Faith No More "The Real Thing (Japan, Polydor K.K., P00L-20109)"

The Real Thing is the third studio album by American rock band Faith No More, released on June 20, 1989, by Slash and Reprise Records. It is the first album to feature singer Mike Patton, following the dismissal of previous vocalist Chuck Mosley. On this album, Faith No More continued to advance their sound range, combining alternative metal, funk metal, and rap metal.

Faith No More underwent several lineup changes before recording their first album, We Care a Lot, released in 1985 and distributed through San Francisco-based label Mordam Records. On the original vinyl release, the band is credited as "Faith. No More" on the album's liner notes, back cover, and on the record itself. Within a year the band signed up with Slash Records. The debut album's title track "We Care a Lot" was later re-recorded, for their follow-up album Introduce Yourself in 1987, and released as their first single. Membership remained stable until vocalist Chuck Mosley was replaced by Mike Patton in 1988.

The writing for the majority of the music for The Real Thing took place after the tour for Introduce Yourself. An early version of "The Morning After", with alternate lyrics written and sung by Chuck Mosley, was released under the moniker, "New Improved Song" on March 12th, 1989. The track appeared on the Sounds·Waves 2 EP included with Sounds magazine issue 1574. "Surprise! You're Dead!" was composed by Jim Martin in the 1970s, while he was guitarist for Agents of Misfortune, which also featured Cliff Burton in their line up. The recording of the song took place in December 1988 after Chuck Mosley was fired from the band, and was completed prior to the hiring of Mike Patton, who then wrote all the lyrics for the songs, and recorded them the following month over the music.

Producer Matt Wallace said that Patton wrote the lyrics over a 10 to 12 day period; this is considered an impressive feat considering Patton was only 19-20 years old, and "pulled it out of thin air". The only input from Wallace came during a few days spent at a San Francisco coffee shop, where he advised Patton to incorporate more metaphors to soften some of the darker, heavier lyrical themes. Among the darker lyrics on the album are "The Morning After", "Surprise! You're Dead" and "Underwater Love". In 1995, British music publication Q described all three of these songs as lyrically revolving around murder. "Underwater Love" has upbeat music which contrasts the apparent lyrical matter.

The recording sessions yielded several songs that did not appear on the album. Two of them, "Cowboy Song" and "The Grade" originally appeared in October 1989 on the B-side of the "From Out Of Nowhere" 12" single. Both songs were later included as bonus tracks on CD editions of Live at the Brixton Academy. A third song, "Sweet Emotion" was released on Flexible Fiend 3, which was included with the September 1989 issue of Kerrang! magazine (issue 258). The track was later re-recorded with new lyrics as "The Perfect Crime". The new version was released on the soundtrack to the film, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, which also featured a cameo appearance from guitarist Jim Martin The original version was later remastered for inclusion on the 2009 greatest hits compilation, 'The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection, that was released to coincide with the band's reunion tour.

The tour in support of The Real Thing was the first Faith No More tour conducted with Mike Patton. The band had begun to be marketed as metal by the media after the album's release, and they were now primarily playing with other bands from the heavy metal genre. Notable artists Faith No More performed with during the touring cycle include Metallica, Billy Idol, Soundgarden, Voivod, Sacred Reich, Forbidden, Primus, Babes in Toyland and Poison. They managed to attract controversy for mocking the party/sex-filled lifestyles of glam metal tourmates such as Poison at several shows in Europe during 1990. At a 1990 Monsters of Rock show in Italy, Patton asked the crowd "which member of Poison can suck his own dick?", and also made fun of Aerosmith, saying to the crowd "out of all the bands today, who do you think does the most drugs? I think it's Aerosmith." Ironically, Faith No More would later cover parts of Aerosmith's song "Walk This Way" on their subsequent Angel Dust tour, and were originally scheduled to go on a European tour with them in 1998, which was cancelled due to Faith No More's split that year.

In 1989, the second show of the tour was filmed for the music video to "From out of Nowhere" in the I-Beam nightclub. During the show, Patton had a beer bottle smashed over his right hand, causing lacerations to some tendons. He regained use of his hand after it healed, but he no longer has feeling in it. The band's August, 28 1990 concert at Burgherrenhalle in Kaiserslautern, Germany is notable for featuring the only ever performance of the song "Faster Disco" with Patton on vocals. The concert also featured several other Chuck Mosley-era songs which have almost never been performed live with Patton, including "Blood", "Greed" and "The Jungle". At that time, the band's first independent album We Care a Lot was not in circulation. "As the Worm Turns" and "Why Do You Bother" were the only songs from the album to be regularly worked into the band's setlists on the tour (aside from the title track, which was re-recorded for their major label debut Introduce Yourself). Regarding the decision to still perform material from We Care a Lot, Gould said to Metal Hammer in May 1990 that, "we'd feel weird cutting that part of ourselves off. We'd be ignoring a root of the tree, if you will."

