Field Day (Marshall Crenshaw album)

Field Day was recorded shortly after Crenshaw's self-titled debut album. Crenshaw recalled being rushed to release a follow-up to his moderately successful debut despite a lack of material; he explained, "I felt rushed doing Field Day but I was ready to take it on; I was ready to take up the challenge to do a second album. I had a couple songs leftover from my first album. I kept 'Whenever You're on My Mind' sort of in my back pocket for the future and I had 'For Her Love' that was unrecorded and laying around as a spare part. But the rest I wrote for the album." Crenshaw selected British producer Steve Lillywhite to produce Field Day rather than Richard Gottehrer, the producer for his debut album; "What Time Is It?," a song co-written by Gottehrer, was included on the album as a gesture of good will. Crenshaw explained his choice of Lillywhite in an interview, saying, "I was the one who brought Steve Lillywhite into the whole thing. People in Burbank at Warner Brothers never heard of him. My A&R person at Warner Brothers in New York was really savvy and a really brilliant gal. Her name was Karin Berg. She knew who Steve Lillywhite was. It was kind of a chaotic scene but out of all this chaos was a record that's a keeper." ==Recording==

Crenshaw recalled the sessions for Field Day as very positive and loose. He recalled, "We had a really great crew on that record. It was Steve [Lillywhite] and Scott Litt and Garry Rindfuss. All we did every day was just have fun. We were all really happy with the end result." Field Day featured a bigger production than Crenshaw's debut, most notably with the drum sound. Crenshaw was pleased with this shift in direction, stating, "The thing is the tracks are really powerful and explosive, but there's never more than one guitar on it. There are some overdubs, but the rhythm tracks are all just guitar, bass, and drums. That made me really happy." Field Day also features "Our Town", a song which Crenshaw explained was about "being homesick" for his then-hometown, New York City. ==Artwork==

The album cover of Field Day features Crenshaw in front of the high school he attended, Berkley High School in Berkley, Michigan. Crenshaw has expressed his dislike of the cover in multiple interviews, ==Release and reception==

Field Day was a commercial disappointment after Crenshaw's debut, peaking at no. 52 in Billboard magazine, lasting 14 weeks on the chart. The debut single from the album, "Whenever You're on My Mind", was aided by a popular early MTV music video and reached number 103 on the charts as well as number 23 on Billboard's Rock Tracks Chart; Crenshaw later expressed great disappointment that the single did not hit, saying "If that had been a hit, it would have been really big for me. But things went sour quickly." Crenshaw attempted to leave Warner Bros. after the album's performance, but the label would not allow it. However, many writers were critical of the album's production. ==Track listing==

All songs written by Marshall Crenshaw, except where noted. • "Whenever You're on My Mind" (Crenshaw, Bill Teeley) - 3:19 • "Our Town" - 4:13 • "One More Reason" - 3:36 • "Try" - 3:10 • "One Day With You" - 5:01 • "For Her Love" - 3:02 • "Monday Morning Rock" (Crenshaw, David Weiss) - 3:34 • "All I Know Right Now" - 3:52 • "What Time Is It?" (Bob Feldman, Richard Gottehrer, Jerry Goldstein) - 2:53 • "Hold It" - 3:45 Track listing for the UK EP U.S. Remix Side one • "Our Town" • "For Her Love" • "Monday Morning Rock" • "Little Sister" (Live) Side two • "For Her Love" (Extended Mix) "Our Town," "For Her Love" and Monday Morning Rock" were mixed and edited by John Luongo and engineered by Jay Mark and Michael Hutchinson. "Little Sister" was originally recorded for The King Biscuit Flower Power Hour by D.I.R. Broadcasting from a live performance at Ripley's Music Hall on December 2, 1983. It was mixed by Marshal Crenshaw and Jim Ball. Mastering was by Greg Calbi and Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound N.Y.C. ==Personnel==

• Marshall Crenshaw – lead guitar, vocals • Chris Donato – bass guitar • Robert Crenshaw – drums • Mike Osborn – percussion • Tom Teely – background vocals • Bob Miller – background vocals • John Crenshaw – background vocals Produced by Steve Lillywhite. Engineers: Scott Litt, Garry Rindfuss == References ==