Release
In the months following Surfer Rosa, the Pixies' management fielded calls from a number of labels. Elektra Records A&R scout Peter Lubin first saw the band in October 1988, when they opened for The Jesus and Mary Chain. He immediately sought to convince the band to sign to his label. Pixies contracted to Elektra Records during a UK spring tour in 1989. Elektra followed by releasing a live promotional album, which contained two songs from their forthcoming album, "Debaser" and "Gouge Away", along with a selection of earlier material.
However Elektra had not yet attained distribution rights to the band's forthcoming album. 4AD, then a small British independent record label, held worldwide distribution rights to the Pixies, but did not have access to distribution outside of the United Kingdom; the band had had to import all its previous records from Europe. The Pixies' management sought international distribution; and while negotiations with Elektra and other record companies began in the third quarter of 1988, they were only completed just two weeks before Doolittle's release on April 2, 1989. PolyGram had already secured Canadian distribution rights by that time.
Doolittle was released in the United Kingdom on April 17, 1989 and in the United States the following day. Throughout the States, helped by Elektra Records' major label status, retail displays were constructed for the record, and "Monkey Gone to Heaven", the first single from the album, was released to radio stations for inclusion on playlists. Doolittle's chart performance in the United States was unremarkable; the album entered the Billboard 200 at number 171. However, with the help of college radio-play of "Monkey Gone to Heaven", Doolittle eventually rose to number 98 and spent two weeks in the Top 100. In Britain, the record reached number eight on the UK Album Chart. This chart placing was an unexpected success for the band, as their previous two records, Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, had failed to make such an impact on the British charts.
In June 1989, 4AD released "Here Comes Your Man" as the album's second single. It reached number three on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 56 in the UK Singles Chart. It was not the last single from the album: in 1997, "Debaser" was released as a single to promote the Death to the Pixies compilation.
Read more about this topic: Doolittle (album)
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