During the tour, they covered parts of the Milli Vanilli songs "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" and "Baby Don't Forget My Number". Faith No More had earlier met Milli Vanilli at the album launch party for The Real Thing in mid-1989. Faith No More greeted Milli Vanilli at the launch party and told them that they were fans, but Milli Vanilli were unaware of who Faith No More were at that time. Other songs that Faith No More covered snippets from during the tour include "Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry, "Bust a Move" by Young MC, "Don't Dream It's Over" by Crowded House, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Elton John, "Get Up! (Before the Night Is Over)" by Technotronic, "Fever" by Peggy Lee, "Für Elise" by Ludwig van Beethoven, "If You Don't Know Me by Now" by Simply Red, "It Takes Two" by Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock, "Let Love Rule" by Lenny Kravitz, "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen, "Macho Man" by The Village People, "Oh Yeah" by Yello, "Paradise" by Sade, "Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John, "Pump up the Jam" by Technotronic, "Pump up the Volume" by M|A|R|R|S, "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2, "Turtle Power!" by Partners in Kryme, "Unskinny Bop" by Poison, "Vogue" by Madonna, "Y.M.C.A." by The Village People, "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" by The New Kids on the Block and the theme from the film Love Story by Francis Lai. They covered a snippet of "Carnaval in Rio" by Heino, but changed the lyrics to "Carnaval in Cologne" when playing it in Cologne, Germany, and to "Carnaval in Munich" when playing it in Munich, Germany. They also covered a song from a German candy commercial, which was by confectionery company Haribo, as well as a song called "Sweet Dreams" from a Nestlé commercial, with the band continuing to cover these two songs on the tour for Angel Dust. For outro music at their shows, the band once used "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong, while for intro music they frequently used Toto's Dune soundtrack song "Big Battle"

Touring in support of the album lasted from 1989 to mid-1991. Due to their small catalog at the time, the band eventually grew tired of playing songs from The Real Thing towards the end of the tour. This has been cited as one of the reasons for their change in sound on their next album, Angel Dust.

The first single to be released from the album was "From Out of Nowhere" on August 30, 1989, which failed to make the UK Singles Chart. It was re-released on April 2, 1990, and made number twenty-three on the UK Singles Chart. In between these releases was "Epic" on January 30, 1990, the music video for which received extensive airplay on MTV throughout the year, despite provoking anger from animal rights activists for a slow motion shot of a fish flopping out of water. "Falling to Pieces" then saw release on July 2, 1990, and made it to number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100 before the reissue of "Epic", which became the band's first number one hit single, on the ARIA Charts, as well their only top ten single on the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached ninth position.

"Surprise! You're Dead!" had a music video produced for it, directed by bassist Billy Gould, featuring footage shot in Chile during a South American tour in 1991. However, the song never saw release as an official single, and the video was not released until its appearance on Video Croissant. "Edge of the World" saw limited release as a two track promo single in Brazil on CD and 12" vinyl, with the album version as track one and the Brixton Academy live version as the second track, in a yellow slipcase with basic black text.

The Real Thing was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance category in 1989 and "Epic" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1991.

Tracklist:

1. From Out of Nowhere 03:22   
2. Epic 04:54   
3. Falling to Pieces 05:16   
4. Surprise! You're Dead! 02:27   
5. Zombie Eaters 06:00   
6. The Real Thing 08:13   
7. Underwater Love 03:52
8. The Morning After 03:43   
9. Woodpecker from Mars 05:40   
10. War Pigs (Black Sabbath cover) 07:44  
11. Edge of the World 04:10  

Time:  55:21

The first album to feature Mike Patton on vocals, previously of Mr. Bungle, with whom he would record again later.

The music for the album was fully written before Mike Patton joined. Mike wrote all the lyrics for it in two weeks.

Official music videos:

- From Out of Nowhere

- Epic

- Falling to Pieces

- Surprise! You're Dead!

Recording information:

Co-produced by Faith No More.

Recorded at Studio D, Sausalito, CA in December 1988.

Mixed at Blue Canyon, Studio City, CA in January 1989.

