''Need You Now'' is the second studio album by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

trio

Lady A Lady A (formerly known as Lady Antebellum) is an American country music group formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2006. The group is composed of Hillary Scott (lead and background vocals), Charles Kelley (lead and background vocals, guitar), ...

ntebellum. It was released on January 26, 2010 through

Capitol Nashville Capitol Records Nashville is a major United States-based record label located in Nashville, Tennessee operating as part of the Universal Music Group Nashville. From 1991 to 1995, Capitol Nashville was known as Liberty Records, before returning ...

. It is the follow-up album to their 2008

self-titled An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

debut album. The production on the album was handled by

Paul Worley Paul Worley (born February 16, 1950 in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American record producer and session guitarist, known primarily for his work in country music. Formerly a vice president at Sony BMG, he later joined the staff of Warner Bros. Re ...

and Lady Antebellum. ''Need You Now'' received generally positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

and was also a massive commercial success. The album debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 481,000 copies sold in its first week. It was eventually certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in March 2013. On February 13, 2011, the album won the

Best Country Album The Grammy Award for Best Country Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the country music genre. Honors ...

and was nominated for Album of the Year, whereas the single " Need You Now" won four awards, including Song of the Year and

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without reg ...

at the

53rd Annual Grammy Awards The 53rd Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 13, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. They were broadcast on CBS with a rating of 26.6 million viewers. Barbra Streisand was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two nights pri ...

Singles

" Need You Now", the first single, debuted at number 50 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot Country Songs chart in August 2009. For the week of November 28, it became their second number one single on the Hot Country Songs chart in the United States, as issued by '' Billboard''. After the trio's performance of the song at the

Country Music Association Awards The Country Music Association Awards, also known as the CMA Awards or CMAs, are presented to country music artists and broadcasters to recognize outstanding achievement in the country music industry. The televised annual presentation ceremony f ...

, it climbed to a number five peak on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, experiencing a surge in sales after the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, peaking at number two, their highest peaking single on the Hot 100 and pop charts. As of January 5, 2013, it has been certified 6× Platinum by the RIAA. The song was used in the first episode of the TV show ''

Hellcats ''Hellcats'' is an American cheerleading comedy-drama television series that originally aired on The CW in the United States from September 8, 2010, to May 17, 2011. Based on the book ''Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders'' b ...

''. " American Honey", the second single, debuted at number 47 on the Hot Country Songs chart for the week of January 2, 2010, before its initial release date of January 11, 2010. In April 2010, the song became their third consecutive number one single, as well as third top 30 single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

(except from Germany), "I Run to You" was the second single taken from the International Edition of the album. It was released on 9 August 2010 in support of their debut UK live show at

Shepherd's Bush Empire Shepherd's Bush Empire (currently known as O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the BBC Television Theatre) is a music venue in Shepherd's Bush, West London, run by the Academy Music Group. It was originally ...

. " Our Kind of Love" was confirmed as the third single off the album. The song was released as a promotional single on January 10, 2010, and received its official release as the set's third single in late May. "

Hello World ''Hello'' is a salutation or greeting in the English language. It is first attested in writing from 1826. Early uses ''Hello'', with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the '' Norwich ...

", the album's fourth single, was released to radio on October 4, 2010.

Critical reception

Upon its release, ''Need You Now'' received generally mixed reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 63, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Giving it four stars out of five, Jessica Phillips wrote in ''

Country Weekly ''Nash Country Weekly'' was an American lifestyle weekly magazine about country artists and their music. It was in circulation between April 1994 and May 2016. The publisher, Cumulus Media, now maintains the site ''Nash Country Daily''. Overview ...

'' magazine that the group "certainly need have no fear of a

sophomore slump A sophomore slump or sophomore jinx or sophomore jitters refers to an instance in which a second, or sophomore, effort fails to live up to the relatively high standards of the first effort. It is commonly used to refer to the apathy of students ...

" due to the success of "Need You Now". She also said that the album showed the trio's "ability to craft memorable

country pop Country pop (also known as pop country or urban cowboy) is a fusion genre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience. Country pop music blends genres ...

hooks," but added that "not every song works on this record." Crystal Bell, writing for '' Billboard'' was also positive in her review citing Kelley's vocal slyness and the delicate arrangement of the track, "Ready to Love Again", also noting "the trio's musical growth."

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

reviewer Thom Jurek wrote that on this album "they stick very close to the formula of their debut: a slew of mid- and uptempo love songs, a sad ballad, and a couple of rocked-up good-time tunes — all self-written with some help from some of Nashville's most respected writers." He also went on to say that the album was "flawless in its songwriting, production, and performances." Mikael Wood of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' said, "they're most successful when they keep to the moody

minor key In Western music, the adjectives major and minor may describe a chord, scale, or key. As such, composition, movement, section, or phrase may be referred to by its key, including whether that key is major or minor. Intervals Some intervals ...

stuff" and gave the album a B+. Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine was less positive. Allegations that the title song stole from

The Alan Parsons Project The Alan Parsons Project was a British rock band active between 1975 and 1990, whose core membership consisted of producer, audio engineer, musician and composer Alan Parsons and singer, songwriter and pianist Eric Woolfson. They were accompan ...

