The Lonesome Jubilee

The Lonesome Jubilee
Studio album by
John Cougar Mellencamp
ReleasedAugust 24, 1987 (1987-08-24)[1]
RecordedSeptember 1986 – June 1987
StudioBelmont Mall (Belmont, Indiana)[2]
Genre
Length39:42
LabelMercury
ProducerJohn Mellencamp, Don Gehman[2]
John Cougar Mellencamp chronology
Scarecrow
(1985) 		The Lonesome Jubilee
(1987) 		Big Daddy
(1989)
Singles from The Lonesome Jubilee
  1. "Paper in Fire"
    Released: August 1987
  2. "Cherry Bomb"
    Released: October 1987
  3. "Check It Out"
    Released: January 1988
  4. "Rooty Toot Toot"
    Released: May 1988
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[4]
Robert ChristgauA−[5]
Rolling Stone(mixed)[6]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[7]

The Lonesome Jubilee is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Cougar Mellencamp (credited as simply Mellencamp on pressings). The album was released by Mercury Records on August 24, 1987 (see 1987 in music).[1] Four singles were released from the album, the first two in 1987 and the last two in 1988.

The album was one of Mellencamp's most successful worldwide, charting in ten countries. The album was most successful in Canada where it topped RPM magazine's Top Albums chart[8] and became the artist's highest certified album by Music Canada (formerly the Canadian Recording Industry Association) becoming 6× platinum.[9] In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for the year's best albums, The Lonesome Jubilee finished at No. 7.[10]

"We were on the road for a long time after Scarecrow, so we were together a lot as a band," Mellencamp said in a 1987 Creem Magazine feature. "For the first time ever, we talked about the record before we started. We had a very distinct vision of what should be happening here. At one point, The Lonesome Jubilee was supposed to be a double album, but at least 10 of the songs I'd written just didn't stick together with the idea and the sound we had in mind. So I just put those songs on a shelf, and cut it back down to a single record. Now, in the past, it was always 'Let's make it up as we go along' – and we did make some of The Lonesome Jubilee up as we went along. But we had a very clear idea of what we wanted it to sound like, even before it was written, right through to the day it was mastered."[11]

  1. ^ a b "Gold & Platinum Searchable Database" (PHP). Recording Industry Association of America.
  2. ^ a b The Lonesome Jubilee (CD liner). John Cougar Mellencamp. Mercury Records. 1987. 832 465-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
  3. ^ Christensen, Thor (1998). "John Mellencamp". In Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. pp. 745–747.
  4. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "The Lonesome Jubilee – John Mellencamp". AllMusic. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  5. ^ Christgau, Robert. "CG: Artist 2778". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  6. ^ DeCurtis, Anthony (October 8, 1987). "The Lonesome Jubilee". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  7. ^ "John Mellencamp: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  8. ^ "100 Albums". RPM. 47 (9). December 5, 1987. ISSN 0315-5994. Archived from the original (PHP) on October 23, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  9. ^ "Gold & Platinum Database Results". Music Canada. Archived from the original (ASPX) on April 5, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  10. ^ "The 1987 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. March 1, 1988. Archived from the original on January 3, 2023. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
  11. ^ "John Cougar Mellencamp: Growing Up In Public". Creem Magazine.