Mastered at K-Disk, Los Angeles, CA.

Matt Wallace – producer, engineer

Jim "Watts" Vereecke – engineer, assistant engineer

Craig Doubet – assistant engineer

John Golden – mastering

Lendon Flanagon – photography

Jeff Price – artwork

Terry Robertson – CD design

Faith No More "Epic (Single & Video)"

"Epic" is a song by American rock band Faith No More. It was released as the second single from their third album, The Real Thing (1989), in 1990 in the United States and Europe. The song was the band's breakthrough hit, peaking at number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100, number seven on the US Cash Box Top 100, number two in New Zealand, and number one in Australia for three weeks. It is among the band's most popular songs and a staple in their concerts.

Bassist Billy Gould said, "It was conceived naturally as a riff in the studio between Roddy, myself and Mike Bordin during rehearsal that later got fleshed out into an entire song." He also said that, after the disappointing performance of the album's first single ("From Out of Nowhere"), the record label had low expectations and let the band pick whatever song they wanted as the next music video (and thus, the next single). "So we picked 'Epic' because it just felt the most natural at the time. We had very little expectations of it becoming a commercial hit," said Gould.

The song has been labeled rap metal, rap rock, funk metal, and alternative metal.

Directed by South African Ralph Ziman, the music video for "Epic" features surreal images, which are combined with performance footage of the band soaked by an artificial rainstorm on a sound stage. The final shot is of keyboardist Roddy Bottum playing the piano outro on an upright model, which explodes in slow motion after he finishes and walks away from it.

Guitarist Jim Martin was a schoolmate, close friend and fan of the late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. In the video, he can be seen wearing a T-shirt with a photo of Cliff with the words "A Tribute to Cliff Burton". In addition, Mike Patton can be seen wearing a Mr. Bungle shirt that reads "There's A Tractor In My Balls Again".

The video was criticised by animal rights activists, as it features a flailing fish out of water. 

During an interview, the band joked that the fish seen flopping around in the music video belonged to Icelandic singer Björk, who at the time was the singer for the band The Sugarcubes, and they claimed to have stolen it from her at a party. There are also stories of Björk giving the fish to Bottum after a poetry reading in San Francisco. This was confirmed by the singer who defended the group, saying that "I know those guys, I know they wouldn't do anything to harm [him]. But I know, if I had gone home with MY fish, which was given to ME, none of this would have ever happened.

Director Ralph Ziman confirmed in 2010 that several fish were used during the filming of the video and none were out of water for very long. The fish were released following the completion of the video.

"Epic" was the band's most successful single in the US and was generally well received. According to Rolling Stone, it set a standard that Faith No More did not match with its later albums. Both the Philadelphia Daily News and Los Angeles Times praised the song, citing the song as "radio-ready" and "radical", respectively. However, The New York Times also cited Faith No More as "style-crunching," using "Epic" as their example. The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop annual year-end critics' poll ranked "Epic" at number five on their poll of the best singles of 1990, tying with Lisa Stansfield's "All Around the World".

Faith No More "Introduce Yourself (2004 Reissue, USA, Rhino Records, R2 79940)"

Introduce Yourself is the second studio album and major label debut by American rock band Faith No More, released in 1987. Due to the limited availability of the first album, We Care a Lot (until it was re-released on CD years later), many, including the band, once considered this Faith No More's true debut album. Being the group's major label debut, this album features better production than its predecessor, which is most evident on this album's version of the song "We Care a Lot," which is a re-recorded version of the title track from We Care a Lot. It is the final album to feature vocalist Chuck Mosley before he was fired from Faith No More in 1988.

"We Care a Lot" and "Chinese Arithmetic" were released as radio singles in the fall of 1987, in promotion of a tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Music videos were later made for the songs "We Care a Lot" (released in January 1988) and "Anne's Song" released (released in May 1988).

Faith No More's debut album We Care a Lot was released in 1985 through independent label Mordam Records. In late 1986, Faith No More was signed to Los Angeles label Slash Records by Anna Statman. The label had entered a distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1982, ensuring a widespread release, distribution and marketing for the band's forthcoming album.

