Ultimate High
| Ultimate High | ||||
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| Studio album by Carly Hennessy | ||||
| Released | November 13, 2001 | |||
| Recorded | 1999-2001 in Westlake Audio, BLC, Sol Seven Studios, Ameraycan Studios, Garfield Studios, and Larrabee Studios (Los Angeles, California), Townhouse Studios, Olympic, Soul II Soul and Titan Studios (London, UK), American Recording Co. (Calabasas, California), Front Page Recorders (Glendale, California) | |||
| Genre | Pop rock, teen pop, R&B, soul | |||
| Length | 52:39 | |||
| Label | MCA Records | |||
| Producer | Gregg Alexander, Danielle Brisebois, Steve Dorff | |||
| Carly Hennessy chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ultimate High | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Sacramento News and Review | (unfavorable) |
Ultimate High is the debut album of Irish-born singer Carly Smithson, released under her maiden name Carly Hennessy in 2001 by MCA Records. It failed to find an audience despite getting good reviews and MCA Records spending over $2 million on the production and promotion of the album, and became a textbook example for the economics of today's music industry.
The song "Just Missed the Train" was later covered by American Idol season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson in her debut album Thankful. Oddly enough, Hennessy later auditioned for American Idol season 7 under her husband's last name Smithson, finishing in 6th place.
Two singles were released off the album: "I'm Gonna Blow Your Mind" and "Beautiful You".
Carly Hennessy signed with MCA Records in June 1999 and recorded eight songs for her début album with producer Steve Dorff, with whom she had already recorded the demo that got her the attention of MCA president Jay Boberg in the first place. However, both Hennessy and MCA were dissatisfied with the songs, finding they sounded too much like Barbra Streisand for the album's target teen audience. Thus, MCA hired producer Gregg Alexander in early 2000, who had been the lead singer of the New Radicals and since written and produced several hit singles in Europe for, among others, Ronan Keating. Alexander produced four songs for the album, which he had co-written with former child actress Danielle Brisebois, with whom he had also previously worked on several other projects, including Brisebois' two solo albums. Brisebois, who had never worked as a producer before, also produced several more tracks for the album, including two songs originally set to appear on her unreleased second album Portable Life.
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Wikipedia