American Beauty (album)
| American Beauty | ||||
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| Studio album by Grateful Dead | ||||
| Released | November 1, 1970 | |||
| Recorded | August–September 1970 | |||
| Studio | Wally Heider Studios, San Francisco | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 42:21 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
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| Singles from American Beauty | ||||
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |
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| Robert Christgau | A− |
| Rolling Stone |
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| Sputnikmusic |
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American Beauty is a studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead. Released November 1, 1970, by Warner Bros. Records, the album continued the folk rock and country music style of their previous album Workingman's Dead, issued earlier in the year. Though the Americana approach is still evident in the songwriting, comparatively the sound focused more on folk harmonies and major-key melodies, showing influence from Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young.
Upon release, American Beauty entered the Billboard 200 chart, ultimately peaking at number 13. On July 11, 1974, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and it later reached Platinum and Double Platinum certification in 1986 and 2001, respectively. In 2003, the album was ranked number 258 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
American Beauty was the result of a prolific period of the songwriting partnership of Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter – one that yielded two studio albums in one year for the Grateful Dead. This was the only time the band would return to the studio so quickly. However, unlike the previous effort, where almost all the songs were written solely by the pair, the album saw more input from the rest of the band. Included are Phil Lesh's "Box of Rain" and Bob Weir's "Sugar Magnolia", both written with Hunter, and "Operator", Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's only singing-songwriting effort on a Grateful Dead studio album.
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