Introduce Yourself was produced with Matt Wallace, who also produced the We Care a Lot album. It was jointly recorded at Studio D in Sausalito, California and at Ground Control Studios, which was located in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. While recording at Ground Control, the band stayed at the Tropicana Motel. The motel was used by many visiting musicians, and was demolished just a year after the band recorded Introduce Yourself. Since the motel was located in a crime-ridden area, the doors had electric locks at that time. Wallace said in 2015 that "[we] were out of our elements" recording in Los Angeles, since he and the members lived in the San Francisco area at the time. Wallace described the Tropicana as "pretty sketchy", and recalled that he stayed in the same room with guitarist Jim Martin and drummer Mike Bordin. This mirrored the recording of We Care a Lot, as Wallace had also stayed in a loft with the band while recording that album in Cotati, California. Wallace said, "I've never done that with any other band where we all slept together and worked together. We had a rental car and we drove to Ground Control together and that's kind of what we did." Wallace claimed one of the only rowdy things they did at the Tropicana was throwing lawn chairs into the motel's pool. The motel manager caught Martin and Wallace doing this and made them pay $400 dollars, in addition to forcing them to get the chairs out of the pool. Bassist Billy Gould also found the circuit breakers for the motel, and did a prank on the motel's staff where he turned the electricity and lights off, leaving them temporarily locked in their offices. Regarding the recording, Wallace reflected, "we weren't drinking or doing a bunch of weird stuff or at least I wasn't anyway. We were just kind of down there to work. Although I will say Chuck did get into something that got him pretty out of his mind during one of the days at Ground Control. He was absolutely just out of it." Wallace added that Mosley was high on "something or another" when they recorded the song "Death March". It included a spoken word skit at the beginning where Mosley is complaining about not having enough money for a bus, and wanting to skate to the beach.

The re-recorded version of "We Care a Lot" features updated, more topical, lyrics, and removes references to Madonna, Mr. T, Run D.M.C. and The Smurfs. In 2009, Chuck Mosley would go on to re-record the song again for his band Chuck Mosley and VUA and their album Will Rap Over Hard Rock for Food. This third version again had updated, topical lyrics, with Mosley saying in 2016 that the song's overall lyrical focus was on topical events. The title track "Introduce Yourself" was originally called "The Cheerleader Song". It was written on Faith No More's first nationwide tour of the United States in 1986, as they were on their way from South Dakota to Portland, Oregon, and driving through Missoula, Montana. Keyboardist Roddy Bottum became inspired to write the song when the band went to a truck stop for coffee. He came up with the lyrics on the next leg of the journey, while sitting in the passenger seat of the band's Dodge.

Regarding the song "Death March", singer Chuck Mosley said in 1988, "A friend of mine, doing a lot of drugs, just went out in the ocean and drowned. I used to be on the beach all the time and I got the feeling that he was so fucked up when he drowned that he doesn't even realise he's dead. He's out there, still swimming around. 'Death March' is someone talking to their dead lover, the soul lingering on."

Unlike with the band's prior release We Care a Lot, much of the album has been played regularly with Mosley's replacement, Mike Patton. However, there is only one known performance of "Faster Disco" with Patton on vocals, at a 1990 concert in Kaiserslautern, Germany. "Anne's Song" is one of three Mosley songs to have never been sung live by Patton, with the others being "Arabian Disco" and "New Beginnings", both from We Care a Lot. A reason it has never been performed with Patton could be due to its personal lyrical themes. Lyrically, "Anne's Song" revolves around a friend of Mosley named Anne D'Agnillo. She was originally from New York, with Mosley meeting her and her boyfriend in Los Angeles, Mosley said that, "she has always been a good friend — someone to call for advice." He added that, "[whenever] I'd get all upset or emotional or whatever, she would talk to me and tell me how easy everything can be. Just a pep talk, basically." Mosley still kept in touch with D'Agnillo up until his death in 2017. After 28 years of not being played, Faith No More performed the song with Mosley during two Californian shows in August 2016. These shows were done to celebrate the deluxe edition reissue of their debut We Care a Lot.

The closing track "Spirit" originated several years prior to the album's recording. An early version with different instrumentation was performed at an October 11, 1983 concert in San Francisco. This was the band's first ever show under the "Faith No More" moniker; the concert was released as part of a 1983 demo cassette called Faith. No More., which also had some early studio recordings. This original live version had much more prominent keyboard parts than the eventual album version, and is missing several of the lyrics from the album version as well. The version on Introduce Yourself has the lyric "She looked at me and did the bosa nova / I smiled at her and then just walked away / Then the lights came on and it was over / To my surprise, she wasn't a girl at all", which could possibly refer to an encounter with a transvestite woman. The lyrics also mention "the bosa nova" as if it were a dance or an action, when it typically refers to a musical genre originating in Brazil. Ironically, Faith No More would later end up recording a song in that style called "Caralho Voador", which appeared on 1995's King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime.

