Once Upon a Time (Simple Minds album)

Once Upon a Time is the seventh studio album by Scot- been used for the various reissues of the album. A col-
tish pop rock band Simple Minds, released in October lectable picture disc LP was also produced. Housed in
1985 by record label Virgin (A&M in the US). a luxury gatefold die-cut sleeve, the record featured the
mottled gold eect of the sleeve. A unique lyrics sheet
was also packaged in the gatefold. A magnetic jigsaw
1 Background puzzle was also produced by Virgin Records to promote
the album.
The record paired the group with music producer Jimmy The album has been re-released in remastered form on
Iovine. He had worked with artists featuring an aggressive several occasions, most recently in 2015. Virgin Records
guitar-based sound, including singer-songwriters Bruce reissued the album as a remastered edition in 2002 (card-
Springsteen and Stevie Nicks, and he brought that ap- board vinyl replica edition) and early 2003 (jewel-case).
proach to the band. Iovine particularly pushed frontman It was released on SACD in 2003. 2005 saw yet an-
Jim Kerr, aiming for more energetic sounding vocals.[1] other reissue of the album. This time Virgin released
a DVD-Audio version (actually, the disc bears a DVD-
Although already successful in their native U.K. and vari- Audio/Video logo), which is notable for being a com-
ous countries Europe, Simple Minds had also recently be- pletely remixed album. All the tracks were remixed in
come popular in the U.S., mainly due to the Keith Forsey 5.1 surround sound, and additionally, a downmixed 2.0
and Steve Schi-penned "Don't You (Forget About Me)". stereo version was created for compatibility with non-
That track appeared on The Breakfast Club soundtrack surround DVD-Audio set-ups. The tracks on the remixed
and had become a #1 hit there. However, the band de- album dier in length in comparison to the original ver-
liberately left the track o the album due to their reluc- sion. In most cases they are longer than in the original
tance to record it. Still, the bombastic pop rock sound mix. All the tracks on the remixed album contain ma-
proved inuential in the construction of much of Once terial that has frequencies above the CD-Audio cut-o
Upon a Time, particularly the arena-friendly single "Alive frequency, reaching beyond 30 kHz (a tribute to the orig-
and Kicking". Once Upon a Time also shared many in- inal analogue multi-track tapes, and to the producers). In
uences with their previous studio album, Sparkle in the December 2015, multiple formats of the album were re-
Rain, which explored a similar songwriting style. issued.
In 2012, the original 8-track album was included in the
box set 5 Album Set, which also included four other
2 Reception Simple Minds albums: Sons and Fascination, New Gold
Dream (81-82-83-84), Sparkle in the Rain and Street
Once Upon a Time was released on 21 October 1985 by Fighting Years.
record label Virgin (A&M in the US). The album topped
Music critic MacKenzie Wilson has retrospectively
the UK charts, and peaked at No. 10 on the US charts,
praised the album for Allmusic, stating that it provided
spending ve consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of Bill-
listeners with a raw energy and solid composition not
board and 16 weeks in the Top 20.
entirely captured on previous albums. He also partic-
Four singles were taken from the album: "Alive and Kick- ularly lauded singles Alive & Kicking and Sanctify
ing" (UK No. 7, US No. 3), "All the Things She Said" Yourself.[1]
(UK No. 9, US No. 28), "Sanctify Yourself" (UK No.
10, US No. 14), and "Ghost Dancing" (UK No. 13).
The album was available with two covers upon its original
LP release. The alternate cover uses the back image for 3 Legacy
the front and vice versa. It also moves the Simple Minds
logo to the right of the cover. The two cover images t
together when placed side by side or above each other, In 2008, Once Upon a Time was listed as the 864th great-
and the release of the album in British record shops saw est album of all time by the French retail chain Fnac.[8]
the two covers placed in a grid, alternating like the two In 2013, All the Things She Said was featured on a ra-
colours on a chessboard. The album cover was standard- dio station in Grand Theft Auto V, the fourth best-selling
ised for the original CD release and this version has since video game of all time (as of February 2017).

1
2 9 EXTERNAL LINKS

4 Track listing 7 Certications

All songs written by Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, and Mick
MacNeil.[9]
8 References
[1] Simple Minds - Once Upon a Time at AllMusic. Re-
1. Once Upon a Time 5:44 trieved 22 November 2016.

[2] Simple Minds: Articles & Reviews. simple-

2. "All the Things She Said" 4:16
minds.org.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2013.

3. "Ghost Dancing" 4:46 [3] The Essential Rock Discography - Volume 1: 970. 2006.
Missing or empty |title= (help)
4. "Alive and Kicking" 5:25
[4] Robert Christgau: Simple Minds reviews
5. Oh Jungleland 5:12 [5] Simple Minds - Once Upon a Time. Acclaimed Music.
Retrieved 9 January 2013.
6. I Wish You Were Here 4:42
[6] Once Upon a Time Review, Spin, January 1986, p. 28.
7. "Sanctify Yourself" 4:57 [7] Larkin, Colin. "Review: Once Upon a Time". Virgin En-
cyclopedia of Popular Music: 2002.
8. Come a Long Way 5:09
[8] Les 1000 CD des disquaires de la fnac. Listology. Re-
trieved 31 January 2013.

5 Personnel [9] ASCAP database search.

[10] Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 19701992.

Simple Minds St Ives, NSW: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-
11917-6.

Jim Kerr vocals

Charlie Burchill guitar

9 External links

Michael MacNeil keyboards Once Upon a Time at Discogs (list of releases)

Mel Gaynor drums, vocals

John Giblin bass

Additional personnel

Carlos Alomar backing vocals

Michael Been of The Call backing vocals

Robin Clark vocals

Sue Hadjopoulos percussion

Frank Simms and George Simms of The Simms

Brothers Band backing vocals

6 Chart positions
Album
Singles
 3

10 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

10.1 Text
Once Upon a Time (Simple Minds album) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_(Simple_Minds_album)?oldid=
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