Miracle (Celine Dion album)
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Miracle is a concept album credited to Canadian singer Céline Dion and Australian photographer Anne Geddes, released on October 11, 2004. It's Dion's 12th English album and 32nd in total.[1] According to Billboard, Miracle is the 11th Best Selling Kids Album of the 2000s.[2]
Album information
Miracle is a part of a CD-and-book multimedia collection, with Dion's music providing the soundtrack to Geddes' pictorial book celebrating the joy of babies. The songs were produced by David Foster, who hadn't worked with Dion since 1999.
Among tracks on the album are remakes of John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy," Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World," Roberta Flack's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," Johannes Brahms' "Brahms' Lullaby," Nancy Wilson's "If I Could," Henri Salvador's "Le loup, la biche et le chevalier (une chanson douce)," and Carol Welsman's "Baby Close Your Eyes."
All other tracks are original songs such as the title track, which was written in 2001 for A New Day Has Come to celebrate the birth of Dion's son René-Charles, but the song was never published on that album.
Some tracks were previously released on Dion's albums, including "Brahms' Lullaby" on These Are Special Times and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" on All the Way... A Decade of Song. Live performances of "If I Could" and "What a Wonderful World" were available on A New Day... Live in Las Vegas. "A Mother's Prayer" is a solo version of "The Prayer," a duet with Andrea Bocelli from These Are Special Times. "Le loup, la biche et le chevalier (une chanson douce)" was performed live by Dion and Henri Salvador in October 2003, during the taping of 1 fille & 4 types TV special. However, this duet version wasn't included on any album.
Miracle was released in three different formats: CD; CD/DVD plus 60-page booklet; and 180-page hardcover book plus CD/DVD. "Je lui dirai," available previously on 1 fille & 4 types, was included as a bonus track in Francophone countries.
"Beautiful Boy" was released as the first single in North America and some parts of Europe. It was followed by "In Some Small Way" in the United States and Canada. "Je lui dirai" was released as a single in Francophone countries, while the title track was issued as a single in the United Kingdom and parts of Asia. All these songs were released as radio singles without accompaying music videos.
Critical reception
Miracle met with positive reviews. Allmusic said that "it's the quietest record Dion has recorded in a while, an unabashed adult contemporary album that keeps its gentle mood from start to finish, as if it were a prolonged lullaby.
Dion tempers her vocal histrionics considerably — she still soars to the high notes, but there are no pyrotechnics, no showboating here — which serves this collection of standards and new songs quite well."[3]
Chart success
Miracle debuted inside top 10 in many countries, reaching number 1 in Canada and Belgium Wallonia, number 4 in the United States, France and the Netherlands, number 5 in the United Kingdom, number 6 in Switzerland and number 9 in Greece. Miracle set a record in the United States, spending 18 consecutive weeks at the top position on the Billboard Top Kid Audio chart.
The album sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide in its first 3 months of release.[4][5] It was certified platinum in the United States[6] and gold in the United Kingdom,[7] France,[8] Switzerland,[9] Italy,[10] and Belgium.[11]
Track listing
CD
1."Miracle" (Steve Dorff, Linda Thompson) – 3:38
2."Brahms' Lullaby" (Johannes Brahms) – 3:32
3."If I Could" (Ken Hirsch, Marti Sharron, Ron Miller) – 4:47
4."Sleep Tight" (Richard Page, Jon Lind, John Lahng) – 4:40
5."What a Wonderful World" (George David Weiss, Bob Thiele) – 3:48
6."My Precious One" (Peer Astrom, Stephanie Bentley) – 3:52
7."A Mother's Prayer" (David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager) – 3:43
8."The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (Ewan MacColl) – 4:09
9."Baby Close Your Eyes" (Carol Welsman, Romano Musumarra) – 3:25
10."Come to Me" (Beverley Mahood, Thomas Wade) – 4:36
11."Le loup, la biche et le chevalier (une chanson douce)" (Maurice Pon, Henri Salvador) – 3:14
12."Je lui dirai" (Jean-Jacques Goldman) – 3:57 (French bonus track)
13."Beautiful Boy" (John Lennon) – 3:53
14."In Some Small Way" (Page, David Tyson) – 5:06
Bonus DVD
1.The Making of Miracle (Scott Floyd Lochmus) – 20:00
