Boston was the debut studio album by Boston. Produced by Tom Scholz and John Boylan, the album was released on August 25, 1976, in the U.S. by Epic Records. Scholz had studied classical piano in his childhood and became involved in the Boston music scene in the late 1960s. He subsequently started to concentrate on demos recorded in his apartment basement with singer Brad Delp. Although their previous group, Mother’s Milk, had received numerous rejection letters from major record labels in the early 1970s, by 1975, the demo tape had fallen into the hands of CBS-owned Epic Records, who signed the band.
Track listing
1. “More Than a Feeling”
2. “Peace of Mind”
3. “Foreplay/Long Time”
4. “Rock & Roll Band”
5. “Smokin'”
6. “Hitch a Ride”
7. “Something About You”
8. “Let Me Take You Home Tonight”
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Boston was released by Epic Records on August 25, 1976. The album broke out of Cleveland first and the following week it had been added at 392 radio stations
Fastest Selling Debut Albums Photo By: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The album was certified gold two months after its release, and sold another 500,000 copies within 30 days, going platinum for the first time in November 1976. By January 1977, the debut disc sold two million copies, making it one of the fastest selling debut albums in rock history
20 Million Copies Photo By: Ron Pownall/Getty Images
By 1986 the album had been certified for over nine million sales domestically, and Boston went diamond in 1990. By November 2003, the album was certified by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of 17 million. Worldwide, the album has sold 25 million copies
Few Thousand Dollars Photo By: Ron Pownall/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
The album was recorded for a cost of a few thousand dollars, a small amount in an industry that's used to spending hundreds of thousands on a single recording
First Tour Photo By: Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images
The first tour in support of the album was a short six-week promotional club tour throughout the Midwest. Boston soon found themselves on a nationwide tour that lasted 10 months
More Than a Feeling Photo By: Ron Pownall/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
More Than a Feeling" took Tom Scholz five years to complete. It is one of six songs Scholz worked on in his basement in 1974 and 1975 before Boston got its record contract
Peace of Mind Photo By: Michael Putland/Getty Images
Peace of Mind” is about the people Tom Scholz worked with at Polaroid Corporation before getting his recording contract and about his lack of interest in climbing the corporate ladder into company management. The song was the third and final single from the album and peaked at number 38 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1977
Foreplay/Long Time Photo By: Michael Putland/Getty Images
Tom Scholz says that "Foreplay" was the first song he ever recorded, and he did this on a two-track machine in his basement. Scholz also stated that it was the first piece of music he ever wrote, and that he wrote it as far back as 1969
Rock & Roll Band Photo By: Bob Riha, Jr./Getty Images
The drum parts of "Rock & Roll Band" and other early Boston songs were developed by Jim Masdea, but this is the only song on the Boston album on which Masdea plays drums. Sib Hashian was reluctantly chosen by Tom Scholz in 1975 to replace Masdea when Epic Records demanded that Masdea be replaced for recording
Smokin’ Photo By: Chris Walter/WireImage/Getty Images
Smokin'" was a collaborative effort between Tom Scholz and recently hired lead singer Brad Delp. It is only one of the two songs on the album not written by Scholz alone
