The Singles 1992–2003

The Singles 1992–2003
Greatest hits album by No Doubt
Released	November 14, 2003 (2003-11-14)
Recorded	1991–2003
Genre	Ska punk alternative rock
Length	59:44
Label	Interscope
Producer	Glen Ballard Dito Godwin Jerry Harrison Nellee Hooper Brian Jobson Wayne Jobson No Doubt Sly & Robbie Philip Steir Mark "Spike" Stent Matthew Wilder
No Doubt chronology
Rock Steady (2001) The Singles 1992–2003 (2003) Boom Box (2003)
Icon cover
Singles from The Singles 1992–2003
"It's My Life" Released: October 30, 2003

The Singles 1992–2003 is a greatest hits album by American rock band No Doubt, released on November 14, 2003 by Interscope Records. It features thirteen of the band's singles from three studio albums—Tragic Kingdom (1995), Return of Saturn (2000), and Rock Steady (2001)—and the single "Trapped in a Box" from their 1992 self-titled debut album. The album also included a cover of Talk Talk's 1984 song "It's My Life", the only new song on the album and which was released as a single. It was released alongside the DVD Rock Steady Live, a video of a concert as part of the band's Rock Steady tour in 2002, and the box set Boom Box, which contained The Singles 1992–2003, Everything in Time, The Videos 1992–2003, and Live in the Tragic Kingdom.

No Doubt went into hiatus in April 2003 after the release of four singles from their fifth studio album, Rock Steady, allowing the four members to spend time with loved ones. This also allowed their lead singer, Gwen Stefani, to work on her solo music side project, under which she has released two albums, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in November 2004 and The Sweet Escape in December 2006. The band regrouped in September 2003 to record the lead single for the album, "It's My Life", with producer Nellee Hooper. Additionally, in May 2010, the band regrouped again to start work on their latest record.

The album sold moderately well, being certified double platinum in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, and platinum in Australia. It received mostly positive reviews from music critics, who praised the variety of music genres on the album. The album was re-released on November 2, 2010 under the title Icon, featuring different artwork.^[1]

Background

No Doubt released their fifth studio album, Rock Steady, in December 2001 and from it released four singles, "Hey Baby", "Hella Good", "Underneath It All", and "Running" between 2001 and 2003. The album was commercially successful, selling three million copies worldwide^[2] and being certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. In April 2003, No Doubt went into hiatus to take a break to spend time with their families before starting to compile The Singles 1992–2003, which would feature the band's greatest hits from their previous albums.^[3]

The main reason to go into hiatus was that, in early 2003,^[4] their lead singer Gwen Stefani started work on her 1980s-inspired new wave/dance-pop music side project, under which she has released two solo albums—Love. Angel. Music. Baby. on November 23, 2004 and The Sweet Escape on December 5, 2006.

Music

The album was a compilation of thirteen commercially released singles by the band from their previous studio albums, Tragic Kingdom, Return of Saturn, and Rock Steady, as well as the independently released single "Trapped in a Box" from No Doubt's self-titled debut album, and a brand-new cover version of "It's My Life". However, The Singles did not include "Happy Now?" and "Hey You!", two singles from Tragic Kingdom, neither of which were commercially successful, or "Squeal" and "Doghouse" from The Beacon Street Collection, which were both independently released. "Girls Get the Bass in the Back", a remix of "Hey Baby", and a live acoustic version of "Underneath It All" were included as bonus tracks on international pressings of the album.

Production

Being a greatest hits album and containing only one new song, recording The Singles 1992–2003 took very little time compared with the band's studio albums. Production started in September 2003 with the recording of a cover version of Talk Talk's song "It's My Life", produced by Nellee Hooper.^[3] The accompanying music video for the song was filmed by director David LaChapelle at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.^[3] Stefani insisted that just because no songwriting was involved in the production of the album did not mean no effort would be needed: the band had to decide which of their songs to include and which to leave out.^[5] Two months later on November 25, the album was released along with the B-side, rarity, and remix collection Everything in Time and box set Boom Box.

