Mathematics (styled Ma+hematics) is the twelfth studio album by singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester, issued in April 1985.

Mathematics
Studio album by
ReleasedApril 1985
GenrePop
Length39:09
LabelMCA
ProducerGeorge Duke, Brock Walsh, Robbie Nevil, Robbie Buchanan, Trevor Veitch
Melissa Manchester chronology
Emergency
(1983)
Mathematics
(1985)
Tribute
(1989)

Details

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The album was Manchester's first studio album since leaving Arista Records, her label for ten years, after her 1983 album Emergency. Signed to MCA Records, the album was a progression of that last album, in that it relied more on a synth-pop/new wave sound rather than on her earlier singer-songwriter-styled records.

Roughly half the songs on the record were produced by George Duke, with the rest produced by Brock Walsh and a then-unknown Robbie Nevil. Robbie Buchanan produced the song "Thunder in the Night" (a song co-written by Martin Page and Diane Warren), and Trevor Veitch produced the song "Energy". Veitch also produced the song "So Full of Yourself", which was only released as the b-side to all three singles off the album. Quincy Jones served as executive producer on four songs on the LP.

The song "Just One Lifetime" was sung by Barbra Streisand to James Brolin during their wedding in 1998, and she recorded it for her 1999 album A Love Like Ours. Streisand liked the chorus of the song but not the verses, so it was asked that original songwriters Tom Snow and Manchester herself wrote new lyrics for the verses before recording it, which they duly did.

The album spawned three singles: the uptempo title track "Mathematics" was the first single and peaked at #74 in the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Manchester's last entry to date on that chart. The next two singles, the Hi-NRG track "Energy" (the only one to have a music video) and the ballad "Just One Lifetime", failed to chart. The album itself had limited success and continued Manchester's chart decline, peaking at a low No. 144 in the USA. To date, it is her last album to chart in that country.

On June 17, 2014 Geffen Records released a digital version of the album through iTunes. The album was released on compact disc on November 2, 2018 by Real Gone Music, as a 2-CD set, with the second Disc containing extended mixes of singles, unreleased songs and other material from her MCA years, such as "The Music of Goodbye", a duet with Al Jarreau.[1]

This would be Manchester's only album with MCA Records. Her only other release with the label was in early 1986, when Manchester recorded the song "The Music of Goodbye", a duet with Al Jarreau, for the soundtrack of the film Out of Africa, which was also released as a single. She left the label not long after.

Track listing

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No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Victims of the Modern Heart"Roy Freeland, Tom SnowGeorge Duke4:16
2."Mathematics"Brock Walsh, Robbie Nevil, Melissa ManchesterBrock Walsh, Robbie Nevil4:03
3."Energy"Chip Halstead, George Michael Elian, Janis TunnellTrevor Veitch3:41
4."Shocked"Walsh, NevilWalsh, Nevil3:36
5."All Tied Up"Walsh, NevilWalsh, Nevil3:54
6."The Dream"Billy Livsey, Manchester, WalshDuke4:19
7."Restless Love"Manchester, Walsh, NevilWalsh, John van Tongeren3:40
8."Thunder in the Night"Martin Page, Diane WarrenRobbie Buchanan3:54
9."Night Creatures"Page, Jon LindDuke4:00
10."Just One Lifetime"Manchester, SnowDuke4:04
Total length:39:09

Personnel

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Strings on "Just One Lifetime"

  • George Del Barrio – string arrangements
  • Ronald Cooper, Douglas Davis, Ray Kelly and Earl Madison – cello
  • Dorothy Remsen – harp
  • Rollice Dale, Roland Kato, Janet Lakatos and Virginia Majewski – viola
  • Brenton Banks, Arnold Belnick, Stuart Canin, Bonnie Douglas, Assa Drori, David Frisnia, Ed Green, Reg Hill, Alexander Horvath, Karen Jones, Irma Neumann and Paul Shure – violin

Charts

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Chart Date Position
US Billboard 200 1985 No. 144

References

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  1. ^ "Melissa Manchester Mathematics--the Mca Years on Collectors' Choice Music".