's song ' Eye in the Sky' have been widespread online, and representatives for Parsons commented.

Commercial performance

''Need You Now'' debuted at number one on the US ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling 481,000 copies in its first week. This became Lady Antebellum's first US number one debut. In its second week, the album remained at number one on the chart, selling an additional 209,000 copies. In its third week, the album dropped to number two on the chart, selling 208,000 more copies. In its fourth week, the album remained at number two on the chart, selling 144,000 copies. In 2010, the album became the third best-selling album of the year, behind ''

I Dreamed a Dream "I Dreamed a Dream" is a song from the 1980 musical ''Les Misérables''. It is a solo that is sung by the character Fantine during the first act. The music is by Claude-Michel Schönberg, with orchestrations by John Cameron. The English lyric ...

'' by Susan Boyle and '' Recovery'' by American rapper Eminem. The album also spent 31 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Top Country Albums chart in 2010 and 2011. On March 20, 2013, the album was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of over four million copies in the United States. After the

and the band winning five awards, ''Need You Now'' debuted at number 24 on the

German Albums Chart The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment (formerly Media Control and Media Control GfK International), a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustr ...

in February 2011, 9 months after the release of the album.

Usage in other media

The song "Perfect Day" has been used in one of

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical Article (grammar), article in English language, English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite ...

's commercials to promote new TV series ''

Hart of Dixie ''Hart of Dixie'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on The CW from September 26, 2011, to March 27, 2015. The series, created by Leila Gerstein, stars Rachel Bilson as Dr. Zoe Hart, a New Yorker who, after her dreams of ...

''.

Track listing

Bonus download songs

Each month on ladyantebellum.com, a new song became available to all who bought a CD, digital download, or passcode version of the album. #"Need You Now" (Acoustic) (Haywood, Kear, Kelley, Scott) — #"I Run to You" (Acoustic) (Haywood, Kelley, Scott, Douglas) — #"American Honey" (Live) (Barlowe, Lindsey, Stevens) — #"Our Kind of Love" (Live) (Haywood, Kelley, Scott, Busbee) — #"Stars Tonight" (Live) (Powell, Haywood, Kelley, Scott) — #"All We'd Ever Need" (Live) (Haywood, Kelley, Scott) — #" Do I" (Live) ( Luke Bryan, Kelley, Haywood) — #"When You Got a Good Thing" (Live) (Haywood, Kelly, Rutherford, Scott) — #"Slow Down Sister" (Live) (Haywood, Kelly, Gambill, Shaw) — #"Love's Lookin' Good On You" (Live) (Deere, Lopez, Shaw) — #"Hello World" (Live) (Douglas, Lane, Lee) —

Personnel

Lady Antebellum

Dave Haywood David Wesley Haywood (born July 5, 1982) is an American country musician and songwriter. He is one-third of the American country music band Lady A, in which he plays guitar, piano and mandolin, and sings backing vocals. Early life Haywood's fat ...

– acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, mandolin, background vocals *

Charles Kelley Charles Burgess Kelley (born September 11, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter and lead singer and founding member of the country music trio Lady A, which was formed in 2006 and are signed to Big Machine Records. Early life and career Kelle ...

– lead vocals, background vocals *

Hillary Scott Hillary Dawn Scott-Tyrrell (born April 1, 1986) is an American singer and songwriter. She is the co-lead singer of Lady A, previously known as Lady Antebellum, a country music group that was formed in 2006, and is signed to Big Machine Records ...

– lead vocals, background vocals

Additional musicians

* Bruce Bouton – dobro * busbee – piano *

Chad Cromwell Chad Cromwell (born June 14, 1957) is an American rock drummer whose music career has spanned more than 30 years. He is the founding member of a band called Fortunate Sons, which released a self-titled album in 2004. Cromwell has worked with m ...

– drums * Stuart Duncan – fiddle, mandolin *Jason "Slim" Gambill – electric guitar, soloist *David Huff – loop programming, percussion, tambourine *Rob McNelley – electric guitar, soloist * The Nashville String Machine – strings *Mike Rojas – accordion,

Hammond B-3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated ...

, piano, synthesizer *Kris Wilkinson – string arrangements *

– acoustic guitar, electric guitar, soloist *Craig Young – bass guitar

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Singles

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2010 albums Albums produced by Paul Worley Capitol Records albums Lady A albums Grammy Award for Best Country Album