菲比寻常 (2007)

Rockferry is the debut studio album by the Welsh singer Duffy, released on 3 March 2008 in the United Kingdom by A&M Records. It was released in the United States by Mercury Records. Taking four years to record the album, Duffy worked with several producers and writers including Bernard Butler, Steve Booker, Jimmy Hogarth, and Eg White. Primarily a soul recording musically, Rockferry is composed of ballads, torch songs, and up tempo songs in the style of 1960s pop music. It was well received by music critics, who praised the record's musical and lyrical depth and occasional darkness, Duffy's vocal performance, and the record's contemporary instrumentation and production which created a warm sound. Music critics favourably compared Duffy's work on Rockferry to the music of Dusty Springfield and Duffy's contemporary Amy Winehouse.

Rockferry was a commercial success, reaching number-one in several music markets. It was the fourth best-selling album of 2008 worldwide according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the highest of that year in the United Kingdom. The album was still in the top five of the UK Albums Chart a full year after its release, spending most of those weeks in the top ten albums, and a significant amount in the top three. In 2010, it was ranked as the 22nd best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. The album has won a number of awards since its release, including the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 51st annual ceremony (2009). Duffy also won three awards at the 2009 BRIT Awards for her work on Rockferry including Best British Album, whilst Butler was given the Producer's Award. It was also among ten albums nominated for the best British album of the previous 30 years by the Brit Awards in 2010.

A total of five singles were released from the album. The first single, "Rockferry", introduced Duffy's music to European music industries, whilst the second and lead single internationally, "Mercy", was an international hit, topping over twelve music charts and becoming the third-best-selling single of 2008 in the UK. Follow-up single "Warwick Avenue" was another successful single, whilst "Stepping Stone" did not replicate this earlier success. Rockferry was re-released as a deluxe edition on 24 November 2008, preceded by the lead single "Rain on Your Parade" which became the fifth overall single from the album.

Background

In 2004, following success on Wawffactor, a Welsh language televised singing contest in which Duffy, then performing under her birth name Aimeé Duffy, the singer recorded a three-song Welsh extended play, titled Aimée Duffy, while working part-time in two jobs as waitress and in a fishmonger's. The EP later achieved chart success in Wales, charting at number one on the "Siart C2" music chart The following year, Duffy appeared on Mint Royale's See You in the Morning as a back-up singer. Duffy was introduced to Jeanette Lee of Rough Trade Records in August 2004, after singing Richard J. Parfitt's "Oh Boy"; the song was later released as a B-side to the single "Rockferry". Lee moved Duffy to Crouch End in London, orchestrating a meeting between Duffy and Suede's ex-guitar player Bernard Butler. Lee, with independent record label Rough Trade Records, would eventually manage Duffy. After Butler had given Duffy a soul music "education" by downloading tracks on to her iPod that she could listen to while around London or travelling back to Wales, the pair co-wrote with her and helped create a new retro sound. The music included tracks by Al Green, Bettye Swann, Ann Peebles, Doris Duke, Scott Walker, Phil Spector and Burt Bacharach. Duffy later told The Guardian that Bettye Swann became one of her "biggest inspirations", with Duffy being particularly influenced by her song "Cover Me" because "it marks the time I got interested in physical contact. I was 19, and here was a woman singing 'Cover me, spread your precious love all over me.' It's very tender, but it's also, hilariously, quite crude."

Duffy was contracted to A&M Records (UK) on 23 November 2007. By this time, she was finalising her debut album, to be titled Rockferry, after Rock Ferry, a suburb of Birkenhead, on the Wirral Peninsula, where her grandmother lives. She performed on the BBC Two television show Later with Jools Holland, which resulted in a second appearance on the related broadcast Hootenanny, where Duffy performed with Eddie Floyd. On 22 February 2008, she appeared on Later with Jools Holland for a third time and performed "Rockferry", "Mercy", and "Stepping Stone". Duffy also made appearances on the BBC Two television programme The Culture Show on 23 February 2008, performing "Mercy". In January 2008, Duffy came second to Adele in the annual BBC News Online poll of industry experts "Sound of... 2008", which ranks acts about to emerge in the coming year.