After the album's release, Faith No More joined fellow funk metal/punk band Red Hot Chili Peppers on The Uplift Mofo Party Tour. Faith No More opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the first two and a half months of the North American tour. Guitarist Jim Martin recalled: "We were travelling in a box van with no windows. We drove all the way to the east coast for the first show. Flea asked me if we liked to smoke weed. I said: ‘Yes’ and he said: ‘We're going to get along just fine’. We did something like 52 dates in 56 days." The band's future singer Mike Patton later became involved in several controversies and disputes with Anthony Kiedis, frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. To further promote the album, Faith No More embarked on their first tour of the UK in 1988. During the tour, the band covered parts of "Luka" by Suzanne Vega, "Life's a Gas" by T.Rex. and "With or Without You" by U2.

The album was originally released in April 1987 on vinyl and cassette. The album cover for this release is a centered ink splatter, with text to the extremes of the cover. The tape has a larger smear of the ink that looks more like a green spot. Bassist Billy Gould's initial idea was a red splatter, but the color was then changed at the request of the record label. The second release of this album was on November 15, 1996, through Slash/Uni Records, and also featured the centered ink splatter. The last North American release of this album was on October 17, 2000, through Slash/Rhino Records; they later released This Is It: The Best of Faith No More in 2003. This version has a close-up of the ink splatter with the wording a bit further from the edges.

Producer Matt Wallace claimed it was an "overlooked FNM record" in 2016. Louder Sound wrote in 2020, "Introduce Yourself is an irresistibly charming record [...] In the same way that Paul Di'Anno’s voice on early Iron Maiden sounds lovably rugged when contrasted with their slick later work, Chuck Mosely’s goofy, purposefully-underachieving vocals smother these songs in a huge dollop of infectious playfulness – something that Patton’s studied delivery could never quite emulate." While Mike Patton dismissed the band's debut We Care a Lot as "bad hippie music", he has admitted to having a fondness for Introduce Yourself.

The Introduce Yourself version of "We Care a Lot" has been used in various forms of media, including films, television shows, commercials and soundtrack albums. It appeared on the '80s-themed soundtrack album for the 1997 film Grosse Pointe Blank, in addition to appearing within the film itself. It also appeared within the 1996 Pauly Shore comedy film Bio-Dome, but wasn't included on that film's soundtrack album. It later appeared in the 2023 Marvel film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (in addition to being included on the film's soundtrack album), and was the opening theme for the television series Dirty Jobs in 2003. In 2022, it was used in an Alaska Airlines commercial.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Chuck Mosley, except where noted; all music is composed by Faith No More.

1. "Faster Disco" 4:16
2. "Anne's Song" 4:46
3. "Introduce Yourself" L: Mosley/Roddy Bottum   1:32
4. "Chinese Arithmetic" 4:37
5. "Death March" 3:02
6. "We Care a Lot" L: Mosley/Bottum   4:02
7. "R n' R" 3:11
8. "The Crab Song" 5:52
9. "Blood" 3:42
10. "Spirit" 2:52

Total length: 37:42

Recording information:

Recorded and mixed at Studio D, Sausalito, California.

Additional recording at Control Center, Los Angeles, California.

Mastered at K-Disc Mastering, Hollywood, California, USA.

Co-produced by Faith No More.

Steve Berlin – producer

Matt Wallace – producer, engineer

Faith No More – producers

Jim "Watts" Verecke – assistant engineer

John Golden – mastering

Lendon Flanagan – photography

Bob Biggs – artwork

Jeff Price – artwork

Faith No More "We Care A Lot (Single & Video)"

"We Care a Lot" is a song by American rock band Faith No More. There are three versions of the song, all of which have been officially released on three different albums. The original was released on the band's debut studio album, We Care a Lot (1985). A re-recorded version, with new lyrics, was included on the album Introduce Yourself (1987) and was the lead single, reaching No. 53 on the UK Singles Chart. The live version, with Mike Patton on vocals, was included on the live album and video Live at the Brixton Academy (1990) and released as a single in 1991.

It was the second most frequently-played song during the band's live performances, behind "Epic". "We Care a Lot" featured different lyrics and ad-libs when performed by Mike Patton, much like performances of "Chinese Arithmetic".

The original version of the song was one of the first five songs finished for We Care a Lot, recorded before the band received financial backing for the album, at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, California, and was re-recorded, with some updated lyrics, for their second studio album and major label debut, Introduce Yourself.

