Purple (stylized on the cover art in its Chinese character 紫) is the second studio album by Stone Temple Pilots, released on June 7, 1994, by Atlantic Records. The album, building on the foundation laid by the band’s debut album Core, was a huge success for the band, selling 252,000 copies in its first week and debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart and remaining there for three weeks, eventually selling over six million copies. It spawned a number of successful singles: Vasoline and Interstate Love Song both topped the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and hit number 2 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, while Big Empty also cracked the top ten on both charts. Lesser known album cuts Pretty Penny and Unglued were also released as promotional radio singles.
The cover for the album features an animated photo of a child riding on a Qilin accompanied by a quintet of fairies above the creature and the child, taking place on a cloudy background. The album title is written as a Chinese character, zǐ (紫), on the cover, and nowhere else on the packaging (with exception of the UK and European limited edition vinyl release). Early pressings featured the Chinese character and band name printed on the CD jewel case cover itself.
No track listing appears on the back cover, which instead displays the image of a cake with the phrase “12 Gracious Melodies”. A similar theme was used for the band’s next studio album, Tiny Music Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop. On the cover of the cassette version of Purple, the child is holding the Chinese character in his hand, and it is not in the corner. There are two pressings of the actual disc in Purple CDs. One version has a close-up of the frosted flowers from the cake on the rear panel on it and another has dragon scales.
Tracklist:
- Meatplow
- Vasoline
- Lounge Fly
- Interstate Love Song
- Still Remains
- Pretty Penny
- Silvergun Superman
- Big Empty
- Unglued
- Army Ants
- Kitchenware & Candybars / Second Album
Stone Temple Pilots
Scott Weiland: lead vocals
Dean DeLeo: electric and acoustic guitars
Robert DeLeo: bass, backing vocals
Eric Kretz: drums, percussion
Additional personnel
Brendan O’Brien: producer, recording, mixing, percussion on “Meatplow”, “Interstate Love Song”, “Silvergun Superman”, “Army Ants” and “Kitchenware & Candybars”, guitar on “Kitchenware & Candybars”, mellotron on “Army Ants”
Nick DiDia: engineer
Caram Costanzo: assistant engineer
Bob Ludwig: mastering
Paul Leary: ending guitar solo on “Lounge Fly”
John Heiden: design
Dale Sizer: illustrations
Scott Weiland (October 27, 1967 – December 3, 2015).
