Doo-Wops & Hooligans is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars. It was released on October 4, 2010, by Atlantic and Elektra Records and was made available to listen before its official release on September 24, 2010. After the release of the EPIt's Better If You Don't Understand, Mars's writing and production team, the Smeezingtons, began working on the album with Needlz, Supa Dups and Jeff Bhasker as producers. The album title was chosen to reflect simplicity and appeal to both men and women.
Doo-Wops & Hooligans draws on a variety of influences. Lyrically, the album visualizes carefree optimism along with failed relationships, pain and loneliness. Doo-Wops & Hooligans received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who praised the album's similarity to the work of American artists Michael Jackson and Jason Mraz, although others felt that the album tried too hard to appeal to all groups. About.com's Bill Lamb and Rolling Stone's Jody Rosen called Doo-Wops & Hooligans one of the year's best debut albums.
Doo-Wops & Hooligans topped the charts in Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It peaked at number three on the Billboard 200 albums chart and was certified seven-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), nine-times platinum by the Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ) and six-times by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). As of 2020, the album has sold over 15 million copies globally. The first two singles, "Just the Way You Are" and "Grenade" were successful internationally, topping the charts in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Subsequent singles "The Lazy Song", which topped the charts in the United Kingdom and Denmark, and "Marry You" reached the top ten in over ten countries. "Talking to the Moon" and "Count On Me" had a limited release.
After the release of the hit singles "Nothin' on You" and "Billionaire", the Smeezingtons (a songwriting and record-producing trio consisting of Bruno Mars, Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine) were asked to begin working on Mars's debut album, having a six-month deadline.[1][2] "The demand changed", leaving them with one month to finish the album.[2] While establishing himself as a composer and artist, Mars worked with several artists and spent long periods of time in the recording studio "figuring out the production and the writing process"; he believed that "it was training for me to put out my own album."[3] In early September 2010, Doo-Wops & Hooligans was being mixed by Manny Marroquin at Larrabee Studios.[4]
Mars said about the album title, "I have records that women are going to relate to and men are going to relate to. So doo-wops are for the girls, and hooligans are for the guys."[5] He elaborated in several interviews: "I grew up listening to my dad, who loved doo-wop music"; those sounds are "straight to the point" and simple; they rely on a "beautiful melody and voice", representing his romantic side. Due to his youth, he also liked to party (indicating his hooligan side).[6][7] Mars said in an MTV News interview that he had completed his debut album. His debut EP, It's Better If You Don't Understand, released earlier in the year, provided "a little taste of what's in store".[8]
In addition to writing the lyrics, the Smeezingtons produced the album with songwriters and other producers.[1] Among them were Needlz and Khalil Walton, who helped compose "Just the Way You Are" by exchanging files. Mars said that the single took him months to create, even though he was only trying to tell a story and it was nothing "deep or poetic".[9][7] "The Lazy Song", the fifth track, was inspired by a lack of ideas for songs and a disinclination to work.[9] "Marry You", according to Lawrence, was drawn from a spontaneous marriage in Las Vegas.[2] The bonus track, "Somewhere in Brooklyn", was inspired by Mars's father and New York. In the song, a female character is in Brooklyn and the singer is trying to find her.[10][11]
"Just the Way You Are" was released digitally as the album's lead single in various countries on July 20, 2010.[31] The song was critically acclaimed, with reviewers praising its piano balladry and romantic lyrics.[19][32] It topped the charts in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and reached the top ten in several other countries.[33][34][35] "Just the Way You Are" received a Grammy Award in the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards.[36]
"Grenade", the album's second single, had been premiered as its second (and last) promotional single on September 28, 2010, before its stand-alone release in October 2010.[37][38] It was also well received by critics, most of whom praised Mars's vocals.[24][39] The single surpassed "Just the Way You Are"'s success, topping the charts in nearly every country where it was released.[33][40][41] The song was his third number-one on the Hot 100.[42] In 2012, "Grenade" received three Grammy nominations at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.[43]
