Boston

Third Stage

12" picture disc

MCA Records MCGP6017 1986 12" 33 rpm (UK)

Third Stage is the third album by American hard rock band Boston released September 23, 1986 on MCA Records. It was recorded at Tom Scholz's Hideaway Studio over a six-year period "between floods and power failures".

After winning a legal battle with Epic Records, Scholz switched his band's recording label to MCA. The album's first track, "Amanda", was actually written in 1980 (when Boston began work on the album) and became the band's only #1 single. It reached and stayed at #1 for two weeks in November 1986. It was followed by the second Top 10 single from the album, "We're Ready", which reached #9 in 1987. The songs "Cool the Engines" and "Can'tcha Say/Still in Love" also got substantial airplay, with the "Can'tcha Say (You Believe in Me)/Still in Love" peaking at #20 in 1987 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains Boston's last Top 40 hit to date.

Third Stage went to #1 on the Billboard 200, where it stayed for four weeks. It was the first CD-formatted album to be certified gold (500,000 copies) by the RIAA. It was also certified gold in the LP format, making it what is believed to be the first album certified in both of these formats. In all, the album was certified 4x platinum.

The album is the first Boston LP to feature electronic drum samples, the first to feature songs not written by either Scholz or Brad Delp, the first Boston LP without original members Barry Goudreau, Sib Hashian and Fran Sheehan (though Hashian and Sheehan were included in the early recording sessions and Sheehan received a writing credit). Original drummer Jim Masdea (who played on the demos that made a bulk of the first Boston album) plays drums on most of the album. This LP was also the first Boston recording to use the Scholz-invented Rockman guitar processor. No orchestral sounds or synthesizers were used on the album. Critics have noted that the album has a much darker, more somber tone than Boston's previous work.

Track listing
  
1.  "Amanda"    Tom Scholz  4:16
2.  "We're Ready"    Scholz  3:58
3.  "The Launch:
a) Countdown
b) Ignition
c) Third Stage Separation"    Scholz  2:55
4.  "Cool the Engines"    Scholz, Brad Delp, Fran Sheehan  4:23
5.  "My Destination"    Scholz  2:19
6.  "A New World" (Instrumental)  Jim Masdea  0:36
7.  "To Be a Man"    Scholz  3:30
8.  "I Think I Like It"    Scholz, John English  4:06
9.  "Can'tcha Say (You Believe in Me)/Still in Love"    Scholz, Delp  5:13
10.  "Hollyann"    Scholz  5:11

    Brad Delp – lead and harmony vocals
    Tom Scholz – guitars, organs, piano, bass guitar, drums, percussion
    Jim Masdea – drums, percussion
    Sib Hashian – drums, percussion
    Gary Pihl – guitar on "I Think I Like It"

Condition:  12" LP is NEAR MINT in plastic sleeve in GOOD condition in a plastic protector

A Note About Shipping To The U.S.
We are located in Canada, but have registered ourselves on eBay.com instead of eBay.ca because it gives us significantly better global exposure.  The problem with this is that eBay wants us to charge shipping appropriate to US, where media mail and other options make for fairly reasonable delivery costs. We tried it for a while but ended up losing money on shipping or having to cancel the orders because we couldn't afford to ship for those rates. To manage this we have set the US shipping to run a calculator based on an American location (we chose Plattsburgh as fairly close) and charging according to UPS pricing.  This avoids the cancellation issue, but appears to the buyer to be a prohibitive shipping cost and misrepresents the shipping as being only expedited. If you give us your postal code we will see if we can offer a more reasonable option, but generally we can get a single LP by air to most places in the continental US for $11, a few bucks less for ground.
Thanks for shopping Sir Helmitt,
Jeff Green, e-sales

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