Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is the fifth studio album by Counting Crows, released in the United States on March 25, 2008. It is thematically divided into two sides: the rock music of Saturday Nights and the more country-influenced Sunday Mornings.

The Saturday Nights portion was produced by Gil Norton (who also produced the band's second album, Recovering the Satellites), while Sunday Mornings was produced by Brian Deck, perhaps best known for his production work on Modest Mouse's album The Moon and Antarctica.

On January 16, 2008, the band released a digital single as a free download on their official website. It comprises the songs "1492" (as the A-side) and "When I Dream of Michelangelo" (as the B-side). The latter song appeared at the end of an episode of the ABC series Brothers & Sisters.

The lead commercial single, "You Can't Count on Me," was released to radio on February 4, 2008. A music video for the song was released on March 20, 2008. Though a second single has yet to be officially released, "Come Around" has garnered heavy airplay on the Triple A format, topping the chart the week of September 19, 2008.

To promote the album, the band performed on Private Sessions, Good Morning America, The Late Show with David Letterman, The View, and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest peak since Recovering the Satellites. The cover depicts the Empire State Building in New York City.

Track listing
All songs written by Adam Duritz, except where indicated.
Saturday Nights (produced by Gil Norton except where indicated)

1. "1492" - 3:50 (produced by Norton and Steve Lillywhite)
2. "Hanging Tree" (Duritz, Dan Vickrey) - 3:50
3. "Los Angeles" (Duritz, Ryan Adams, Dave Gibbs) - 4:40
4. "Sundays" - 4:21 (produced by Norton, Dennis Herring, and David Lowery)
5. "Insignificant" (Duritz, Vickrey, Charles Gillingham, David Immerglück) - 4:14
6. "Cowboys" - 5:22

Sunday Mornings (produced by Brian Deck except where indicated)

7. "Washington Square" - 4:17
8. "On Almost Any Sunday Morning" - 2:58
9. "When I Dream of Michelangelo" (Duritz, Gillingham, Immerglück, Vickrey) - 3:10
10. "Anyone But You" (Duritz, Gillingham, Immerglück) - 5:25
11. "You Can't Count on Me" - 3:16
12. "Le Ballet d'Or" (Duritz, Gillingham, Immerglück) - 5:01
13. "On a Tuesday in Amsterdam Long Ago" (Duritz, Gillingham) - 4:57
14. "Come Around" (Duritz, Vickrey) - 4:31 (produced by Norton)

UK bonus track
"Baby, I'm a Big Star Now"

iTunes bonus tracks

• "There Goes Everything" (Duritz, Immerglück)
• "Come Around" (acoustic version)
• "Sessions" (Duritz, Gillingham, Immerglück) - 4:17
• "Sunday Morning L.A." (Duritz, Gillingham, Immerglück) - 5:48

The iTunes version also includes a track-by-track interview with Duritz.

Dutch bonus track
"Wennen aan September" (acoustic; featuring Bløf)

Counting Crows Profile

Counting Crows is a rock band originating from Berkeley, California. The group gained popularity in 1994 following the release of its debut album August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones". The band's influences include Van Morrison, R.E.M., Nirvana, Bob Dylan, and The Band. They received a 2004 Academy Award nomination for the song "Accidentally in Love" due to its inclusion in the film Shrek 2.

Origin of the name
The band took its name from a divination rhyme about the crow, heard by Duritz in the film Signs of Life. The rhyme is used at the end of the song "A Murder of One" on the album August and Everything After: "Well I dreamt I saw you walking up a hillside in the snow / Casting shadows on the winter sky as you stood there, counting crows / One for sorrow, two for joy / Three for girls and four for boys / Five for silver, six for gold / Seven for a secret never to be told." In the poem, the act of counting crows is particularly useless. Duritz reveals that a name is just a name, and, with that, is useless and can be anything. This recalls a traditional rhyme: "One crow means sorrow, two crows mean joy, three crows a wedding, four crows a boy, five crows mean silver, six crows mean gold, seven crows a secret that's never been told." In the United Kingdom, the rhyme is well known but uses magpies rather than crows. A popular superstition states that if one sees a single magpie, one should greet it to deflect the "sorrow".

Success with "Mr. Jones"
From the beginning, Counting Crows focused on performing live. The band's debut album August and Everything After, produced by T-Bone Burnett, was released in the autumn of 1993. The band toured extensively in 1993 and 1994, both as headliners and in support of artists such as Cracker, the Cranberries, Suede, Bob Dylan, Los Lobos, Jellyfish, and Midnight Oil. The first single, "Mr. Jones," refers to The Himalayans bassist (and Duritz's childhood friend) Marty Jones and Kenney Dale Johnson, the drummer of Silvertone (Chris Isaak's band), describing the desire of working musicians to make it big and the fantasies they entertain about what this might bring. In December 1993, MTV began playing the video for the song. It was an unexpected hit, drawing massive radio play and launching the band into stardom. August and Everything After became the fastest-selling album since Nirvana's Nevermind. In 1994 the band appeared on Saturday Night Live and Late Show with David Letterman, and toured with The Rolling Stones. The album sold 7 million copies, but success took a toll on the band; drummer Steve Bowman left, and Duritz suffered a widely-reported nervous breakdown, which was not his first.

Band members
Current members

• Adam Duritz (Vocals, piano) (1991–present)
• David Bryson (guitar) (1991–present)
• Dan Vickrey (guitar) (1994–present)
• David Immerglück (guitar, mandolin, pedal steel guitar) (1993–1999 (session), 1999–present (full-time))
• Charlie Gillingham (keyboards, accordion) (1992–present)
• Jim Bogios (drums) (2002–present)
• Millard Powers (bass guitar, upright double bass, piano, vocals) (2005–present)

Former members

• Ben Ulrich (drums) (1992)
• Marty Jones (bass guitar) (1991-1992)
• Lydia Holly (keyboards) (1991-1992)
• Toby Hawkins (drums) (1991-1992)
• Steve Bowman (drums) (1992-1994)
• Ben Mize (drums) (1994-2002)
• Matt Malley (bass guitar) (1992-2005)

Discography

• 1993: August and Everything After
• 1996: Recovering The Satellites
• 1999: This Desert Life
• 2002: Hard Candy
• 2003: Films about ghosts (The best of...)
• 2008: Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

Background information
Origin San Francisco, California, United States
Genre(s) Alternative rock
Years active 1991–present
Label(s) Geffen
Website www.countingcrows.com