Release history - Charts
After the success of Sexy girl, Sabrina could now hope to record another single and, maybe, an album. As the projects were not lacking, especially on television either as host or actress, Sabrina had to put her young musical career on hold to honour her commitments. This short break allowed Cecchetto and his team to work on new songs with the hope of renewing the success of Sexy girl or even doing better. After a few weeks, Sabrina was finally back in studio with Cecchetto to record some new material (Hot girl, Get ready and Kiss me). At the same time, she was also working with another producer, Davide Romani, on 4 cover versions (Prince's Kiss, Patti LaBelle's Lady Marmalade,The Knack's My Sharona, Rod Stewart's Da ya think I'm sexy ?). Those songs were first destined to be performed on the famous Sandra e Raimondo Show in March-April 1987, a show Sabrina was taking part in, every week in March-April 1987. If it's impossible to confirm that all those tracks were initially supposed to be included in an album, the show was a good way for Sabrina's label to test her songs on the Italian audience. Strangely, it seems that Boys was a last-minute addition to the recording sessions. As a matter of fact, Sabrina declared in an interview a few years ago that the album was almost finished when Cecchetto and his team finally wrote this catchy tune which would bring her to the top of the European charts. Quite surprising as this album looks more like a collection of fillers quickly brought together after a huge and unexpected hit. Anyway, when Boys reached the Italian top 5, Sabrina's label decided to release her debut album featuring 9 tracks. Two songs had had very few changes (the intro of Lady Marmalade had been re-worked and the end of Hot girl was now fading out).
Sabrina's self-titled debut album was quickly licensed to many record companies across the world in 1987 (Europe, Japan…), 1988 (South America…), and 1989 (Asia, Brazil, Eastern Europe…). The promotion of the album (sometimes titled "Boys") was mostly different in every country. Between 1 and 4 singles were taken from it. In very few countries, Sexy girl had been the first single, but mostly everywhere (even in France or Germany where Sexy girl had been released), Boys was considered as the real lead single of the album. This huge hit was followed, in many countries, by Hot girl (in a remixed version) or Sexy girl (also in a new version). In France, Spain and the Netherlands, a fourth single was also released: Lady Marmalade or a Megamix. Unfortunately, no record company re-released the album with this bonus track.
The different releases used mostly the same tracklisting and the same picture sleeve (the one also used for the single Boys) of Sabrina, wearing a white swimsuit, like she would be coming out of her famous video-clip.
But some record companies decided to release a re-package of the original album. Her German label, Chic, decided to use another nice but less explicit picture and issued a tracklisting which strangely omitted the single version of Boys but featured one extended mix and one dub version. Moreover, when Hot girl entered the German single charts, the album was re-released, featuring the remixed version of Sabrina's (then) new single. The Malaysian company used the same tracklisting and the same picture but with a different artwork.
If the Mexican and the Korean releases used the standard picture sleeve, they featured the same tracklisting as the German album. On the opposite, Portugal released the standard tracklisting but used a different cover, probably the nicest one (a picture taken from the same photo session as for the German release).
In 1987, the new compact disc format was still rare in many countries, except in France, the Northern Europe and Japan. In Italy, very few copies of Sabrina were released on CD (using the Hot girl picture sleeve) this release became a much sought after item among Sabrina's fans. In Spain and Portugal the album was released on LP and tape only.
Mostly everywhere, the album had bad reviews and, obviously, it's true that it suffers from the number of quickly recorded cover versions and the weakness of some of the original songs. Even if the sound of the album is coherent (a collection of italo-dance orientated pop songs) in spite of being produced by two different producers, it's a bit too repetitive in the end. But if Sabrina is by far not her best record, it was probably her most successful album (except in Italy where Super Sabrina sold better) as the sales were boosted by the smash-hit Boys. The album reached the top 30 in France and Turkey but did better in Finland (#4) and Switzerland (#11). In Spain, the album released by Blanco y Negro during the Sabrina-mania, was certified "Gold" in spite of the huge number of tapes illegally imported from Portugal and distributed by Ciclón Musical in Madrid. Those tapes which were not bootlegs (but released by Vidisco, Sabrina's official Portuguese label) were sold 10 times cheaper than the Spanish tapes. Blanco y Negro sued the distributor and won the case after the police had found 10 000 illegal tapes in their shop in late December 1987.
In the other countries, even if the chart positions of the album are
not easy to recollect, the album obviously didn't climb very high. Sabrina was considered as a singles artist (or a one-hit wonder) and the album sales were a bit disappointing despite the success of the songs released from it.
Contrary to Super Sabrina, Sabrina's first album wasn't re-issued so many times. In 1988, Blanco y Negro, through the label Horus, published a tape which strangely omitted Sexy girl and Da ya think I'm sexy? In 1989, Vidisco in Portugal re-released the album on tape. This "classy" re-issue had a special artwork as the title "Boys" was like a tattoo on Sabrina's breasts...
In 1995, Arcade released in France (and in the Netherlands) the compilation Samantha & Sabrina which featured Samantha's biggest hits, Sabrina's first album and Angel boy. The songs of her debut album were licensed by RTI Music, an Italian label who decided to produce and release the album Remix 1996 one year later. If the idea of remixing the main songs of this album was interesting, the result was finally quite disappointing even if they were co-arranged by Matteo Bonsanto who had already worked with Cecchetto on Sabrina's first album. In 1997, RTI finally re-released Sabrina's debut album in its original version.
In the 1990s and the early 2000s, many mid-price compilations were released in Europe featuring the songs from Super Sabrina and the singles from the first album Boys, Sexy girl or, sometimes, Hot girl.
Charts
COUNTRY |
HIGHEST POSITION |
CHART ENTRY DATE |
CHART HISTORY |
Switzerland |
11 |
18/10/1987 |
15, 20, 11, 22, 21 |
France |
24 |
28/02/1988 |
30, 30, out, out, 24, 24, 30, 30 |
Finland |
4 |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Spain |
Unknown |
Unknown |
Unknown (Gold) |
Turkey |
20 (or higher?) |
27/06/1988 |
?, 20, 69, ? |