Love. Angel. Music. Baby.

Love. Angel. Music. Baby. is the debut solo album by No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani, released on November 23 2004 (see 2004 in music). It has reached a peak of number five on the Billboard 200, number four on the UK albums chart, number five on the Canadian albums chart, and the top spot in Australia. As of December 10th 2005, "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." was nominated for "Album of the Year" and "Best Pop Album" on the 2006 Grammys, while "Hollaback Girl" was nominated for "Record of the Year" and "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance"."Rich Girl" was also nominated as "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" for the collaboration of Stefani and Eve on this track. The album is approaching worldwide sales of 7 million. Despite having strong language and violent content (such as that in Hollaback Girl) and sexual content (such as Crash), and being on a major label, the album did not get a Parental Advisory label.

The album slid off the Billboard Top 100 Album charts on March 23, 2006, ending an impressive 68 week run in which the album was able to sell over 3.7 million units in the U.S. alone. It spent 70 weeks on the Canadian Albums chart and sold close to 500,000 copies during this time period, and was certified 5x platinum. ^*

Track listing

"What You Waiting For?" – 3:41
"Rich Girl" (featuring Eve) – 3:56
"Hollaback Girl" – 3:20
"Cool" – 3:09
"Bubble Pop Electric" (featuring Johnny Vulture AKA André 3000) – 3:42
"Luxurious" – 4:24
"Harajuku Girls" – 4:51
"Crash" – 4:06
"The Real Thing" – 4:11
"Serious" – 4:48
"Danger Zone" – 3:36
"Long Way to Go" (performed with André 3000) – 4:34

International bonus track

"The Real Thing" (Slow Jam mix)

UK/Japan bonus track

"What You Waiting For?" (Elevator mix)

Bonus CD

"What You Waiting For?" (Jacques Lu Cont TWD mix)
"What You Waiting For?" (Jacques Lu Cont TWD dub)
"What You Waiting For?" (live)
"Harajuku Girls" (live)
"Hollaback Girl" (Hollatronix remix By Diplo)
"Cool" (Photex remix)
"Hollaback Girl" (dance Hollaback remix By Tony Kanal)

Production

Producers:André 3000, Dallas Austin, Dr. Dre, Nellee Hooper, Jimmy Jam, Tony Kanal, Terry Lewis, The Neptunes, Mark "Spike" Stent, Johnny Vulture
Engineers: Andrew Coleman, Greg Collins, Ian Cross, John Frye, Simon Gogerly, Mauricio "Veto" Irragorri, Jason Lader, Matt Marrin, Colin Mitchell, Pete Novak, Ian Rossiter, Rick Sheppard
Assistant engineers: Warren Bletcher, Nick Ferrero, Jason Finkel, Francis Forde, Cesar Guevara, Rob Haggett, Doug Harms, Rouble Kapoor, Kevin Mills, Glenn Pittman, Ian Rossiter, Jaime Sickora, Sean Tallman, David Treahern, John Warren
Mixing: André 3000, Greg Collins, Dr. Dre, Lee Groves, Mark "Spike" Stent, Phil Tan, Johnny Vulture
Mastering: Brian "Big Bass" Gardener
A&R: Jimmy Iovine, Mark Anthony Williams
Programming: Simon Gogerly, Tony Kanal, Jason Lader, Sam "LA More" Littlemore, Aidan Love, Ewan Pearson, Johnny Vulture
MIDI design: Rick Sheppard
Sound design: Rick Sheppard
Guitar engineer: Linda Perry
Keyboard engineer: Linda Perry
Cut: Cutmaster Swift
Web service: Ray Ibe
Creative director: Gwen Stefani
Art direction: Jolie Clemens
Art coordinator: Nicole Frantz
Layout design: Jolie Clemens
Photo coordination: Nicole Frantz
Photography: Nick Knight
Logo illustration: Johnny Copeland
Type illustration: Johnny Copeland
Package coordinator: Cindy Cooper

Additional collaborations

In addition to artists who are explicitly credited on the album inlay, Stefani had a number of other artists involved in either the writing or performing of the songs on the album, including Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner of New Order on "The Real Thing". These artists are credited on the album's website.

Unreleased tracks

"Parental Advisory": produced by Rich Harrison who worked on Beyoncé Knowles' "Crazy In Love". The song pokes fun at dancers with moves better suited for the strip clubs than the dance clubs.
"Wonderful Life for Him": written with Linda Perry. Gwen first abandoned this song as it was very personal to her. She later decided to finish the track after realising its potential. The song is written about a boy that she dated in high school that recently died. The guitar work on this song is done by Martin Gore of Depeche Mode.
"You Started It": written with Pharrell Williams.
"Fine by You": written with Linda Perry. The song is about not being inspired. It was one of the first songs written for the album.
"Wind It Up": Gwen premiered this song on her Harajuku Lovers Tour.
"Orange County Girl": Gwen also premiered this song on her tour. It's about herself and how she's overwhelmed in this "extraordinary" world.

Charts

Album - Worldwide Charts

Year	Album	Chart	Position
2004	Love.Angel.Music.Baby.	The Billboard 200	5
2004	Love.Angel.Music.Baby.	Top Canadian Albums	5
2004	Love.Angel.Music.Baby.	UK Albums Chart	4
2004	Love.Angel.Music.Baby.	Australian ARIA Albums Chart	1

Singles

"What You Waiting For?" (released 2004) Its first U.S. play was on the Los Angeles, California station KROQ and other stations; first U.K. play was on BBC Radio 1 and other stations.
"Rich Girl" (released 2005) Sample and modernized version of "If I Was a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof)
"Hollaback Girl" (released 2005) The first pop song in over three years to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The previous song to reach number one that was not urban or American Idol was "How You Remind Me", by Nickelback in 2002.
"Cool" (released 2005) Inspired by the 1980s. The song is about Stefani's relationship with Tony Kanal of No Doubt.
"Luxurious" (released 2005) The fifth single from the album.
"Crash" (released 2006) is the sixth single off the album.

Certifications

The album has been certified:

5x platinum- Canada ^*
4x platinum- Australia
3x Platinum- IrelandIrish triple platinum certification, UK, USA (3,758,950 units as of May 24th, 2006)
2x platinum- New Zealand
Platinum- Norway, Mexico and Europe ^*
Gold- Argentina, Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Thailand

References

UKmix - Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. Worldwide Certifications - last accessed on October 25, 2005

External links

Gwen Stefani albums | 2004 albums | Debut albums | Australian number one albums

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