"The Lazy Song", was issued as the album's third single on February 15, 2011.[44] It received mixed reviews. Some critics though it had a laid-back groove; others called it "filler", with empty lyrics which were an embarrassment to the album.[45][46][14] The song topped the charts in the United Kingdom and Denmark,[47][48] reached the top five in the US, Austria, Canada and New Zealand.[33][49][48] Its music video was a single, long shot of Mars playing with five monkeys.[50] An alternate video features Leonard Nimoy on his lazy daily routine.[51]
"Talking to the Moon" was released as a single only in Brazil after it appeared on the 2011 soundtrack of the Brazilian telenovela, Insensato Coração (Irrational Heart).[52] The song topped the Billboard Brasil Hot Pop & Popular and the Brasil Hot 100 Airplay charts. It spent nine weeks at number one on the latter chart,[53] and topped the former chart for 22 weeks.[54][55][56] The song received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its slow pace and lyrics but criticized its overwhelming production.[20][57]
"Marry You" was not released as a single in the United States, despite considerable airplay on mainstream and adult top-40 radio stations.[58] However, it was first released in the United Kingdom on August 22, 2011, via digital download.[59] The song was praised for its "instantly hummable melody and a sing-songy chorus", reminiscent of 1960s pop.[20][59] It reached the top ten in Australia, Canada and New Zealand.[60][49]
"Count On Me" was announced as the sixth single, with a radio release date of November 7, 2011, in Australia.[61] The song reached the top ten in Austria, Portugal and Spain,[62][63] and the top twenty in Australia and New Zealand.[62] It was praised for its arrangement and "uplifting" vibe, and compared with "Over The Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.[64][65][22]
The release of Doo-Wops & Hooligans was announced on August 25, 2010, with T-shirts, a screen-printed poster autographed and hand-numbered by Mars and photos of the singer included in the first 500 preorders.[66] Its cover art was released five days later.[67] The track listing, which included three of the four songs from Mars's EP, was announced by Atlantic Records on September 9.[68][69] The album's standard edition was released in the US on October 4, 2010.[70] A deluxe edition was also released, which included a remix of "Just the Way You Are" featuring Lupe Fiasco and "Somewhere in Brooklyn" (originally from It's Better If You Don't Understand) and the music videos of "Just the Way You Are" and "The Other Side".[71] Other versions were released, culminating in the Japanese Platinum Edition.[30][72]
On September 21, 2010, "Liquor Store Blues" featuring Damian Marley (the first of three promotional singles) was released in various countries.[37][73] Three days later, the album was made available to listen before its official release on Myspace.[66] "Grenade" was released as the second promotional single on September 28, 2010, via iTunes.[37] The third promotional single, "Somewhere in Brooklyn", was released in Germany on January 4, 2011.[29] "Runaway Baby" was performed at several shows, including The X Factor, the 54th Annual Grammy Awards and the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show. The performances were praised by several critics,[74][75][76] and the song charted in the US, New Zealand and the UK.[33][77][78]
To promote the album, Mars gave several performances. The first, with his four-piece band, was at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on August 25, 2010.[79] In early October he performed "Just The Way You Are" and a medley of "Nothing On You" and "Grenade" for the first time on national television on Saturday Night Live, and received a positive critical reaction.[80][81] This was followed by The Ellen DeGeneres Show, a Billboard Tastemakers video session and Mars's debut performance of "The Lazy Song" on Kidd Kraddick's radio show.[82][3][83] Atlantic Records allowed the musical television series Glee to cover "Just the Way You Are" and "Marry You" in November 2010,[84] and Mars sang "Grenade" on the Late Show with David Letterman that month.[85] An acoustic version of "Just the Way You Are" was performed at the Grammy Nominations concert in December 2010 for the 53rd Grammy Awards.[86]
On October 2, 2020, Atlantic Records announced they would be celebrating the tenth anniversary of Doo-Wops & Hooligans. The music videos of the album were remastered in 4K Ultra HD, and six brand new lyric videos were released. The label also made Doo-Wops & Hooligans merchandise available for purchase for a limited time on Mars's official webstore. Moreover, the album will be made available in a limited yellow vinyl edition, exclusively via Walmart, on November 27, 2020.[98] Several Atlantic Records' artists covered songs from the album as part of its tenth anniversary.[99]
