ARIA Top 50 Digital Albums Chart ARIA Top 50 Streaming Tracks Chart ARIA Top 50 Club Tracks Chart ARIA Top 50 Catalogue Albums Chart ARIA Top 40 Urban Singles Chart ARIA Top 40 Urban Albums Chart ARIA Top 40 Country Albums Chart ARIA Top 40 Music DVDs Chart ARIA Top 25 Dance Singles Chart ARIA Top 25 Dance Albums Chart ARIA Top 20 Australian Artist Singles Chart ARIA Top 20 Australian Artist Albums Chart ARIA Top 20 Compilation Albums Chart ARIA Top 20 Jazz & Blues Albums Chart ARIA Top 20 Classical/Crossover Albums Chart ARIA Top 10 Core Classical Albums Chart ARIA Top 20 Hitseekers Singles Chart ARIA Top 20 Hitseekers Albums Chart Yearly Top 100 End of Year charts profiling the year in music End of Decade Top 100 charts profiling the decade in music Pre-2000: 2000 to present: 2006 to present: Pre-2000: 2000 to present: 2016 to present: Music of Australia List of Australian chart achievements and milestones Official website Top 50 chart archives from June 1988 at australian-charts.com Top 100 chart archives from January 2001 at Pandora Archive
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues abbreviated as R&B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African American communities in the 1940s. The term was used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat" was becoming more popular. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands consisted of piano, one or two guitars, drums, one or more saxophones, sometimes background vocalists. R&B lyrical themes encapsulate the African-American experience of pain and the quest for freedom and joy, as well as triumphs and failures in terms of relationships and aspirations; the term "rhythm and blues" has undergone a number of shifts in meaning. In the early 1950s, it was applied to blues records. Starting in the mid-1950s, after this style of music contributed to the development of rock and roll, the term "R&B" became used to refer to music styles that developed from and incorporated electric blues, as well as gospel and soul music.
In the 1960s, several British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones, the Who and the Animals were referred to and promoted as being R&B bands. Their mix of rock and roll and R&B is now known as "British rhythm and blues". By the 1970s, the term "rhythm and blues" changed again and was used as a blanket term for soul and funk. In the 1980s, a newer style of R&B developed, becoming known as "contemporary R&B", it combines elements of rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop, electronic music. Popular R&B vocalists at the end of the 20th century included Prince, R. Kelly, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey. In the 21st century, R&B has remained a popular genre becoming more pop orientated and alternatively influenced with successful artists including Usher, Bruno Mars, Chris Brown, Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean and Khalid. Although Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine is credited with coining the term "rhythm and blues" as a musical term in the United States in 1948, the term was used in Billboard as early as 1943.
It replaced the term "race music", which came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world. The term "rhythm and blues" was used by Billboard in its chart listings from June 1949 until August 1969, when its "Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles" chart was renamed as "Best Selling Soul Singles". Before the "Rhythm and Blues" name was instated, various record companies had begun replacing the term "race music" with "sepia series". Writer and producer Robert Palmer defined rhythm & blues as "a catchall term referring to any music, made by and for black Americans", he has used the term "R&B" as a synonym for jump blues. However, AllMusic separates it from jump blues because of R&B's stronger gospel influences. Lawrence Cohn, author of Nothing but the Blues, writes that "rhythm and blues" was an umbrella term invented for industry convenience. According to him, the term embraced all black music except classical music and religious music, unless a gospel song sold enough to break into the charts.
Well into the 21st century, the term R&B continues in use to categorize music made by black musicians, as distinct from styles of music made by other musicians. In the commercial rhythm and blues music typical of the 1950s through the 1970s, the bands consisted of piano, one or two guitars, bass and saxophone. Arrangements were rehearsed to the point of effortlessness and were sometimes accompanied by background vocalists. Simple repetitive parts mesh, creating momentum and rhythmic interplay producing mellow and hypnotic textures while calling attention to no individual sound. While singers are engaged with the lyrics intensely so, they remain cool, in control; the bands dressed in suits, uniforms, a practice associated with the modern popular music that rhythm and blues performers aspired to dominate. Lyrics seemed fatalistic, the music followed predictable patterns of chords and structure; the migration of African Americans to the urban industrial centers of Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and elsewhere in the 1920s and 1930s created a new market for jazz and related genres of music.
