Alice's Restaurant (album)

Alice's Restaurant
Guthrie seated at a table in front of an empty plate and candles
Studio album by
Arlo Guthrie
ReleasedOctober 1967
GenreFolk
Length34:36
LabelReprise
ProducerFred Hellerman
Arlo Guthrie chronology
Alice's Restaurant
(1967) 		Arlo
(1968)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Rolling StonePositive[2]
The Village VoiceB+[3]

Alice's Restaurant is the debut studio album by Arlo Guthrie released in October 1967 by Reprise Records. It features one of his most famous songs, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree". A steady seller, the album peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Top LPs chart in March 1968. The album re-entered the chart in October 1969 and reached No. 63 in November of that year.[4] Alice's Restaurant went gold (500,000 units sold) in September 1969 and Platinum (1,000,000 sold) in October 1986.

The cover depicts Guthrie sitting shirtless at a table set for a meal, holding his knife and fork and waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to be served. He wears a black bowler hat and has a napkin spread across his chest.

In 1996, Guthrie recorded the same material live for the album Alice's Restaurant: The Massacree Revisited.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Arlo Guthrie.

Side one

  1. "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" – 18:20

Side two

  2. "Chilling of the Evening" – 3:01
  3. "Ring-Around-a-Rosy Rag" – 2:10
  4. "Now and Then" – 2:15
  5. "I'm Going Home" – 3:12
  6. "The Motorcycle Song" – 2:58
  7. "Highway in the Wind" – 2:40

Personnel

  • Arlo Guthrie – vocals, guitar
  • The unknown musicians who play the electric guitar, keyboards, harmonica, standup bass, tuned percussion and drums
  • Al Brown – assistant production
  • Richard Chalfin – cover concept
  • Diana J. Davies – photography
  • Fred Hellerman – production
  • Harold Leventhal – liner notes
  • Ed Thrasher – art direction
  • Sherman Weisburd – cover photography
  • John S. Wilson – liner notes

References

  1. ^ Planer, Lindsay. "Arlo Guthrie – Alice's Restaurant: Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 2013-11-29.
  2. ^ Jann Wenner (April 20, 2000). "Alice's Restaurant: 30th Anniversary Edition". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on May 14, 2008.
  3. ^ Christgau, Robert (December 20, 1976). "Christgau's Consumer Guide to 1967". The Village Voice. New York. p. 69. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
  4. ^ "Billboard 200 Chart". Billboard.


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