Big (album)

Big
Studio album by Macy Gray
Released	March 21, 2007
Recorded	2006
Genre	R&B soul neo soul
Length	43:47
Label	will.i.am Geffen
Producer	Damon Elliott Ron Fair Jared Gosselin Macy Gray Noiztrip Justin Timberlake Phillip White will.i.am
Macy Gray chronology
Live in Las Vegas (2005) Big (2007) The Sellout (2010)
Singles from Big
"Finally Made Me Happy" Released: February 20, 2007 "Shoo Be Doo" Released: March 2007 "What I Gotta Do" Released: June 26, 2007[1]

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	62/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]
Blender	[4]
Digital Spy	[5]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[6]
The Guardian	[7]
Los Angeles Times	[8]
PopMatters	[9]
Rolling Stone	[10]
Slant Magazine	[11]
Yahoo! Music	[12]

Big is the fourth studio album by American singer and songwriter Macy Gray, released on March 21, 2007 by Geffen Records. It is Gray's first studio album in four years. The album debuted at number 39 on the US Billboard 200, selling 23,000 copies in its first week.^[13]

Three singles were released from the album: "Finally Made Me Happy" (a collaboration with Natalie Cole), "Shoo Be Doo", and "What I Gotta Do". The latter was included on the Shrek the Third soundtrack. Music from this album was also featured in the I Love New York season one reunion. The album's cover art was widely illustrated on iPhone ads and featured on the first boxes of the iPod Touch.

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Finally Made Me Happy" (featuring Natalie Cole)	Natalie Hinds Teedra Moses Cassandra O'Neil Justin Meldal-Johnsen Victor Indrizzo	Macy Gray will.i.am Ron Fair	4:02
2.	"Shoo Be Doo"	Hinds Jared Gosselin Phillip White Meldal-Johnsen Printz Board Mary Brown Jessyca Wilson	Gosselin White Fair	4:04
3.	"What I Gotta Do"	Hinds Caleb Speir Jeremy Ruzumna Josh Lopez Jason Villaroman	Gosselin White Fair	3:08
4.	"Okay"	Hinds Will Adams Justin Timberlake Speir	will.i.am Timberlake	4:09
5.	"Glad You're Here" (featuring Fergie)	Hinds Joe Solo O'Neil Meldal-Johnsen Trevor Lawrence	will.i.am Fair	2:54
6.	"Ghetto Love"	Hinds Adams Moses Mike Shapiro James Brown Betty Jean Newsome	will.i.am	3:08
7.	"One for Me"	Hinds Meldal-Johnsen Steve Smith Mike Farrell Johnny Mercer	will.i.am Fair	4:09
8.	"Strange Behavior"	Hinds Farrell Speir Shapiro	Gray will.i.am	3:35
9.	"Slowly"	Hinds Gosselin White Meldal-Johnsen George Pajon, Jr.	Fair	3:54
10.	"Get Out" (featuring Justin Timberlake)	Hinds Timberlake Speir Shapiro Allen Toussaint	Timberlake will.i.am	4:01
11.	"Treat Me Like Your Money" (featuring will.i.am)	Hinds Meldal-Johnsen Jean Baptiste Anthony Tidd Michael Matthews Melvin J. Lewis Adams Pete Burns Steve Coy Mike Percy Tim Lever Joseph Simmons Larry Smith Darryl McDaniels	will.i.am Noiztrip	3:27
12.	"Everybody"	Hinds Board Pajon Tim "Izo" Orindgreff	will.i.am	3:16

International bonus tracks[14][15][16][17]
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
13.	"AEIOU"	Gray Moses O'Neil Meldal-Johnsen	Damon Elliott	3:15
14.	"Breakdown" (featuring Romika) (UK and Japan only)	Gray Gosselin White Speir Josh Lopez	Gosselin White	3:36
15.	"Me with You" (Japan only)	Gray Meldal-Johnsen Farrell Kiilu Beckwith		4:01

iTunes Store bonus track[18]
No.	Title	Length
13.	"So Much"	3:23

Sampling credits

• "Ghetto Love" contains a sample of "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" by James Brown.
• "One for Me" contains a sample of "Dream" by Frank Sinatra.
• "Get Out" contains an interpolation of "Get Out of My Life, Woman" written by Allen Toussaint.
• "Treat Me Like Your Money" contains a sample of "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" by Dead or Alive and "It's Like That" by Run–D.M.C.

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Big.^[19]

