Daughtry is the debut album by American rock band Daughtry, released on November 21, 2006, by RCA Records. The band is fronted by American Idolfifth season-finalist Chris Daughtry.[a] The release is the fastest-selling debut rock album in Soundscan history, the best-selling album of 2007, according to Billboard,[2] and the band's highest-selling record.[3]
Background and production
"Breakdown", as it appears on Daughtry, is actually a rewrite and combination of two songs previously recorded by Chris Daughtry's former hard rock/alternative metal band, Absent Element. The songs "Conviction" and "Break Down" appeared on the EP Uprooted.
Promotion and release
The first single released from the album is "It's Not Over", and fellow Idol contestant Ace Young, producer Gregg Wattenberg, and Course of Nature frontman Mark Wilkerson are credited as co-writers. On December 25, 2008, the song was nominated for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards.
In 2007, WWE used "There and Back Again" as the theme song for their April pay-per-view Backlash. In the same year, the song "Feels Like Tonight" was used for their annual Tribute to the Troops special.
Singles
"It's Not Over" led the album release and proved to be a success, reaching the top five on multiple charts, including the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number four.[4]
The next single, "Home", joined "It's Not Over" on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number five and making Daughtry the first debut album by an Idol contestant to contain two top-five Hot 100 singles. Meanwhile, "What I Want" was released as the second single (the third overall) instead of "Home", and reached the top ten on Mainstream Rock, peaking at number six.
The band's fourth single, "Over You", was released to Top 40 and Hot AC radio on July 24, 2007, peaking in the top twenty of the Hot 100. "Crashed" (the fifth overall single), was released in place of "Over You" on rock stations on September 10, 2007.
The sixth single from the album, "Feels Like Tonight", was released on January 8, 2008. The song became a top forty Hot 100 hit for the band, peaking at number 24. The seventh and final single, "What About Now", was released on July 1, 2008. However, the song reached the top twenty of the Hot 100 over two months before its release, making it the band's fourth top twenty hit off the album on the chart.
Critical response to Daughtry was mixed: while many critics felt that the album was generally pleasing and the first real "rock" album from American Idol alumni, others felt it was unoriginal and too commercial. While Ken Barnes of USA Today conceded that Chris Daughtry has "strong pipes and palpable angst", overall he found the band "generic", calling them "FuelNickelStaindback".[b][11]People magazine found the album "a solid if not spectacular effort that at the very least proves that Chris Daughtry is not just another Idol also-ran."[12] Christian Hoard with Rolling Stone said that "[Chris] Daughtry gets points for not courting soccer moms, but just because he can howl like a motherfucker doesn't mean he's not a cheeseball".[10][13] In a mixed review, Billboard said the album "is music tailor-made for ill-conceived radio formatting, music for consumers whose taste has already been well-established if not preprogrammed", then added, "But [Chris] Daughtry sure does sing his butt off".[14] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic awarded the album three-and-a-half stars out of five, calling it "a debut that's not only a lot more credible than any American Idol-affiliated rock album should be, but it's a lot easier to digest than most of its ilk".[15]
The record won an American Music Awards in 2007 for Favorite Pop-Rock Album. It was nominated for four 2008 Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song for "It's Not Over", Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "Home", and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "It's Not Over"; the album did not win any.[citation needed]
Commercial performance
Competing with a flurry of releases during its opening week (Jay-Z, The Beatles, Johnny Cash, and others), Daughtry proved to be commercially viable. The album debuted at number two on the U.S. Billboard 200, behind Jay-Z's Kingdom Come. It sold approximately 304,000 copies in its first week.[16]
The album reached number one on the Billboard 200,[17] with 65,000 copies sold in its ninth week on the chart,[18] for the issue dated February 3, 2007, becoming the first album from an Idol alumnus to top the Billboard 200 since Ruben Studdard's Soulful in December 2003. The following week, the album fell to number three on the chart, but its sales increased to 80,000.[19] The record remained at number three and sold nearly 80,000 copies in each of the subsequent three weeks.[20][21] After this, sales increased to 102,000 copies, but the album dropped to number 9 on the Billboard 200;[22] in the following week, the album climbed to number 2 on the Billboard 200 and sold 84,000 copies.[23] In the next week, its fifteenth on the chart, it climbed back to the number-one spot. It was then certified Double Platinum on March 7, 2007.[24] The album was released in the UK on August 20 and debuted at number thirteen.
For the chart week of June 30, 2007, the album was certified 3× Platinum.[25] It stayed in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 27 of the first 28 weeks of its release.
The deluxe version of the album was released on the chart week of September 9, 2008, and brought a 95% leap to the previous week.[26]
Daughtry is the only debut album in the history of SoundScan to have stayed in the top 200 for 575 weeks.[27] The record had sold 5,040,000 units in the US as of December 2015[28] and has been certified six-times platinum by the RIAA in 2019.[29] It spent a total of 148 weeks in the Top 40.[30]
^Due to possible naming confusion, in this article, the band is Daughtry, the album is Daughtry (italicized), and the singer is referred to by his full name, (Chris Daughtry).