The lyrics of the song are a sarcastic parody of charity concerts such as Live Aid, especially "the popstar posing that accompanied those charitable events", according to Steve Huey of AllMusic. The song lists a range of things about which the band sarcastically claims "we care a lot", such as the LAPD, the "food that Live Aid bought", the Garbage Pail Kids and even The Transformers. The original version, released in 1985, mentions Madonna and Mr. T. This was altered for social relevance in the 1987 re-release. When asked about the song's meaning, Chuck Mosley replied:

Well, ah Roddy wrote all the things that he cared about and I just wrote the part that says, "it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it" 'cause I figured that's just the feeling I got. That's the only thing I submitted. That, and the newer lyrics in the updated version.

There was a seven-second-long ad-lib of "You Got It (The Right Stuff)" by New Kids on the Block on The Real Thing-era live performances, including the Live at the Brixton Academy version.

The music video produced for "We Care a Lot", directed by Bob Biggs and Jay Brown, was the first video produced for a Faith No More song and received moderate airplay on MTV.

As well as the appearing on the albums We Care a Lot, Introduce Yourself and Live at the Brixton Academy the song has appeared on every compilation and video album released by the band and has three different cover versions on the tribute to Faith No More compilation album Tribute of the Year.

Faith No More "We Care A Lot (1996 Reissue, Japan, Polydor K.K., POCD-1236)"

We Care a Lot is the debut studio album by American rock band Faith No More, originally released on November 30, 1985 and distributed through Mordam Records.

On the original vinyl release, the band is credited as "Faith. No More." on the album's liner notes, back cover, and on the record itself.

Prior to recording We Care a Lot, the band had released the single "Quiet in Heaven/Song of Liberty" in 1983 on Ministry of Propaganda Records. This release was under the name Faith No Man, with the band also releasing a three song demo in 1982 under the name Sharp Young Men, which contained the songs "Life Is Tough For Me", "Decay" and "Alive". Later in 1983, the band released a cassette tape which included demo recordings and their first show under the Faith No More moniker in October 1983. The following year vocalist Chuck Mosley joined Faith No More, following a string of short lived singers. The band initially started recording We Care Lot without backing from a record label and, after pooling their money, recorded five songs. This gained the attention of Ruth Schwartz (who was then forming the independent label Mordam Records) under which the band (after receiving the finances to do so) finished and released the album. The album cost $6,000 in total to make, with the band contributing the initial $3,000 and the other $3,000 coming from Schwartz. It was the first official release for the label.

In addition to having a small budget, the album was recorded in a short space of time. In a 2015 interview, bassist Billy Gould reflected, "there are probably things we could have done better, but at the same time I think that the performances were pretty damned good. And that had to do with us keeping focused and needing to work within those budget restrictions. We rehearsed quite a lot before we went in to record, so we were ready." It was produced by Matt Wallace, who produced the band's next three major label albums Introduce Yourself, The Real Thing and Angel Dust. Wallace went with the band to Prairie Sound in Cotati, California to record the album, and according to him, it was done over two three-day weekends including mixing. During the recording, Wallace and the band stayed in a one-room loft, which was across the road from the studio they were recording at. Wallace claimed the lower budget had an influence on the band's overall sound for We Care a Lot, saying in 2015 "the room we were working in didn't have a lot of isolation booths so I had to take Bill's bass and built like an echo chamber like 60 or 100 feet away from the control room. So we stuck his bass there and miked it up. Bill at the time liked to use a Peavey guitar head for bass and it was also solid state, which was really interesting and had quite a bit of punch and bite to it and even though I close-miked it, it still got some of that room ambience and of course we compressed it."

For We Care a Lot, Introduce Yourself and The Real Thing, guitarist Jim Martin used a Flying V guitar and a single Marshall half-stack. Wallace said in 2015, "that's all we had. So it wasn't like we'd [be] like, 'hey, let's try this guitar over here. Let's try that amp over there.'" Wallace added, "i think by the time we got to The Real Thing, he did have a Gibson Les Paul but that's it, man. There was no selection, choices or options. It was like, 'this is what we had and that's what we did.'"