Macy Gray – vocals (all tracks); production (tracks 1, 8); backing vocals (tracks 4, 10); executive production Jay Anderson – backing vocals (track 6); A&R Davis Barnett – viola (track 4) Dawn Beckman – backing vocals (tracks 2, 6, 7, 11, 12) Giuliano Bekor – photography Printz Board – trumpet (tracks 1, 8); keyboards (tracks 2, 5, 11, 12); Rhodes (track 12) Venus Brown – A&R Jeff Chestek – string recording (track 4) Natalie Cole – additional vocals (track 1) "Angry" Mike Eleopoulos – recording engineering (tracks 1–3, 5, 9) Scott Elgin – assistant engineering (track 3) Ron Fair – production, string arrangements, string conducting (tracks 1–3, 5, 7, 9); Pro Tools, recording engineering (tracks 1–3, 5, 7, 9, 12); piano solo (track 2); additional piano, Wurlitzer (track 3); organ (tracks 3, 5); piano (track 5); harmonica (track 9); executive production Mike Farrell – keyboards (tracks 7, 8) Fergie – additional vocals (track 5) Ghislaine Fleischmann – violin (track 4) Paloma Ford – backing vocals (tracks 6, 8, 9) Nick Fournier – assistant engineering (tracks 1, 5, 11, 12) Brian "Big Bass" Gardner – mastering Larry Gold – string arrangements (track 4) Jared Gosselin – production (tracks 2, 3); programming (track 3) Gravillis Inc. – art direction, design Jeremy Gregory – backing vocals, vocal arrangement (track 3) Bernie Grundman – mastering Keith Harris – percussion (track 2); drums (tracks 2, 4, 7, 12); Rhodes (track 5); keyboards (tracks 7, 11); piano (track 12) Tal Herzberg – recording engineering (tracks 1–3, 5, 9, 12); Pro Tools (tracks 1–3, 5, 6, 8–10, 12) Victor Indrizzo – drums (tracks 1, 3, 5, 11) Tim Izo – saxophone (tracks 1, 12); flute (track 5); clarinet (track 7) Eric Jackson – guitar (track 2) Jaycen Joshua – assistant mixing engineering (track 2) Gloria Justen – violin (track 4) Ryan Kennedy – assistant mixing engineering (tracks 8, 10)

Padraic Kerin – recording engineering (track 4) Sarah Killion – assistant mixing engineering (track 6) Emma Kummrow – violin (track 4) Mike Lett – backing vocals (track 3) Josh Lopez – guitar (track 3) Jennie Lorenzo – cello (track 4) Tony Maserati – mixing (tracks 8, 10) Glen McIntyre – backing vocals (track 6) Justin Meldal-Johnsen – bass (tracks 1, 2, 7, 9, 11) Peter Mokran – mixing (tracks 3, 5, 7, 9) Dean Nelson – assistant mixing engineering (track 1) Peter Nocella – viola (track 4) Noiztrip – production (track 11) Cassandra O'Neil – organ, piano (track 1); keyboards (track 3) George Pajon, Jr. – guitar (tracks 5–7, 9, 11) Dave "Hard Drive" Pensado – mixing (track 2) Jack Joseph Puig – mixing (track 1) Montez Roberts – assistant engineering (track 4) Dan Rockett – guitar (track 10) Jeremy Ruzumna – keyboards (track 3) Rafael Serrano – assistant mixing engineering (tracks 4, 11, 12) Mike Shapiro – percussion (tracks 2, 9); drums (tracks 6, 8, 10) Justin Siegel – A&R Caleb Speir – bass (tracks 3–5, 8, 10) Justin Timberlake – drums (track 4); backing vocals, keyboards, production (tracks 4, 10); guitar (track 10) Igor Szwec – violin (track 4) Doug Tyo – assistant engineering (tracks 2, 6, 8–10, 12) Jason Villaroman – recording engineering (tracks 1–3, 5, 6, 9, 10–12); programming (tracks 8, 10) Dave Way – mixing (tracks 4, 6, 11, 12) Eric Weaver – assistant mixing engineering (tracks 3, 5, 7, 9) Khalfani White – backing vocals (track 12) Phillip White – percussion (track 2); backing vocals, production (tracks 2, 3) will.i.am – production (tracks 1, 4–8, 10–12); recording engineering (tracks 4, 6); programming (tracks 5, 6, 11, 12); keyboards (track 6); executive production Ethan Willoughby – recording engineering (track 4) Frank Wolf – recording engineering (tracks 1–3, 5, 9, 12)

Charts

Chart (2007)	Peak position
Australian Urban Albums Chart[20]	15
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[21]	63
Czech Albums Chart[22]	38
Dutch Albums Chart[23]	56
European Top 100 Albums[24]	99
Finnish Albums Chart[25]	28
French Albums Chart[26]	149
Italian Albums Chart[27]	33
Japanese Albums Chart[28]	54
Scottish Albums Chart[29]	87
Swiss Albums Chart[30]	38
UK Albums Chart[31]	62
UK R&B Albums Chart[32]	11
US Billboard 200[33]	39
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums[34]	14

Release history

Region	Date	Label	Ref.
Japan	March 21, 2007	Universal	[35]
Netherlands	March 22, 2007		[36]
Italy	March 23, 2007		[37]
Australia	March 24, 2007		[14]
France	March 26, 2007		[38]
Germany	March 27, 2007		[15]
United States		will.i.am Geffen	[39]
United Kingdom	April 2, 2007	Polydor	[16]

References

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2. "Reviews for Big by Macy Gray". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
3. Bush, John. "Big – Macy Gray". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
4. Dolan, Jon. "Macy Gray : Big Review". Blender. Alpha Media Group. Archived from the original on January 12, 2008. Retrieved March 14, 2009.
5. Zendle, Miriam (March 27, 2007). "Macy Gray: 'Big'". Digital Spy. Archived from the original on May 2, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2008.
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