These genres of music were performed by full-time musicians, either working alone or in small groups. The precursors of rhythm and blues came from jazz and blues, which overlapped in the late-1920s and 1930s through the work of musicians such as the Harlem Hamfats, with their 1936 hit "Oh Red", as well as Lonnie Johnson, Leroy Carr, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, T-Bone Walker. There was increasing emphasis on the electric guitar as a lead instrument, as well as the piano and saxophone. In 1948, RCA Victor was marketing black music under the name "Blues and Rhythm". In that year, Louis Jordan dominated the top five listings of the R&B charts with three songs, two of the top five songs were based on the boogie-woogie rhythms that had come to prominence during the 1940s. Jordan's band, the Tympany Five, consisted of him on saxophone and vocals, along with musicians on trumpet, tenor saxophone, piano and drums. Lawrence Cohn described the music as "grittier than his boogie-era jazz-tinged blues". Robert Palmer described it as "urbane, jazz-based music with a heavy, insistent beat".
Jordan's music, along with that of Big Joe Turner, Roy Brown, Billy Wright, Wynonie Harris, is now referred to as jump blues. Paul Gayten, Roy Brown, others had had hits in the style now referred to as rhythm and blu
Twelve-inch single
The twelve-inch single is a type of gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time compared to LPs. This allows for louder levels to be cut on the disc by the mastering engineer, which in turn gives a wider dynamic range, thus better sound quality; this record type is used in disco and dance music genres, where DJs use them to play in clubs. They are played at either 45 rpm. Twelve-inch singles have much shorter playing time than full-length LPs, thus require fewer grooves per inch; this extra space permits a broader dynamic range or louder recording level as the grooves' excursions can be much greater in amplitude in the bass frequencies important for dance music. Many record companies began producing 12-inch singles at 33 1⁄3 rpm, although 45 rpm gives better treble response and was used on many twelve-inch singles in the UK; the gramophone records cut for dance-floor DJs came into existence with the advent of recorded Jamaican mento music in the 1950s. By at least 1956 it was standard practice by Jamaican sound systems owners to give their "selecter" DJs acetate or flexi disc dubs of exclusive mento and Jamaican rhythm and blues recordings before they were issued commercially.
Songs such as Theophilus Beckford's "Easy Snappin'" were played as exclusives by Sir Coxson's Downbeat sound system for years before they were released in 1959 – only to become major local hits pressed in the UK by Island Records and Blue Beat Records as early as 1960. As the 1960s creativity bloomed along, with the development of multitrack recording facilities, special mixes of rocksteady and early reggae tunes were given as exclusives to dancehall DJs and selecters. With the 1967 Jamaican invention of remix, called dub on the island, those "specials" became valuable items sold to allied sound system DJs, who could draw crowds with their exclusive hits; the popularity of remix sound engineer King Tubby, who singlehandedly invented and perfected dub remixes from as early as 1967, led to more exclusive dub plates being cut. By 10-inch records were used to cut those dubs. By 1971, most reggae singles issued in Jamaica included on their B-side a dub remix of the A-side, many of them first tested as exclusive "dub plates" on dances.
Those dubs included drum and bass-oriented remixes used by sound system selecters. The 10-inch acetate "specials" would remain popular until at least the 2000s in Jamaica. Several Jamaican DJs such as DJ Kool Herc exported much of the hip hop dance culture from Jamaica to the Bronx in the early 1970s, including the common Jamaican practice of DJs rapping over instrumental dub remixes of hit songs leading to the advent of rap culture in the United States. Most the widespread use of exclusive dub acetates in Jamaica led American DJs to do the same. In the United States, the twelve-inch single gramophone record came into popularity with the advent of disco music in the 1970s after earlier market experiments. In early 1970, Cycle/Ampex Records test-marketed a twelve-inch single by Buddy Fite, featuring "Glad Rag Doll" backed with "For Once in My Life"; the experiment aimed to energize the struggling singles market, offering a new option for consumers who had stopped buying traditional singles. The record was pressed at 33 rpm, with identical run times to the seven-inch 45 rpm pressing of the single.