Singles

	"It's My Life" (2003) The band's cover of the Talk Talk song "It's My Life", recorded for the album.
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The only single from The Singles 1992–2003 was a cover of the song "It's My Life", originally released in 1984 by the synthpop band Talk Talk. Because the band were taking a break while lead singer Stefani recorded her solo debut album Love. Angel. Music. Baby., they decided to do a cover version to avoid having to write a new song.^[5] The band listened to hundreds of songs and narrowed it down to "It's My Life" and the song "Don't Change", released in 1982 by Australian new wave band INXS.^[6] No Doubt had doubts on recording a cover and contemplated writing new material,^[5] but decided on "It's My Life" after rehearsing the song with producer Nellee Hooper,^[6] referring to it as a "feel-good" song.^[5] Stefani stated:

We thought [choosing a song to cover] was going to be so easy, because that was the idea—'Let's just do something that's fun and easy, why do we also have to, like, torture ourselves.' We went and listened to hundreds of songs, hundreds, and imagine trying to pick one, between the four of us? Oh my God, it was ridiculous.^[5]

"It's My Life" later became one of the band's biggest hits, being certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association and gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[7][8] The song was nominated for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 47th Grammy Awards, but lost out to Los Lonely Boys' "Heaven".^[9] Stuart Price (also known as Jacques Lu Cont), the song's programmer, created the Thin White Duke mix of "It's My Life", which won the award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical.^[10]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[11]
BBC Music	mixed[12]
NME	6/10[13]
musicOMH	mixed[14]
Rhapsody	favorable[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]

The Singles 1992–2003 was generally well received by music critics. Mike McGuirk of Rhapsody described the album as "a real joy for anyone who has a taste for Gwen Stefani's yearning vocals and her band's uncanny ability to mix ska, teen pop and hip-hop."^[15] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called the album a "stellar collection", concluding that it is "the kind of compilation that satisfies fans of all stripes and converts skeptics. It's the greatest-hits package that [No Doubt] deserve[s]."^[11] Anthony Thornton of NME stated, "Despite being an album packed with as much drama as the band themselves have suffered, it'll be the pop anthems you come back for and fortunately there's enough here to keep even the soap addicts happy."^[13] Sara McDonnell of musicOMH wrote that the album's music had "sheer diversity" due to the band's "pick 'n mix approach to musical styles". The high points were "Gwen Stefani's lyrics, which deal principally with coming to terms with her own femininity" and "the band's collaborations with various hip producers", such as The Neptunes, Nellee Hooper and Sly and Robbie; and the low points were the album's "hotch-potch feel", "random tracklisting" and the "forays into reggae".^[14] Ruth Mitchell of the BBC Music viewed the album as a typical Christmas album that was "unlikely to stand out from the crowd" and "too long, [getting] tiresome about half way through", although complimenting "Just a Girl", "Hey Baby" and "Underneath It All". However, she also expressed disappointment at the placement of "Don't Speak", "the foursome's most glorious pop moment", at the end of the album.^[12] The Rolling Stone Album Guide later gave the album four stars out of five.^[16]

Commercial performance

The Singles 1992–2003 debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 253,000 copies in its first week.^[17] The album was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on July 21, 2004,^[8] and has sold 2.2 million copies in the United States.^[18] In Canada, the album was certified double platinum on June 13, 2005 by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, denoting sales of over 200,000 copies.^[19] In Australia, the album was certified gold in 2003^[20] and platinum in 2004^[21] by the Australian Recording Industry Association, signalling sales of over 35,000 and 70,000 units, respectively.^[22]

Track listing

Notes

• ^{^a} signifies an additional producer
• ^{^b} signifies an executive producer
• ^{^c} signifies a remixer

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Singles 1992–2003.^[27]

No Doubt

• Gwen Stefani – vocals
• Tom Dumont – additional engineering, programming (tracks 3, 10), guitar, keyboards
• Tony Kanal – additional engineering, programming (tracks 3, 10), saxophone (track 8), bass, keyboards
• Adrian Young – drums, percussion
• No Doubt – production (tracks 2, 3, 6–8, 10, 15, 16)

Additional personnel

Charts

Certifications

Release history

References

External links

• Official No Doubt website