Melissa Etheridge is the debut album by American singer-songwriterMelissa Etheridge, released byIsland Records on May 2, 1988.
The album was re-released on September 23, 2003, as a two-CD remastered edition containing a bonus disc of ten tracks recorded live at the Roxy in Los Angeles and a five-track session from BBC Kent in April 1988.
As of 2010, the album has tallied 1,145,000 copies in the United States alone, according toNielsen SoundScan.[2] This figure does not include sales of the album between 1988 and 1991.
Billboard called the album an "excellent debut" and "as varied as Etheridge is talented," noting that "Bring Me Some Water" should bring album rock radio to its knees, while "Similar Features" and several other tracks have broader - even AC appeal." "[6]
In their review,Cashbox stated that "nobody this side of Tina Turner can belt like Melissa Etheridge. Insiders are calling her the next Janis Joplin, and she's certainly got the whiskey voice,the Texas twang and the hard-luck stories of sexual pain. But she's also got an identity of her own and a big future."[7]
AllMusic called it "one of the most stunning debut albums of the 1980s....Etheridge's true talent, however, is reconciling uncontrollable emotions such as jealousy with a strong and fiercely independent spirit. Perhaps that's why Etheridge became a role model for a generation of young women who found her to be an uncompromising artist unafraid to expose (and celebrate) her strengths and weaknesses."[1]
Overdubs recorded at Studio A, Sunset Sound Factory on November 16–18, 1987. Guitars on "Precious Pain" and "I Want You" recorded at Yo Dad Studio on October 25, 1987.
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(Deluxe edition)[3]