Several hundred copies were made available for sale for 98 cents each at two Tower Records stores. Another early twelve-inch single was released in 1973 by soul/R&B musician/songwriter/producer Jerry Williams, Jr. a.k.a. Swamp Dogg. Twelve-inch promotional copies of "Straight From My Heart" were released on his own Swamp Dogg Presents label, with distribution by Jamie/Guyden Distribution Corporation, it was manufactured by Jamie Record Co. of Pennsylvania. The B-side of the record is blank; the first large-format single made for DJs was a ten-inch acetate used by a mix engineer in need of a Friday-night test copy for famed disco mixer Tom Moulton. The song was; as no 7-inch acetates could be found, a 10–inch blank was used. Upon completion, found that such a large disc with only a couple of inches worth of grooves on it made him feel silly wasting all that space, he asked Rodríguez to re-cut it so that the grooves looked more spread out and ran to the normal center of the disc. Rodriguez told him.
Because of the wider spacing of the grooves, not only was a louder sound possible but a wider overall dynamic range as well. This was noticed to give a more favorable sound for discothèque play. Moulton's position as the premiere mixer and "fix it man" for pop singles ensured that this fortunate accident would become industry practice; this would have been a natural evolution: as dance tracks became much longer than had been the average for a pop song, the DJ in the club wanted sufficient dynamic range, the format would have enlarged from the seven-inch single eventually. The broad visual spacing of the grooves on the twelve-inch made it easy for the DJ in locating the approximate area of the "breaks" on the disc's surface in dim club light. A quick study of any DJs favorite discs will reveal mild wear in
Metropolis Group
Metropolis Group is a music production and entertainment industry company established in 1989 by Gary Langan, Carey Taylor and Karin Clayton. It is located in the Powerhouse, a Grade II listed building, at 70 Chiswick High Road in Chiswick, England. Over the last twenty years the group has expanded and now consists of three divisions: Metropolis Studios, Metropolis Mastering, Digital Media/Productions. Metropolis Group was bought out on 31 May 2013 by'MLML' by Kainne Clements, The Group in 2017 gained a new CEO Richard Connell, a former Sony Music executive; the Powerhouse was built in 1901 by a young architect William Curtis Green to power the trams of West London. It had a 260-ft. High steel smoke-stack. On the façade, are two large female figures that represent `electricity’ and `locomotion’; this substantial building was conceived to be so large as to prevent any of the houses in the neighbourhood suffering from the vibration and dust caused by the steam powered generators. Due to competition from Lots Road power station in Chelsea, power was only generated until 1920 when the building was decommissioned and stripped of its equipment.
Being used as a storage facility, the Powerhouse fell into disrepair. In 1962 the trolley bus service was closed, the chimney was demolished in 1966. London Transport decided to redevelop the site; this led to an outcry and the Victorian Society campaigned for the protection of the building from the developers, which in turn led to the building being listed in 1975, one of the first Victorian buildings to be so nominated, the first, built in the 20th century. In 1985, the upper part of the building was converted into flats, including a penthouse, split over three levels. In 1989, after a large scale redevelopment, the lower part of the building was converted into a recording studios, the home of Metropolis Group. Metropolis Studios consists of four floors, 5 recording and mixing studios and four production rooms, it has a concrete and metal atrium, with steel and render in other rooms. In the studios, the design engineers have placed obtuse angle to refract sound. Studio B was used as the London mixing studio for Mark Ronson, when he produced the'Back to Black' album for Amy Winehouse.
