Amore (The Hooters album)

The Hooters got their start with their independently released album Amore. It cost $12,000 to record. The album sold over 100,000 copies, mostly in the Philadelphia area, and led to their major label record deal with Columbia Records in 1984.^[8]

Amore introduced early versions of four songs: "All You Zombies," "Hanging on a Heartbeat," "Fightin' on the Same Side," and "Blood from a Stone," which would reappear in different versions on later albums.

An even earlier studio recording of "Fightin' on the Same Side" and a live recording of "All You Zombies" had previously been released as singles in 1981 and 1982, respectively, on the small indie label Eighty Percent Records.^[9][10][11]

In 2001, 18 years after its original release on LP album and cassette, Amore was made available on compact disc and included two cover versions as bonus tracks: the Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" from June 15, 1986, at A Conspiracy of Hope, a benefit concert on behalf of Amnesty International at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, and the Skatalites' "Man in the Street," a live demo from the first Hooters recording session in 1980, which was also the band's first song to be played on the radio.

Trouser Press wrote: "The Hooters’ easy facility in many stylistic genres (reggae, the main impulse on Amore, remains in the repertoire, along with glossed-up heartland rock versed in folk traditionalism) matches an inability to pin down any clear-cut personality."^[12]

All tracks are written by Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian, except where noted.

1. "Amore" - 3:31
2. "Blood from a Stone" - 3:19
3. "Hanging on a Heartbeat" (Hyman, Bazilian, Glenn Goss, Jeff Ziv) - 3:01
4. "All You Zombies" - 3:47
5. "Birdman" - 3:17
6. "Don't Wanna Fight" - 2:50
7. "Fightin' on the Same Side" - 2:53
8. "Concubine" - 2:22

2001 CD bonus tracks

9. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (live, 1986) (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) - 3:59
10. "Man in the Street" (demo, 1980) (Don Drummond) - 3:58

Credits adapted from the album liner notes.^[13]

The Hooters

• Eric Bazilian – lead vocals (1, 2, 3, 6), guitar, saxophone
• John Lilley – guitar
• Rob Hyman – lead vocals (2, 4, 5, 7, 8), keyboards
• Rob Miller – bass, vocals
• David Uosikkinen – drums

Technical

• Eric Bazilian – producer
• Rob Hyman – producer
• Phil Nicolo – engineer
• Bob Ludwig – mastering
• Barbara Blair – art direction, design
• Mark Chin – photography
• Stephen Spera – cover art
• Charles Grumbling – graphics
• Tomas Sokol – label design, inner sleeve