''The Sweetest Illusion'' is the third solo studio album by Polish singer-songwriter

Basia Barbara Stanisława "Basia" Trzetrzelewska (; born 30 September 1954), better known mononymously as Basia, is a Polish singer-songwriter and recording artist noted for her Latin-inspired jazz-pop music. She began singing professionally in vari ...

, released on 28 April 1994 by

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), cong ...

. The record spawned the hit " Drunk on Love".

Overview

The album took two and a half years to make. It was primarily recorded at

Whitfield Street Whitfield Street is a street in the London Borough of Camden that runs from Warren Street in the north to Windmill Street in the south. The street is crossed by Grafton Way, Maple Street, Howland Street, Tottenham Street, and Goodge Street. W ...

Recording Studios in London, apart from piano parts, which were recorded at London's Westside Studios. The material was mastered at

Sony Music Studios Sony Music Studios was an American music recording and mastering facility in New York City. The five-story building was a music and broadcasting complex located at 460 W. 54th Street, at 10th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhat ...

in New York. Contrarily to Basia's previous albums, ''The Sweetest Illusion'' moves away from electronically generated music towards traditional live instruments. Basia dedicated this album "to her family and compatriots in Poland as well as those scattered around the world". Two songs on the album incorporate

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

: in "An Olive Tree" Basia sings: "Oliwkowe drzewo może spełnić twe marzenia" (English: "An olive tree can make your dreams come true") and towards the end of "Yearning", she sings the opening line from a Polish folk song: "Szła dzieweczka do laseczka, do zielonego". The latter was described by Basia as the song she is most proud of and the best she has ever written. Its lyrics are about "missing home" and to emphasize this feeling, the track includes

whale vocalization Whales use a variety of sounds for animal communication, communication and sensation. The mechanisms used to produce sound vary from one family of cetaceans to another. Marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, and porpoises, are much more d ...

, which was Danny's idea. "More Fire Than Flame" was released as Japan-only single on 27 October 1993. In mid-April 1994, the ballad "Yearning" was serviced to contemporary jazz stations as the first US single, although in other territories it was released as the album's final single in late 1994. The track was accompanied by a music video directed by

Howard Greenhalgh Howard Douglas Greenhalgh (born 19 February 1963) is a British director of music videos and advertising. Biography Greenhalgh was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire and studied at the Royal College of Art, setting up the firm Why No ...

, in which Basia and her two nieces appeared in Polish folk costumes. The song failed to chart, but entered the

Tokio Hot 100 J-Wave is an commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasting on 81.3 FM broadcasting, FM from the Tokyo Skytree to the Tokyo area. J-Wave airs mostly music, including J-pop, C-pop, and Western music, covering a wide range of formats ...

list on Japanese radio station

J-Wave J-Wave is an commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasting on 81.3 FM from the Tokyo Skytree to the Tokyo area. J-Wave airs mostly music, including J-pop, C-pop, and Western music, covering a wide range of formats. The station i ...

. " Drunk on Love" was released as the next single in June 1994 and topped ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''s

Dance Club Songs The Dance Club Songs (also known as National Disco Action, Hot Dance/Disco Club Play, and Hot Dance Club Play) was a chart published weekly between 1976 and 2020 by ''Billboard'' magazine. It used club disc jockeys set lists to determine the mos ...

. It was followed by " Third Time Lucky" later in 1994. The album was met with particular commercial success in Japan where it became Basia's biggest-selling album and her only platinum record there. In the United States though, ''The Sweetest Illusion'' did not repeat the success of the two previous albums, nonetheless, it was certified gold by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

in December 1994 for sales in excess of 500,000 units. It was her final major-label full-length studio album. In 2016, the album was re-released by independent UK label

Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything but the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as w ...

as three-CD deluxe edition featuring instrumental versions and

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

es.

Track listing

All songs written by Basia Trzetrzelewska and Danny White, except where noted. #" Drunk on Love" (Trzetrzelewska, White, Peter Ross) – 4:46 #" Third Time Lucky" – 5:01 #"Yearning" – 5:22 #"She Deserves It/Rachel's Wedding" (featuring

Trey Lorenz Trey Lorenz (born Lloyd Lorenz Smith; January 19, 1969) is an American R&B singer-songwriter and record producer. He was born in Florence, South Carolina and is a graduate of Wilson High School. Lorenz is best known for his duet with recording a ...

) – 4:52 #"An Olive Tree" (Kevin Robinson, Trzetrzelewska, White) – 5:01 #"The Sweetest Illusion" (Trzetrzelewska, White, Ross) – 4:58 #"Perfect Mother" – 3:50 #"More Fire Than Flame" (Trzetrzelewska, White, Ross) – 4:13 #"Simple Pleasures" – 4:53 #"My Cruel Ways" – 4:54 #"The Prayer of a Happy Housewife" – 4:56

Personnel

Musicians

* Basia Trzetrzelewska – lead vocals, backing vocals (3, 11), crowd vocals (5) *

Danny White Wilford Daniel White (born February 9, 1952) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback and punter for 13 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He was the third major franchise qu ...

– keyboards, whistling (2), crowd vocals (5) * Peter White – guitars (1, 2, 4–11), acoustic guitar (3),

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 ...

(4, 7) * Andy Ross – electric guitar (3),

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 ...

(4, 10),

bandurria The bandurria is a plucked chordophone from Spain, similar to the mandolin and bandola, primarily used in Spanish folk music, but also found in former Spanish colonies. Instrument development Prior to the 18th century, the bandurria had a ro ...

(4), guitars (6, 10, 11) * Julian Crampton – bass (1, 3, 6, 9, 11), double bass (4) * Andres Lafone – bass (2, 5, 7) * Randy Hope-Taylor – bass (8, 10) *

Andy Gangadeen Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of real individuals and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds * Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianis ...

– drums,

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...

(6),

shaker Shaker or Shakers may refer to: Religious groups * Shakers, a historically significant Christian sect * Indian Shakers, a smaller Christian denomination Objects and instruments * Shaker (musical instrument), an indirect struck idiophone * Cock ...

(7) * Karl Vanden Bossche – percussion (1–3, 5, 7–11),

wind chimes Wind chimes are a type of percussion instrument constructed from suspended tubes, rods, bells, or other objects that are often made of metal or wood. The tubes or rods are suspended along with some type of weight or surface which the tubes or ro ...

(4) * Bosco De Oliveira – percussion (2, 7), shaker (4) * Patrick Clahar – saxophone (2, 6), alto saxophone (5), tenor saxophone (5) * Chris DeMargary – baritone saxophone (5),

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(11),

alto flute The alto flute is an instrument in the Western concert flute family, pitched below the standard C flute and the uncommon flûte d'amour. It is the third most common member of its family after the standard C flute and the piccolo. It is chara ...

(11) *

Steve Gregory Stephen Gregory (born 1945) is an English jazz saxophonist and composer. He plays tenor, alto, soprano and baritone saxophone as well as the flute. Biography and career Gregory was born in London. At St. Paul's School, he learned guitar and ...

– saxophone (10) * Fayyaz Virji – trombone (2, 5, 8–10) * Kevin Robinson – trumpet (1, 2, 5, 6, 8),

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though ...

(2, 5, 9–11), crowd vocals (5),

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

(9) *

Nick Ingman Nicholas Ingman (born 29 April 1948) is an English arranger, composer and conductor in the commercial music field. His collaborators include Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Björk, and the British X-factor. Born and educated in London, Ingman move ...

– string arrangements (3, 10) *

Gavyn Wright Gavyn Wright is a British violinist and orchestra leader with the London Session Orchestra and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. He is best known for his orchestral arrangements on pop productions (including Elton John, Simply Red, Bush, Mecano, ...

– strings leader (3, 6, 10), violin (4) * Mark Anthoni – backing vocals (3, 11), crowd vocals (5) *

– lead and backing vocals (4)

Technical

* Produced and arranged by Basia Trzetrzelewska and Danny White * Recorded by Mark Chamberlain * Assistant recording – Jason Scott Westbrook * Pianos recorded by Paul Mortimer, assisted by Lee Phillips * Mixed by David Bascombe * Mastered by

Vlado Meller Vlado Meller (born in 1947 in Humenné as ''Vladimír Meller'') is a Slovak audio mastering engineer, currently with Vlado Meller Mastering in Charleston, South Carolina. Meller works across many genres of music, with credits on rock, hip-hop, p ...

* Design and artwork – Bill Smith Studio, London * Paintings – Halina Tymusz * Photography – Paul Cox * Management – Dee Anthony * Make-up – Helen Whiting

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

Official audio stream
on

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The official Basia website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweetest Illusion, The 1994 albums Basia albums Epic Records albums