The studios has been used in the past by Queen, Michael Jackson, U2, Lady Gaga, Adele and Lauryn Hill. Official Metropolis Group website
All Saints (All Saints album)
All Saints is the debut studio album by British girl band All Saints. It was released on 24 November 1997 by London Records. All Saints worked with several producers on the album. Upon its release, the album received mixed reviews from music critics, many critics praised the choice of singles and the group's musical direction; the album spawned three number-one singles in the United Kingdom: "Never Ever", the double A-side "Under the Bridge" and "Lady Marmalade", "Bootie Call", as well as "I Know Where It's At" and "War of Nerves". All Saints received mixed reviews from music critics. Many critics praised the choice of singles and the group's musical direction, while some did not enjoy the music direction and felt they lacked personality. Nick Butler from Sputnikmusic gave it a mixed review, he felt that the musical direction and sound "hasn't aged well" but praised the group's creativity, where the group were more pleasurable than their all girl group rivals Spice Girls, as he stated they were "considered the credible alternative to the Spice Girls."
But due to comparisons with the Spice Girls, he stated "I still enjoy the singles a lot when I hear them, but if there was a war between the two groups, All Saints lost it."Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic did not rate the album, but gave it a mixed review as well. Through the rival with the Spice Girls, he felt All Saints lacked "personality", but praised their music direction by saying "All four members have better voices than the Spices, they all have a hand in writing at least one of the songs on their eponymous debut More they and their producers have a better sense of contemporary dance trends – there are real hip-hop and club rhythms throughout the record " He highlighted "Never Ever", "I Know Where It's At" and "Lady Marmalade" as the album's best tracks. In the United Kingdom the album debuted at number twelve for the week beginning 6 December 1997, before progressing to a peak of number two on 17 January 1998 where it remained for three consecutive weeks, it spent a total of 66 weeks on the chart.
As of April 2016, the album has sold 1,469,771 copies in the United Kingdom. It peaked within the top forty in numerous countries and reached the top ten in Switzerland, New Zealand and Canada; the album was certified Platinum in the United States for shipments of over 1 million units. The group first released the single "I Know Where It's At"; the song was written by member Shaznay Lewis, with usual writing partner Karl Gordon and contained a sample of Steely Dan's "The Fez". It was released on 18 August 1997 as the first single from the group, while a re-release was on 13 January 1998. Commercially, the song proved to be a success worldwide, peaking in the top twenty in countries including Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia and France. A music video was shot for the single, where it featured the group in an urban setting; the group's second single was "Never Ever", written by Lewis and the song's producer, Sean Mather. It was released on 19 November 1997 worldwide, while it was released on 7 July 1998 in North America.
The song remains the group's most successful and memorable hit, where the song peaked at number one in Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom, while it peaked in the top ten in countries including Ireland, Canada, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria. The song peaked at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the group's highest peaking single in that country; the group released a double A-Side single with "Under the Bridge" and "Lady Marmalade". Both versions were released on the studio album. Both of the singles were cover versions, however they remain unique because both cover songs are lyrically altered from the original; the songs were released on 27 April 1998 worldwide, including North America on that date. Though it was released as a double A-Side single, "Under the Bridge" had charted from the single, where it managed to chart in the top twenty in countries including United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Sweden. However, "Lady Marmalade" charted as a solo single as well, but did not perform as well as the conjoined single, where it charted in Switzerland and France.
The group's fourth single was "Bootie Call". The song was released on 31 August 1998 in European countries only, it was the group's third consecutive number one in the United Kingdom charting in Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden. A music video was shot for the single; the group's fifth and final single was "War of Nerves". The song was to be only released in the United Kingdom on 23 November 1998, but was released in New Zealand; the song didn't have as much success but charted in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. A music video was shot; the song "Let's Get Started" was released in 1995 with only members Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis under the name All Saints 1.9.7.5. However, when the group formed with sisters Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton, they renamed the group All Saints and the title of the song was altered to "If You Wanna Party" and featured on the album. However, both "Let's Get Started" and "If You Wanna Party" are the same song, but with different titles; the song was re-recorded with the Appleton sisters and was re-released in Japan only in 1997.
The song had a music video, exclusive to Japan. Official site