Doo-Wops & Hooligans was met with generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, the album received an average score of 61, based on 13 reviews.[101] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave Doo-Wops & Hooligans 4.9 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[100]
Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly gave Doo-Wops & Hooligans a B+ grade. Greenblatt praised Mars's "instant-access melodies", "creamy" productions and "sly snatches of dance-floor swagger", but said that some of the album's musical styles did not suit the singer.[14] Alex Young of Consequence called Doo-Wops & Hooligans "fulfilling [with] very few holes", giving the album a B− grade but calling Mars's vocals "gold".[27]The Daily Telegraph's Tom Gockelen-Kozlowski wrote that the album had a "bundle of top-drawer melodies, making commercial success all but a certainty" and gave it four stars out of five.[102] Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone called it "the year's finest debut" with "10 near-perfect" tracks, and gave the album three-and-a-half start out of five. According to Rosen, its songs "deliver pleasure without pretension".[12] Rosen and The Boston Globe's Ken Capobianco praised Mars's vocal performance and talent for composing melodies. Although Capobianco found the debut album "promising", he was disappointed by its lack of self-revelation.[23] Sean Fennessey of The Washington Post called it "effortlessly tuneful" and a good start to a "durable career".[18]The New York Times's Jon Caramanica described Doo-Wops & Hooligans as a "fantastically polyglot record that shows him to be a careful study across a range of pop songcraft" and praised its range of influences.[16]
In a mixed review, Tim Sendra of AllMusic praised most of the songs for their "laid-back groove" but found that the quality dropped when Mars "turns up the volume and boosts the tempo". Sendra gave the album three stars out of five, calling it "an uneven debut ... [that] doesn't tap into his potential as a writer or a producer".[28] Scott Kara of The New Zealand Herald enjoyed the album's first two tracks, but wrote that the rest could have had more "potency" and rated Doo-Wops & Hooligans three out of five.[25] Tony Clayton-Lea of The Irish Times wrote that the record is "full of the kind of catchy modern pop that is impossible to dislike or dislodge ... most of the tunes are cocktail bangers hot enough to melt ice."[106] According to The Independent's Andy Gill, the album "seeks too hard to display Mars' multifaceted talents".[104]
Eric Henderson criticized Doo-Wops & Hooligans in Slant Magazine, saying that it "manages to wear out its welcome about halfway through" and calling it an attempt to "please just about everybody." He gave the album two-and-a-half stars out of 5.[22] With the same rating, Jamie Milton of musicOMH wrote that it "involves throwing everything into the fire", "a contrast taken too far". Milton called it (in common with other debut albums) "opportunistic ... regardless of any forthcoming trends in pop, there's a song on the album pitched to take grasp of it all."[107] A Q reviewer who gave the album two out of five stars wrote, "Mostly, he has little to say."[105]The Guardian's Alexis Petridis also gave it two out of five stars due to Mars's "saccharine sound" and poor lyrical composition. According to Petridis, the album should have been more "groundbreaking".[103]The Scotsman and Mike Diver of the BBC said that Mars could have made an album for mass appreciation.[108][109] The Scotsman reviewer wished that Mars had recorded something more "sophisticated";[108] Diver said that the album is not suitable for "anyone with life and love experience beyond passing notes around at the back of class".[109]
In September 2024, Billboard's Kyle Denis affirmed that Doo-Wops & Hooligans has various well-known "deep-cuts" by a major audience that weren't officially promoted as U.S. radio singles. These songs include "Runaway Baby", "Count on Me", "Marry You" and "Talking to The Moon".[110]
Rolling Stone's Jody Rosen and Bill Lamb of About.com called the album one of the year's best debuts. Lamb praised Mars's vocals and most of the melodies as "surefire", calling Mars a "creative artist" and saying that on his next album the singer could "stretch the horizons further and deliver truly memorable songs".[115] Rosen described the songs as "near-perfect", "mov[ing] from power ballads to bedroom anthems ... Call it bubblegum that eats like a meal."[12] In November 2013, the Doo-Wops & Hooligans artwork designed by Nick Bilardello was 31st on Complex' "50 Best Pop Album Covers of the Past Five Years". Susan Cheng wrote that Mars would have an enduring career, as "depicted in the path left behind by a black jet on the cover" of the album, whose "sunny hues convey a sense of self-confidence and the singer's outlook on the road ahead ... the silhouette in the lower right, presumably a representation of Bruno Mars, reveals humility in the wake of so much success."[116]
