Ten Mr. Big
- 1Good Luck Trying04:05
- 2I Am You04:31
- 3Right Outta Here04:37
- 4Sunday Morning Kinda Girl04:16
- 5Who We Are03:52
- 6As Good As It Gets04:11
- 7What Were You Thinking03:18
- 8Courageous04:34
- 9Up On You04:34
- 10The Frame03:56
- 11See No Okapi (Instrumental)02:50
Info for Ten
Mr. Big's tenth studio album Ten features eleven new original tracks and pays tribute to late drummer Pat Torpey.
In a tribute to their late drummer Pat Torpey, Martin, Gilbert, and bassist Billy Sheehan have enlisted the exceptional talents of Nick D'Virgilio on drums for Ten, which was produced by Jay Ruston and MR. BIG.
In the midst of their final tour - The BIG Finish - Mr. Big, inspired by the legions of fans that shared in their goodbye over the past year, wanted to say a final farewell with the undertaking of a brand-new studio album. Culminating over three decades of musical partnership, Martin, Gilbert, and Sheehan, with the help of D’Virgilio, ignite their spark once more and take a new form with the forthcoming 'Ten'. The first single and accompanying video fromTen, "Good Luck Trying", is a loud, raw, ‘70s blues rocker that pulls influence from Mr. Big’s earliest musical inspirations.
Eric Martin comments on Ten: “This new album doesn't copy anything from the 9 previous studio records its all new stuff from scratch.. this is raw, unadulterated riff rock and blues with all the Mr. Big trimmings.”
Paul Gilbert explains the meaning behind the lyrics: “Overall, it’s about being overwhelmed with life, and realizing that you won’t win many of the battles, but still fighting to the end. And keeping a sense of humor about it by saying to anyone nearby, 'Wish me good luck trying!'"
As a session musician and touring artist, Nick has worked with many different kinds of artists and bands, from Tears for Fears, Sheryl Crow, and Kevin Gilbert to Peter Gabriel and Eric Burdon and the ANIMALS. In 1996, Nick took Phil Collins's place in GENESIS and played on their 'Calling All Stations' album. He has also carved out a major presence in the progressive rock world with his bands, Spock's Beard and Big Big Train. Before joining the Sweetwater team, Nick spent almost five years touring with Cirque Du Soleil's "Totem" as a drummer, vocalist, and assistant bandleader.
The entirety of the album, recorded both live in the studio and on the tour bus, showcases the band's unique ability to compose homegrown hard rock ‘n’ roll and their consistent success in climbing new musical heights.
MR. BIG recently completed the South American leg of its farewell tour, dubbed The BIG Finish, which sees the veteran band performing MR. BIG's 1991 album, 'Lean Into It', in full and other cuts from the group's history.
When MR. BIG announced The BIG Finish tour last year, the band members said that it was "time to mark the end of this chapter of their legacy" after Torpey lost his battle with Parkinson's disease in 2018. The first leg kicked off in Japan and Southeast Asia in July and August 2023, where the band performed for hundreds of thousands of loyal fans at 11 sold-out shows including Budokan in Tokyo, Japan.
MR. BIG:
Eric Martin, vocals
Billy Sheehan, bass
Paul Gilbert, guitar
Nick D’Virgilio, drums
Mr. Big
were one of the few "shredder" pop metal bands (translation: the bandmembers were highly proficient at their instruments) that prized songcraft as highly as virtuosity. The seeds for the group's formation were sown when bass player extraordinaire Billy Sheehan, often called "the Eddie Van Halen of bass," left David Lee Roth's solo band in 1988. Shortly thereafter, he began piecing together a new outfit comprised of former Racer X guitarist Paul Gilbert, drummer Pat Torpey, and singer Eric Martin, the latter of whom had issued a pair of obscure solo releases in the mid-'80s. By 1989, the newly formed quartet had already inked a recording contract with Atlantic, resulting in the release of a self-titled debut the same year. Despite finding a warm reception among musicians, the album failed to cross over to a mainstream rock audience in America; however, Mr. Big was an immediate success overseas in Japan.
The quartet broadened its horizons on its sophomore effort, 1991's Lean into It, which included the melodic psychedelic rocker "Green Tinted Sixties Mind" as well as a pair of ballads that would become sizable singles: the number one smash "To Be with You" and the Top 20 hit "Just Take My Heart." Despite issuing further releases like 1993's Bump Ahead and 1996's Hey Man, Mr. Big were unable to sustain such commercial success at home, although the group's popularity continued to soar in Japan (resulting in countless sold-out tours and such Japan-only live albums as Raw Like Sushi, Raw Like Sushi 2, Japandemonium, Mr. Big in Japan, etc.). Gilbert split from the group in the late '90s to pursue a solo career and was replaced by former Poison guitarist Richie Kotzen. The new lineup issued a pair of studio recordings, Get Over It and Actual Size, before launching a "farewell tour" in Japan, which culminated in their amicable breakup in 2002.
In early 2009, with the 20th anniversary of Mr. Big's debut on the horizon, the original lineup appeared on Japanese radio to announce that the group would be reuniting. A reunion tour was launched later that year, resulting in the release of 2009's double-disc concert album Back to Budokan, and the band headed home in September 2010 to record a new studio album in Los Angeles. The resulting What If was released three months later in Japan, followed by an American release in early 2011. The Pat Regan-produced ...The Stories We Could Tell was released in 2014, and in 2017 Mr. Big issued Defying Gravity, their third release since reuniting in 2010 and ninth studio long-player overall. (Greg Prato, AMG)
This album contains no booklet.