Then-new singer Chuck Mosley had an equal role in writing the songs with the other members. In a 2016 interview, he described the writing process as being a "lot of collaboration". While Mosley wrote many of the lyrics, he said that Billy Gould, drummer Mike Bordin and keyboardist Roddy Bottum were the most significant contributors in terms of the music. While playing the album again during an August 2016 concert, Bottum remarked, "they're such weird songs, to us they are. [But] we believed in them so much when we were kids, we were so devoted to this weird sound, and it's really an odd thing. And Chuck was so weird"

One of Mosley's favorite songs from the album to both sing and listen to was "Why Do You Bother", a song he didn't write any music or lyrics for. It has a moody tone and uses atmospheric synthesizer sounds throughout. Mosley claims he came up with the chorus to the title track "We Care a Lot", which includes the line "it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it". Bottum and Gould were also involved with the writing, with Bottum coming up with the title and the idea to repeatedly chant it throughout the song. Lyrically, it mocks wealthy musicians getting involved with charity initiatives, such as with the Live Aid concert, which occurred in 1985 as a response to a famine in Africa. The lyrics also have various 1980s pop culture references, including the Garbage Pail Kids, Transformers, The Smurfs, Run D.M.C., Madonna and Mr. T. Mosley described its lyrical themes as "just [being about] current events, basically." When Faith No More signed to the Warner-affiliated label Slash, it was re-recorded for their follow-up album Introduce Yourself and released as their first single. This later version of the song was incorrectly listed with the parenthesis "(original version)" on the 1998 compilation Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Hits. On their next greatest hits album This Is It: The Best of Faith No More (2003), the mistake was corrected, with the parenthesis "(Slash version)" being added to the track. The re-recorded version has Bottum's synthesizers featured less prominently in the mix, and for unknown reasons, also removed the references to The Smurfs, Run D.M.C., Mr. T. and Madonna (who was signed to a Warner-owned label at the time).

Mosley mentioned "Mark Bowen" as being another of his favorites from the record, along with "Why Do You Bother", but noted that it was difficult for him to sing live. The song was titled after an early Faith No More/Faith No Man guitarist of the same name.

The truth behind "the Mark Bowen" song, is that prior to having a permanent singer, the band named their songs after persons, places, or things that were around when the music was formulated, rather than naming them song A or song B, etc. There were no lyrics and therefore no real song name. When the boys sent a tape to LA, so that Chuck could write some lyrics for his upcoming stint as singer, he made up lyrics for the song that was labeled as, "Mark Bowen". I had spent a day or so with Chuck prior to that, but he did not really know me. He just made up a song. I'm happy to have my 15 minutes of fame from that, ha!

— Mark Bowen

"Jim" is a short acoustic interlude that begins with a conversation Jim Martin is having with Mike Bordin. Bordin says to Martin "don't play it", with Martin saying "I'll play it all fucking night". Some believed the words at the beginning have Bordin saying "don't blow it", and Martin responding with "I'll blow it all fucking night". The track "Arabian Disco" is a mix of dance music and heavy metal guitars, with AllMusic calling it a "near dance track", and one of the highlights on the album. It shares a similar title to "Faster Disco", from Faith No More's next album Introduce Yourself, and is one of only three Mosley era songs to have never been sung live by the band's next singer Mike Patton. Among the other three is the album's closing track "New Beginnings", and the Introduce Yourself single "Anne's Song". After roughly 30 years, "Arabian Disco" and "New Beginnings" were finally performed live again in California during August 2016, as part of Faith No More's two show reunion with Chuck Mosley, which was done to celebrate the album's deluxe edition reissue. "Arabian Disco" has been included on the compilations This Is It: The Best of Faith No More, Epic and Other Hits (2005) and Midlife Crisis: The Very Best of Faith No More (2010), despite never having been released as a single. It and "As the Worm Turns" are Faith No More's only recordings from We Care a Lot to have ever been included on any of Warner's compilations for the band, with "As the Worm Turns" being included on Midlife Crisis: The Very Best of Faith No More. The band's other compilations Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Hits, The Platinum Collection (2006), The Works (2008) and The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection (2009) all featured no recordings from We Care a Lot, despite a few of these compilations having many deep cuts from the band's catalog along with the hit singles. The fact that only "Arabian Disco" and "As the Worm Turns" have ever been included on any of the compilations could possibly be as the result of a deal between the band and Warner.

