''SuperHeavy'' is the only album by the
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
supergroup SuperHeavy
SuperHeavy was a one-off supergroup project consisting of Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, A. R. Rahman, and Damian Marley. Stone and Stewart have collaborated in the past with Jagger. Jagger said of the band, "We wanted a convergence ...
. It was released on 16 September 2011 by
A&M Records
A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...
.
Background and recording
The SuperHeavy project began in 2009. In early 2009,
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...
,
Dave Stewart,
Joss Stone
Joscelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), known professionally as Joss Stone, is an English singer, songwriter and actress. She rose to prominence in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, ''The Soul Sessions'', which made the 2004 Merc ...
,
Damian Marley
Damian Robert Nesta “Jr. Gong” Marley (born 21 July 1978) is a Jamaican reggae musician. The second youngest child of Bob Marley, he is the recipient of four Grammy Awards.
Early life, education and family
Marley is the youngest son of leg ...
and
A. R. Rahman
Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...
experimented at a studio in Los Angeles, trying to "write songs which had meaning". They had a couple more sessions after that trying to perfect every song that was written.
Jagger stated in an interview that "they had entered with just ideas, a few guitar riffs and a few snippets of lyrics... which isn't his usual style of working, but music evolved quickly."
The majority of the album was recorded at
Jim Henson Studios
The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is kn ...
in Los Angeles, with parts recorded off the coasts of Greece and Turkey on the ''
Octopus
An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
'', a
megayacht owned by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
co-founder
Paul Allen
Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the ...
.
Release and promotion
The band gathered at Jim Henson Studios in Los Angeles on 30 June 2011 to preview the album. The preview began with a short documentary showing SuperHeavy recording at the studio. The group played eight of the recorded songs at the event.
Singles
"
Miracle Worker
Thaumaturgy () is the practical application of magic to effect change in the physical world. Historically, thaumaturgy has been associated with the manipulation of natural forces, the creation of wonders, and the performance of magical feats t ...
" was released as the album's lead single on 7 July 2011. It is a
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...
song performed by Marley, Stone and Jagger. The single peaked at number 136 on the
UK singles chart. The music video was released on
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
on 12 August 2011. Directed by Stewart and filmed at
Paramount Studios
Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production and distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio i ...
in Los Angeles, the video features all five members of the band.
"
Satyameva Jayathe" (named after the
national motto of India, which literally translates to "Truth Alone Triumphs") was released as the second single from the album on 9 August 2011, a week before
India's Independence Day on 15 August. Composed by Rahman to have an Indian feel, Jagger sings in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
on the song, which also features Stewart, Stone and Marley. The song premiered exclusively on
Radio Mirchi
Radio Mirchi ("''Mirchi"'' in Hindi meaning red chilli), also known as 98.3 Mirchi, is a nationwide network of private FM radio stations in India. It is owned by the ENIL, EntertainmentNetwork India Ltd (ENIL), which is one of the subsidiarie ...
98.3 FM on 9 August across 22 Indian cities, and
Tata DoCoMo
Tata Docomo was an Indian mobile network operator, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Teleservices deriving its name from NTT Docomo who invested in the company in 2008. In October 2017, Bharti Airtel announced a merger deal with Tata Telese ...
was set to simultaneously promote the song and the album on mass media.
"Beautiful People" reached number 64 on the Dutch
Single Top 100
The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Du ...
chart.
Track listing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Release history
Notes
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
2011 debut albums
A&M Records albums
Albums produced by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics)
Albums produced by Mick Jagger
Polydor Records albums
SuperHeavy albums
Universal Republic Records albums