| A Biography | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Johnny Cougar |
| Cover: | A_biography.JPG |
| Released: | March 6, 1978 |
| Recorded: | 1977–78 |
| Studio: |
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| Genre: | Rock, heartland rock |
| Length: | 42:58 |
| Label: | Riva |
| Producer: | John Punter |
| Prev Title: | Chestnut Street Incident |
| Prev Year: | 1976 |
| Next Title: | John Cougar |
| Next Year: | 1979 |
A Biography is the second album by the American musician Johnny Cougar.[1] Recorded in London, it was released in the UK and Australia by Riva Records on March 6, 1978.
Due to poor sales of Mellencamp's debut album, Chestnut Street Incident, A Biography did not receive a U.S. release upon its 1978 debut. Two of its tracks, "Taxi Dancer" and the single "I Need a Lover," were also included on his 1979 album John Cougar, which was released in the U.S.
In Australia, however, "I Need a Lover" became a Top 10 hit, giving Mellencamp his first taste of success. The song would eventually crack the Top 40 in the U.S. in late 1979 when released as a single from his John Cougar album. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "I Need a Lover" as Mellencamp's "first good song."[2]
A Biography, along with all Mellencamp's other Riva Records/Mercury Records albums, were remastered and re-released in 2005, marking the first time A Biography was released in the United States.
Mellencamp has often spoken negatively about his early albums, and A Biography is no exception. He stated in Tim Holmes’ 1986 biography: “A Biography is so bitter. I mean I don’t even like to listen to it. I can’t believe it’s me. The songs were written in ’76 or ’77. The lyrics were real awful. They were real ‘I hate you. I hate this.’ And that’s the way I felt at that time."