Mathematics

Details

The album was Manchester's first studio album since leaving Arista Records, her label for ten years, after her 1983 album Emergency. Signed to MCA Records, the album was a progression of that last album, in that it relied more on a synth-pop/new wave sound rather than on her earlier singer-songwriter-styled records.

Roughly half the songs on the record were produced by George Duke, with the rest produced by Brock Walsh and a then-unknown Robbie Nevil. Robbie Buchanan produced the song "Thunder in the Night" (a song co-written by Martin Page and Diane Warren), and Trevor Veitch produced the song "Energy". Veitch also produced the song "So Full of Yourself", which was only released as the b-side to all three singles off the album. Quincy Jones served as executive producer on four songs on the LP.

The song "Just One Lifetime" was sung by Barbra Streisand to James Brolin during their wedding in 1998, and she recorded it for her 1999 album A Love Like Ours. Streisand liked the chorus of the song but not the verses, so it was asked that original songwriters Tom Snow and Manchester herself wrote new lyrics for the verses before recording it, which they duly did.

The album spawned three singles: the uptempo title track "Mathematics" was the first single and peaked at #74 in the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Manchester's last entry to date on that chart. The next two singles, the Hi-NRG track "Energy" (the only one to have a music video) and the ballad "Just One Lifetime", failed to chart. The album itself had limited success and continued Manchester's chart decline, peaking at a low No. 144 in the USA. To date, it is her last album to chart in that country.

On June 17, 2014 Geffen Records released a digital version of the album through iTunes. The album was released on compact disc on November 2, 2018, by Real Gone Music, as a 2-CD set, with the second Disc containing extended mixes of singles, unreleased songs and other material from her MCA years, such as "The Music of Goodbye", a duet with Al Jarreau.

This would be Manchester's only album with MCA Records. Her only other release with the label was in early 1986, when Manchester recorded the song "The Music of Goodbye", a duet with Al Jarreau, for the soundtrack of the film Out of Africa, which was also released as a single. She left the label not long after.

Personnel

Musicians and Vocalists

Melissa Manchester – lead vocals (1–5, 7–10), all vocals (6), backing vocals (9)

George Duke – Yamaha DX7 (1, 10), Prophet-5 (1, 6, 10), Memorymoog (1, 6, 9), Synclavier II (6, 9, 10), Yamaha PF15 (6), backing vocals (9), acoustic piano (10)

Tommy Faragher – synthesizers (2, 5, 7)

Brock Walsh – synthesizers (2, 4, 7), drums (2, 4, 5, 7), backing vocals (2, 4, 5)

Larry Williams – synthesizers (2), saxophones (2, 5)

Richard Gibbs – keyboards (3), synthesizers (3)

Greg Mathieson – keyboards (3), synthesizers (3)

Robbie Buchanan – keyboards (8), drum programming (8)

Paul Jackson Jr. – guitars (1, 6, 9)

Robbie Nevil – guitar programming (2, 4, 5, 7), drum programming (2, 4, 5, 7), backing vocals (2, 4, 5, 7)

Michael Landau – guitars (3)

Lee Ritenour – guitars (3)

Trevor Veitch – guitars (3)

Steve Lukather – guitar solo (6)

Dann Huff – guitars (8)

Michael Sembello – guitar solo (10)

Abraham Laboriel – bass guitar (3)

Production

Quincy Jones – executive producer (2, 4, 5, 7)

Alice Murrell – production assistant (1, 6, 9, 10)

Jolie Levine – production coordinator (2, 4, 5, 7)

Larry Vignon – art direction, design

Brian Aris – photography

Michael Lippman – management

Technical

Tommy Vicari – recording (1, 6, 9, 10), remixing (1, 6, 9, 10)

Francis Buckley – recording (2, 4, 5, 7), mixing (2, 4, 5, 7)

Scott Singer – mixing (2, 4, 5, 7), additional engineer (2, 4, 5, 7)

Don Murray – recording (3)

David Leonard – mixing (3)

Jack Joseph Puig – recording (8), mixing (8)

Paul Ratajzak – additional engineer (2, 4, 5, 7)

Mitch Gibson – assistant engineer (1, 6, 9, 10)

Tom Fouce – assistant mix engineer (1, 6, 9, 10)

Brent Avrill – technical assistant (1, 6, 9, 10)

Bino Espinoza – assistant engineer (2, 4, 5, 7)

Paul Erickson – assistant engineer (2, 4, 5, 7)