"As the Worm Turns" opens with a piano solo from Bottum. It is one of the songs on We Care a Lot to have a more straightforward lyrical meaning, with the lyrics revolving around a depressed, unemployed person. The title is a reference to the soap opera show As the World Turns and the phrase "the worm turns", which is used to talk about how a situation can suddenly change so that a person who has been weak, unlucky and unsuccessful can become strong, lucky and successful. In a 2016, Mosley said "As the Worm Turns" was "just social commentary on being responsible for your own situation". He wrote some of the lyrics for the song on stage during early shows with Faith No More, and believed the lyrical themes organically came about through the band's association with the San Francisco punk scene, which he said was more "hippie" and less "hardcore" than the Los Angeles punk scene. Along with the title track, it was one of only two songs from the album that were still being regularly performed with Patton when Faith No More broke up in 1998, and was the last song played at Faith No More's original final show in Portugal during April 1998. The band recorded a studio version with Patton during the sessions for 1992's Angel Dust. This version has a shorter piano solo at the beginning, and also incorporates DJ scratches. Originally, it had only ever been available on a Japanese edition of Angel Dust, and as a B-side for the "Midlife Crisis" single. In a 1992 interview, Gould said they weren't doing much with the re-recorded version out of spite, since they didn't want Mosley to earn any further royalties from the song. In this interview, Gould was referring to how Mosley had tried to sue the band shortly after he left and they experienced success with 1989's The Real Thing, claiming a partnership interest in Faith No More's financial assets. The re-recorded "As the Worm Turns" was eventually included on a 2015 deluxe edition for Angel Dust, which was done by Warner without the band's input, unlike with the 2016 deluxe edition of We Care a Lot.

The track "Greed" lyrically revolves around Chuck Mosley's perceived lack of talent as a singer. It includes the lines "over the hills they came from the valley making innuendos about my lack of talent" and "they say that when I'm supposed to be singing, all I'm really doing is yelling". Ironically, the band's next singer Mike Patton would go on to be listed as having the highest octave range in all of popular music. During Faith No More's original run, Patton only sang "Greed" live once, at an August 1990 show in Kaiserslautern, Germany. This show also included several other Mosley era songs that were almost never played with Patton, including "The Jungle" (which is only known to have been played a single other time with Patton in 1989) and "Faster Disco" (which has never been played with Patton at any other shows). After Faith No More's reunion in 2009, "Greed" was played with Patton during a July 2012 show at the Hammersmith Apollo in London.

Mike Patton labelled the album as "bad hippie music". However, his Mr. Bungle bandmate Trey Spruance was a fan. When Spruance joined Faith No More for their 1995 album King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, he suggested that the band return to the sound they had on We Care a Lot.

The title track was interloped on MC Hammer's 1990 song "Prayer", while the Red Hot Chili Peppers covered a snippet of it during a show in 2014. In 1994, snippets of "We Care a Lot" were also covered live by L7, who toured with Faith No More and were labelmates of theirs at Slash Records in the 1990s. Korn released a cover of "We Care a Lot" in 2016, with singer Jonathan Davis also mentioning the album itself as one of his favorites from the band, along with The Real Thing. Korn's cover was originally intended to appear on a 2005 covers album titled Korn Kovers, but the album never got finished. In 2020, a collaborative cover of the song was released, featuring members of Anthrax, Brutal Truth, Czarface, Filter, Korn, Mastodon, Men Without Hats, Quicksand, Refused, Run-DMC, Slaves on Dope and Our Lady Peace. The cover was put together by Slaves on Dope vocalist Jason Rockman, a longtime fan of the band who had also worked as a radio host in Canada.

In 2002, a tribute album for Faith No More called Tribute of the Year was released. It featured covers of "As the Worm Turns" by Yellow #1 and "Why Do You Bother" by New Grenada. The title track was covered by three different bands on the album; Die:schon, Esper's Obsession and Parallax 1. In 2014, a lullaby version of "As the Worm Turns" was released by music collective Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star, as part of an album of lullaby covers for Faith No More.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Faith No More.

1. "We Care a Lot" 4:08
2. "The Jungle" 3:10
3. "Mark Bowen" 3:33
4. "Jim" 1:16
5. "Why Do You Bother" 5:39
6. "Greed" 3:50
7. "Pills for Breakfast" 2:59
8. "As the Worm Turns" 3:11
9. "Arabian Disco" 3:16
10. "New Beginnings" 3:46

Total length: 34:51

Japanese CD release. CD is housed in a standard jewel case. 

Artwork includes front booklet with some pictures and English lyrics, fold-out inlay with Japanese liner notes, rear insert, and unique obi strip.

Recording information:

Recorded at Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati, California.

Mastered at K Disc Mastering, Hollywood, California, USA.

Matt Wallace – producer

Olga Gerrard – artwork, cover, graphics

Joan Osato – photos