Ready to Fly (Melanie Thornton album) explained

Ready to Fly
Type:	studio
Artist:	Melanie Thornton
Cover:	Ready to Fly.jpg
Border:	yes
Genre:	Pop, gospel, R&B, alternative pop, Europop
Length:	51:40
Label:	X-Cell
Producer:	Mitchell Lennox Julien Nairolf

Ready to Fly is the only studio album by American singer Melanie Thornton. It was released by X-Cell Records on May 7, 2001, in German-speaking Europe after Thornton's departure as the lead vocalist of the Eurodance electronic music duo La Bouche. Taking her solo work further into the soul pop and dance pop genres, Thornton worked with chief producers Mitchell Lennox and Julien Nairolf on the album, on which she co-wrote six tracks. Other collaborators include Todd Chisolm, Jay Tee Rogers, Martin Mayer, Rob Tyger, Raúl de Chile, and Bobby Stalker.

Upon its original release, Ready to Fly was a lukewarm commercial success, debuting at number 18 on the German Albums Chart. Following Thornton's death in the crash of Swiss airline's Crossair Flight 3597 in Bassersdorf on November 24, 2001, the album re-entered charts, eventually reaching the top five in Germany and Switzerland, where it was certified gold in 2002, pushed by a 2002 re-issue of Ready to Fly which included her posthumously released hit single "Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)", a Coca-Cola Christmas promotional song.

Critical reception

Ready to Fly received generally positive reviews from music critics. Laut.de rated the album four out of five stars and wrote: "Truly tragic that such a promising solo career was brought to an abrupt end. Ready to Fly could have become a cult pop album in no time at all. At least it has what it takes."^[1] Allmusic gave the album two and a half stars out of five.^[2]

Track listing

All tracks are produced by Mitchell Lennox and Julien Nairolf; except "Back On My Feet Again," co-produced by Rob Tyger.

Charts

Year-end charts

Chart (2002)	Position
German Albums (Official Top 100)^[3]	65
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[4]	69

Release history

List of release dates, showing region, edition(s), format(s), record label(s), and reference(s).! Region! Date! Edition(s)! Format(s)! Label(s)! Ref.
Germany
Austria	May 7, 2001	Standard edition	Digital download, CD	X-Cell
Switzerland
Austria	November 26, 2001	New edition	Digital download, CD	X-Cell
Germany
Switzerland

Notes and References

Web site: Die Scheibe hat das Zeug zum Kult-Popalbum. laut.de. August 24, 2020. German.
Web site: Ready to Fly. Allmusic. August 24, 2020.
Web site: Top 100 Album-Jahrescharts (2002). Offiziellecharts.de. August 24, 2020.
Web site: Jahreshitparade 2002. German. swisscharts.com. Hung Medien. August 24, 2020.