Songs About Jane

Songs About Jane
Studio album by Maroon 5
Released	June 25, 2002 October 14, 2003 (internationally)
Recorded	2001–02
Studio	Rumbo Recorders (Los Angeles, California)
Genre	Pop rock[1] alternative rock[2] blue-eyed soul[3]
Length	46:06
Label	Octone J
Producer	Matt Wallace Mark Endert
Maroon 5 chronology
The Fourth World (1997) Songs About Jane (2002) 1.22.03.Acoustic (2004)
Singles from Songs About Jane
"Harder to Breathe" Released: July 9, 2002 "This Love" Released: January 27, 2004 "She Will Be Loved" Released: July 27, 2004 "Sunday Morning" Released: December 2, 2004 "Must Get Out" Released: April 5, 2005

Songs About Jane is the debut studio album by American rock band Maroon 5, released on June 25, 2002 by Octone and J Records. The album became a sleeper hit with the help of five singles that attained chart success, including the Billboard hit "Harder to Breathe" and international hits "This Love" and "She Will Be Loved".

Songs About Jane was re-released on October 14, 2003 becoming a huge international success. It topped the album charts in Australia, France, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and reached the top 10 in 17 other countries. At the end of 2004, the album reached the top 10 of the US Billboard 200 chart. It had sold nearly 2.7 million copies by the end of 2004, and over 5.1 million copies in the U.S. by August 2015.^[4] It has sold over 10 million copies worldwide as of 2015.

Background

All but one member of the band had been members of a previous Los Angeles band called Kara's Flowers which released an album called The Fourth World in mid-1997 on Reprise Records with little success. Kara's Flowers left Reprise Records in 1999 and with the addition of guitarist James Valentine became Maroon 5.

The band played showcase gigs in New York City and Los Angeles. Singer and guitarist Adam Levine credited the interim with influencing the band's new style in an interview with VH1. "During the time between our record deals, I spent a lot of time in New York where I was exposed to an urban and hip-hop culture in a way that had never happened to me in L.A. It turned me on to an entirely new genre of music which has had a profound impact on my song writing."

The band signed with Octone Records, a New York independent label with distribution through BMG and an artist development deal with Clive Davis' J Records. The band recorded Songs About Jane at Rumbo Recorders in Los Angeles with producer Matt Wallace,^[5] who had also produced with Train, Faith No More, and O.A.R.. Production was handled primarily by Wallace, with Mark Endert mixing with additional production for "This Love".

All the songs on the album were either written or co-written by Levine while he was living in New York. Much of the lyrics for the album are inspired by Levine's relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Jane. Levine notes, "I saw this girl at a gas station, and I fell in love with her," he says. "I wrote a song about her and played it in the store where she worked. It was an awful song. But she found out about this relatively psychotic boy. She was my muse for years. . . . And then it kind of faded away."^[6] Levine also confirmed this, saying there was at least one line in every song about her.^[7]

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Robert Christgau	[9]
PopMatters	(unfavorable)[10]
Rolling Stone	[3]
The Village Voice	(favorable)[1]

The album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions. After the release of the album in mid-2002, the band toured with Michelle Branch and Nikka Costa. They also toured with Matchbox Twenty and Sugar Ray during some of their shows in 2003. In March 2004, the album had reached the top 20 of the Billboard 200, and had reached the top 10 by the end of the year. Songs About Jane also eventually topped the UK and Australian album charts. Songs About Jane was the seventh best-selling album of 2004 in the U.S., with about 2.7 million copies sold.^[11] In Australia, the album did not chart on the End of Year Charts until 2004, where it reached No. 6. After constant touring, three years after the release of Songs About Jane, it received a Grammy for Best New Artist. ^[12]The album reached 5.1 million sales in the United States in August 2015.^[4]

The album was generally well received by music critics. Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone praised the album for its "vaguely funky white-soul stylings, tunefulness and vocals" and mentioned "Must Get Out" and "This Love" as the album's standout tracks.^[3] AllMusic's MacKenzie Wilson called the album an "impressive rebirth" from Kara's Flowers' "indie outfit", stating: "Songs About Jane is love-drunk on what makes Maroon 5 tick as a band ... they've got grit and a sexy strut, personally and musically."^[8] Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian commented that the album "isn't as useless as one would hope ... Songs About Jane is pitched at the Busted market, for which their guitar-mashing and surging harmonies eminently qualify them."^[13] PopMatters's Jason Thompson, however, panned the album, criticizing Levine's likeness to Jay Kay of Jamiroquai. Calling the album "limp at best", he further added: "There's simply nothing here to get excited about. And what about that soul that these guys are boasting about, anyway?"^[10]

Singles

The first single "Harder to Breathe", released a month after the album, slowly started to pick up airplay which helped spur sales of the album. "Harder to Breathe" also made the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts and the singles charts in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.^[14]

The second single from the album, "This Love", won the band their first Grammy Award, for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 2006 Grammy Awards. In March 2004, two years after being released, the song reached the top 10 of the Australian and United States singles charts. The single's accompanying music video proved to be popular as well, but had to be edited from its original version to avoid being banned from MTV.^[15]

"She Will Be Loved", the third single from the album, also reached similar chart success, topping the Australian and Belgian charts and peaking at No. 5 in the United States, the same chart position of previous single and breakthrough hit, "This Love".^[14]

"Sunday Morning" was released as the fourth single from the album. It did not reach the chart success of the previous singles but nevertheless garnered positive reviews from critics. It was reported that this song was the one that got the band signed to Octone Records, with its executive Ben Berkman calling it "genius".^[15]

The fifth and final release from the album was "Must Get Out". The single failed to chart in the US, and just made the Top 30 in the United Kingdom, Ireland and New Zealand.

Other songs

"Sweetest Goodbye" was featured in the 2003 British romantic comedy film Love Actually.

"Woman", a song recorded during the Songs About Jane era, was featured in the 2004 superhero film Spider-Man 2.

"Secret" was featured in the 2005 American romantic comedy film The Wedding Date.

Track listing

Standard edition

All tracks written by Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael, except where noted. 

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Harder to Breathe"	2:55
2.	"This Love"	3:26
3.	"Shiver"	3:01
4.	"She Will Be Loved" (Levine, James Valentine)	4:17
5.	"Tangled" (Levine)	3:19
6.	"The Sun" (Levine)	4:11
7.	"Must Get Out"	4:36
8.	"Sunday Morning"	4:06
9.	"Secret"	4:55
10.	"Through with You"	3:01
11.	"Not Coming Home" (Carmichael, Ryan Dusick, Levine)	4:24
12.	"Sweetest Goodbye" (Levine)	4:31
Total length:		46:05

Special Asian Edition Bonus tracks**
No.	Title	Length
13.	"Rag Doll"	5:29
14.	"Harder to Breathe" (acoustic)	2:58
15.	"This Love" (acoustic)	4:00
16.	"This Love" (Kanye West remix)	3:38

Special Tour Edition Bonus tracks
No.	Title	Length
13.	"Rag Doll"	5:29
14.	"This Love" (Live In Hamburg)	3:48
15.	"Sunday Morning" (Live In Hamburg)	5:38
16.	"Secret" (Live In Hamburg)	7:45
17.	"She Will Be Loved" (Live In Hamburg)	7:19
Total length:		77:06

Other songs
No.	Title	Length
17.	"Take What You Want"	2:24
18.	"That's Not Enough"	2:37
19.	"Wasted Years" (live)	5:23
20.	"Woman" (appears on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack)	5:08
21.	"Don't Look Back in Anger" (live; Oasis cover)	4:57
22.	"Hello" (live; Oasis cover)	4:28

10th Anniversary Edition CD 2***[16]
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Harder to Breathe" (demo)	2:17
2.	"This Love" (demo)	3:21
3.	"Shiver" (demo)	3:21
4.	"She Will Be Loved" (demo)	3:08
5.	"Tangled" (demo)	2:44
6.	"The Sun" (demo)	3:22
7.	"Must Get Out" (demo)	3:17
8.	"Sunday Morning" (demo)	4:12
9.	"Secret" (demo)	4:09
10.	"Through with You" (demo)	3:20
11.	"Not Coming Home" (demo)	3:51
12.	"Sweetest Goodbye" (demo)	3:30
13.	"Take What You Want" (demo)	2:25
14.	"Rag Doll" (original demo/non-LP international B-side)	5:28
15.	"Woman" (demo)	4:06
16.	"Chilly Winter" (demo)	2:55
17.	"The Sun" (alternate mix)	4:17
Total length:		1:06:35

* The version of "She Will Be Loved" on CD 1 of the 10th Anniversary Edition is the radio mix that is used in the music video.

