Martika’s Kitchen is the second album by California pop singer Martika, and was released in August 1991. The album contained four tracks with writing and production input by Prince: Martika’s Kitchen, Spirit, Love... Thy Will Be Done and Don’t Say U Love Me.
Sessions and compiling
Prince became involved after Martika had already recorded most of the album. She had seen the Graffiti Bridge movie several times and had contacted Prince saying the movie spoke to her and reflected things she had written in her own notebook.
He recorded Love... Thy Will Be Done in December 1990 or January 1991, and submitted it to Martika. Her record company encouraged her to work further with Prince, and he quickly recorded further tracks : Martika’s Kitchen, Spirit and Don’t Say U Love Me. Martika simply replaced Prince’s vocals with her own in early 1991 (adding some additional lyrics, resulting in her co-writing credit), and additional instrumentation and background vocals were recorded by her musicians in New York.
One song recorded for inclusion on the album, Open Book, was not included, but was later released by Jevetta Steele on the 1993 reissue of her album Here It Is.
Open Book was written as a response to Martika’s song Safe In The Arms Of Love, which also appears on Martika’s Kitchen, and quotes passages from the song.
Promotion
The album produced five singles, Love... Thy Will Be Done, Martika’s Kitchen, Colored Kisses, Safe In The Arms Of Love and Spirit (promotional release only), and the album was a commercial hit worldwide, although a relative commercial failure in the USA.
It reached only number 111 on the US Billboard Pop Chart, but fared much better in the UK, reaching number 15 on the Gallup Album Chart.
In 2017, the album was remastered and reissued the following year in an expanded edition called Martika's Kitchen: Reheated Edition.
|