Commercial performance
Doo-Wops & Hooligans debuted (and peaked) at number three on the Billboard 200, with sales of 55,000 on its October 13, 2010, issue date in the United States.[117] It topped Billboard's Top Catalog Albums chart; it remained at number one for 11 weeks, surpassing Bob Marley and the Wailers’ compilation album Legend (1984) for the most weeks at number one in 2013. The album had the second-longest stretch at number one for a male artist, behind Michael Jackson’s 2003 greatest-hits album Number Ones (19 weeks).[118][119] During the week of February 5, 2014 (after Mars's Grammy appearance and performance at the Super Bowl XLVIII halftime show), sales of Doo-Wops & Hooligans increased by 303% and it rebounded to number 19 on the Billboard 200.[120][121] The album was certified seven times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and sold 2,626,000 million copies in the United States by July 2017.[122][123]
As of January 6, 2021, Doo-Wops & Hooligans spent 500 weeks on the Billboard 200, becoming the ninth title to reach the aforementioned weeks.[124]Doo-Wops & Hooligans is also the longest-running debut album on the aforementioned chart.[99] According to the RIAA, the album was the ninth highest certified album of the 2010s decade.[125] As of November 2024, the album has spent 700 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. Only a total of eight albums were able to achieve this landmark.[126]
In Canada, it debuted at number six.[127] After fluctuating on the chart, the album reached number one four months later on February 5, 2011.[128][129] It has been certified triple platinum by Music Canada.[130] The album debuted at number five, peaked at number two and was certified eleven times platinum in New Zealand.[131][132] It debuted at number seven in Australia, peaked at number two[133] and was certified quadruple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 280,000 copies.[134]
Doo-Wops & Hooligans debuted in the United Kingdom at number 79 on October 24, 2010, with first-week sales of 6,775 imported copies.[135][136] On its first chart week of 2011, it replaced Rihanna's Loud at number one[137] and spent another week atop the chart.[138]Doo-Wops & Hooligans was 2011's second million-selling album in the UK.[136] It was the year's third-bestselling album, with sales of 1.2 million copies.[139] As of November 2016, the album sold 1,712,854 copies and in 2018 it was certified sixtuple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).[140][141] It debuted atop the Irish and Scottish album charts and it was certified four times platinum by the Irish Recording Music Association (IRMA).[142][143][144]
In the Philippines, Doo-Wops & Hooligans received a double-diamond certification from the Philippine Association of the Record Industry (PARI) in 2014 for sales of 300,000 copies[145] and is the country's seventh-best-selling album. It topped the charts in Flanders, Croatia, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.[146][147] The album sold 500,000 copies in Germany (its European high), and was certified quintuple gold by the BVMI.[148] It reached the top 10 in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden,[146][149] and was certified six times platinum by IFPI Denmark.[150] By 2021, Doo-Wops & Hooligans had sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.[99]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
Release history
Release dates and formats for Doo-Wops & Hooligans
^The version of the physical album originally available for pre-order in the UK was the standard edition. However, for unknown reasons, its release date was advanced and the edition changed to the European Bonus Tracks along with the inclusion of the digital download.[283][284]
^ abcDoo-Wops & Hooligans (Liner notes/Album). Bruno Mars. Europe: Elektra. 2011. 7567-88332-50.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^ abcDoo-Wops & Hooligans (Liner notes/Album). Bruno Mars. New Zealand: Elektra. 2011. 7567-88330-45.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Smirke, Richard (July 15, 2011). "Bruno Mars: The Billboard Cover Story". Billboard. Retrieved January 29, 2023. Just the Way You Are was serviced to pop and rhythm formats two months later and went on to top the Hot 100 Airplay chart for seven consecutive weeks.Grenade was serviced in October and drew a similarly ecstatic response. Like "Way", the track reached a total radio audience of more than 150 million people.
^Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Liner notes/Album). Bruno Mars. Europe: Elektra. 2010. 7567-88272-11.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Liner notes/CD single). Bruno Mars. Atlantic, Warner. 2010. 7567-8833-25.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Doo-Wops & Hooligans (Liner notes/Album). Bruno Mars. United Kingdom: Atalantic. 2011. 7567-88330-45.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)