** Bonus tracks on the import release of Songs About Jane, manufactured for and distributed by BMG New Zealand Limited in 2004.

*** In 2012, along with the release of their fourth album, Overexposed, the band released a 10th Anniversary Edition of Songs About Jane, distributed by Universal Music.^[17]

Personnel

Credits for Songs About Jane adapted from AllMusic^[18] and the album's liner notes.

Maroon 5 Adam Levine – lead vocals, rhythm guitar James Valentine – lead guitar, backing vocals Jesse Carmichael – keyboards, backing vocals Mickey Madden – bass guitar Ryan Dusick – drums, backing vocals Additional personnel Cey Adams – art direction Michael Barbiero – mixing Mark Endert – producer, mixing Gregg Gordon – illustrations Mike Landolt – engineer Chris McCann – photography Bobby Carmichael - photography Posie Muliadi – assistant engineer Rashida Jones - backing vocals ("Tangled", "Secret" and "Not Coming Home") Mystic - backing vocals Mark K. Schoenecker - horns Matt Wallace – producer, mixing, percussion Danny Wright – assistant engineer Alan Yoshida – mastering Leon Zervos – mastering Neil Zlozower – photography

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (2002–04) Peak position scope="row" Australian Albums (ARIA)[19] 1 scope="row" Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[20] 7 scope="row" Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[21] 8 scope="row" Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[22] 22 scope="row" Canadian Albums (Billboard)[23] 3 scope="row" Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[24] 2 scope="row" Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[25] 2 European Albums Chart[26] 4 scope="row" Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[27] 2 scope="row" French Albums (SNEP)[28] 1 scope="row" German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[29] 5 Greek Albums Chart[30] 2 scope="row" Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)[31] 36 scope="row" Irish Albums (IRMA)[32] 1 scope="row" Italian Albums (FIMI)[33] 10 scope="row" New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[34] 1 scope="row" Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[35] 3 scope="row" Polish Albums (ZPAV)[36] 4 scope="row" Portuguese Albums (AFP)[37] 5 scope="row" Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[38] 9 scope="row" Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[39] 4 scope="row" Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[40] 12 scope="row" UK Albums (OCC)[41] 1 scope="row" US Billboard 200[42] 6 scope="row" US Digital Albums (Billboard)[43] 3 scope="row" US Top Catalog Albums (Billboard)[44] 1 scope="row" US Top Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[45] 1

Year-end charts Chart (2004) Position Australian Albums Chart[46] 6 UK Albums Chart[47] 4 US Billboard 200[48] 15 Chart (2005) Position Australian Albums Chart[49] 13 UK Albums Chart[50] 54 Decade-end charts Chart (2000-09) Position UK Albums Chart 30

Certifications

Region	Certification	Certified units/Sales
Argentina (CAPIF)[51]	Platinum	40,000^*
Argentina (CAPIF)[51] Re-release	2× Platinum	80,000^*
Australia (ARIA)[52]	5× Platinum	350,000^^
Austria (IFPI Austria)[53]	Gold
Belgium (BEA)[54]	Gold	25,000^*
Brazil (ABPD)[55]	Gold	50,000^*
Canada (Music Canada)[56]	3× Platinum	300,000^^
Denmark (IFPI Denmark)[57]	Platinum	50,000^^
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[58]	Gold	19,571[58]
France (SNEP)[59]	2× Gold	150,000^*
Germany (BVMI)[60]	Platinum	300,000^^
Greece (IFPI Greece)[61]	Gold	15,000^^
Italy (FIMI)[62]	Gold	50,000^*
Japan (RIAJ)[63]	2× Platinum	400,000^^
Netherlands (NVPI)[64]	Platinum	80,000^^
New Zealand (RMNZ)[65]	Gold	7,500^^
Norway (IFPI Norway)[66]	Gold	25,000^*
Portugal (AFP)[67]	Gold	20,000^^
Russia (NFPF)[68]	Platinum	20,000^*
Spain (PROMUSICAE)[69]	Gold	50,000^^
Sweden (GLF)[70]	Gold	30,000^^
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[71]	Gold	20,000^^
United Kingdom (BPI)[72]	6× Platinum	2,019,827[73]
United States (RIAA)[74]	5× Platinum	5,100,000[4]
Summaries
Europe (IFPI)[75]	2× Platinum	2,000,000^*
^*sales figures based on certification alone ^^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

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External links

• Official website
• Songs About Jane at Discogs