''By Request'' is the first

greatest hits album A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

by Irish

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

Boyzone Boyzone were an Irish boy band created in 1993 by the talent manager Louis Walsh. Before even recording any material, Boyzone made an appearance on RTÉ's ''The Late Late Show (Ireland), The Late Late Show''. Its most successful line-up was co ...

. It was released on 31 May 1999 by

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company that is a subsidiary of Comcast ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of N ...

. The album is their best-selling release to date, with sales of over 4 million copies worldwide.

Background

The album contains nearly all of the band's singles since the start of their career in 1994. Singles not included are the Irish-only single "

Working My Way Back to You "Working My Way Back to You" is a song made popular by the Four Seasons in 1966 and the Spinners in 1979. Written by Sandy Linzer and Denny Randell, the song was originally recorded by The Four Seasons in 1966, reaching No. 9 on the U.S. ''Bi ...

" and the Japanese only-single "Believe in Me". The American-only single "

Mystical Experience A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense ag ...

", appears as a bonus track on the Australian release, "Te Garder Pres De Moi", appears as a bonus track on the French release, and " Everyday I Love You" only appears on the Asian release of the album. The latter was released as a single in the United Kingdom in December 1999, despite not being included on the UK edition of the album. The album also features

Ronan Keating Ronan Patrick John Keating (born 3 March 1977) is an Irish singer, songwriter, actor and presenter. He debuted in 1993 alongside Keith Duffy, Michael Graham, Shane Lynch, and Stephen Gately, as the co-lead singer (with Gately) of Irish pop g ...

's first solo outing, " When You Say Nothing at All", and three tracks only previously issued on the American version of ''Where We Belong''. The album was released on 31 May 1999 via

and was preceded by the single " When the Going Gets Tough", which was released on 1 March 1999 as the official ''

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

'' single for that year. The album was the second best selling album of the year in Britain, spending nine weeks atop the UK Album Chart. It was certified 6× Platinum, selling 1,814,966 copies in the UK alone.

Track listing

Personnel

* Boyzone – vocals * Michael Mangini – guitar, producer * James McNally –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

whistle A whistle is a musical instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It is a type of Fipple, fipple flute, and may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a s ...

* Ann Morfee –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

* Steve Morris – violin * Tessa Niles – background vocals * Graeme Perkins – organizer * Audrey Riley –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

* Trevor Steel –

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

, producer * Miriam Stockley – background vocals * Carl Sturken –

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestrat ...

, producer * Philip Todd –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

Peter-John Vettese Peter-John Vettese (born 15 August 1956), also known as Peter Vettese, is a Scottish keyboardist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. Vettese was the keyboardist for progressive rock band Jethro Tull for most of the 1980s. Early life Pet ...

– keyboards * Warren Wiebe – background vocals * Gavyn Wright – string director * Nigel Wright – keyboards, producer *

Guy Barker Guy Jeffrey Barker, (born 26 December 1957) is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Early life Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a year ...

– trumpet * Clare Finnimore –

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

* Matt Howe –

mix engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

* Gillian Kent – violin * Michael Hart Thompson – guitar * Jeremy Wheatley – mix engineer * Andy Caine – background vocals * Clare Thompson – violin * Bruce White – viola * John Matthews – background vocals * Andy Earl – photography * Alex Black – assistant

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

* Tim Willis – assistant engineer * Ben Allen – guitar * John R. Angier – keyboards * Emma Black – cello * Deborah Widdup – violin * Nastee – DJ * Anna Hemery – violin * Wayne Hector – background vocals, vocal arrangement * Yvonne John Lewis – background vocals * Absolute – Producer, mix engineer * Richard George – violin * Skoti-Alain Elliot – bass, programming, track engineer * Laura Melhuish – violin * Orla Quirke – design, direction * Jim Steinman – producer, executive producer * Paul Martin – viola * Tracie Ackerman – background vocals * Tom Lord-Alge – mix engineer * Andy Bradfield – remixing * Nick Cooper – cello * Ian Curnow – producer * Danny Grant – keyboards * Sue Dench – viola * Andy Duncan – drums * Simon Franglen – keyboards, engineer, programming * Scott Gordon – vocal engineer * Mark Hudson – vocal arrangement, vocal producer * Eric Lijestrand – digital editing * Steve Lipson – bass, producer, programming,

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

* Danny Foy – Guitar

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:By Request (Boyzone Album) 1999 greatest hits albums Boyzone albums Universal Records compilation albums Albums produced by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers