''Touch'' is the debut album by Canadian singer-songwriter

Sarah McLachlan Sarah Ann McLachlan (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is ''Surfacing (album), Surfacing'' (1997), for which she won two G ...

. It was originally released on October 11, 1988 through

Nettwerk Nettwerk Music Group is an independent record label founded in 1984. The Vancouver-based company was created by principals Terry McBride and Mark Jowett as a record label to distribute recordings by the band Moev, but the label expanded in Ca ...

and

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007), and simply known as Capitol, is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-base ...

. The album was then re-released on April 3, 1989 through Nettwerk and

Arista Records Arista Records ( ) is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the American division of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. The label was previously a division of Bertelsmann Music G ...

with additional material and new cover art. The album includes " Vox", McLachlan's debut single, which reached number 90 in Canada upon its release. McLachlan did not achieve commercial stardom until 1991 in Canada, with '' Solace''; she achieved success internationally in 1994–1995 with her 1993 album '' Fumbling Towards Ecstasy''. In 1993, McLachlan and Nettwerk were sued by Darryl Neudorf, a

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

musician and former member of 54-40, who alleged that he had made a significant and uncredited contribution to the songwriting on ''Touch''. Although both McLachlan and Nettwerk acknowledged that Neudorf was involved in the album's production, both took the position that his contribution had not been primarily in songwriting. The judge in that suit ultimately ruled in McLachlan's favor.

Track listing

All tracks written by

, except "Steaming" and "Uphill Battle" (music by McLachlan and Darren Phillips). Notes: *Some pressings credit "Trust" to McLachlan, Stephen Nikleva, Jeff Sawatzky, Sherri Iwaschuk, and Phillips. *Not all versions of the original 1988 release contained tracks 9 and 10.

Personnel

*Sarah McLachlan –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, 12-string and

classical guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string (music), string instrument with strings made of catgut, gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

, keyboards *Stephen Nikleva –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

*David Kershaw –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

*Jeff Krosse (aka Jeff Sawatzky) – bass guitar, backing vocals *Naomi McLeod – backing vocals *Greg Reely –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

*Darren Phillips – drums, percussion, keyboards *Ross Hales – drums *Sherri Leigh (aka Sherri Iwaschuk) – percussion *Tippi – percussion *Steve – percussion *Rudy – percussion

Charts

The ''RPM'' Albums Chart between October 1988 and April 1989 is not available. The ''Touch'' peak position is taken from May 1989.

Certifications and sales

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Touch (Sarah Mclachlan Album) 1988 debut albums Sarah McLachlan albums Nettwerk Records albums Arista Records albums Albums produced by Greg Reely