Doo-Wops & Hooligans is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter and producer Bruno Mars. It was released by Atlantic and Elektra Records on October 4, 2010. Mars' writing and production team The Smeezingtons wrote or co-wrote all songs and serve as the album's executive producers. The usage of a wide variety of influences was noted, with critics making musical comparisons to Michael Jackson and Jason Mraz. Doo-Wops & Hooligans debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 and its lead single, "Just the Way You Are", topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks and became an international top ten hit. Two digital singles—"Liquor Store Blues" featuring Damian Marley and "Grenade"—were released to promote the album. An American headlining tour is planned, with dates starting in November 2010.

Composition and influences

Doo-Wops and Hooligans was noted for its diverse variety of influences, with elements of pop, rock, reggae, jazz, R&B, soul, and hip hop. Mars' sound has drawn comparisons to Michael Jackson, especially the album's "atmospheric" opener "Grenade" to "Dirty Diana", as well as to Jason Mraz. Other comparisons in style and sound made include "Grenade" to Kanye West, "Just the Way You Are" to U2, "Our First Time" to singer-songwriters D'Angelo, Al B. Sure!, and Sade, "Runaway Baby" to Little Richard, "The Lazy Song" to Sugar Ray, "Marry You" to The Beach Boys and Coldplay, "Liquor Store Blues" to Bedouin Soundclash, and "Count on Me" to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole.

Lyrically, many tracks have been described as "feel-good", carefree, and optimistic, including love song "Just the Way You Are" ("When you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while"), the friendship song "Count on Me" ("You can count on me like 1 2 3 / I'll be there"), and "Marry You", a song singing of a spontaneous marriage idea. In addition, "Runaway Baby" is a guitar-driven "snappy retro trip" and "The Lazy Song" is described as a "hymn to sloth" ("I be loungin' on the couch just chillin' in my Snuggie / click to MTV so they can teach me how to Dougie"). On the other hand, darker subjects are addressed in "Grenade", the album's masochistic heartbreak song ("Take a bullet straight through my brain / Yes, I would die for ya baby"), "Talking to the Moon" ("Talking to the moon... / In hopes you're on the other side") and the reggae track "Liquor Store Blues" ("I'll take one shot for my pain / One drag for my sorrow"). The experimental collaboration "The Other Side" was noted as the album's highlight, being the most complicated and having the best production.

Singles

"Just the Way You Are" was released as the album's lead single on July 19, 2010. It has since topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks, having sold over 1.7 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and has been certified platinum in the US and gold in New Zealand. It has also peaked at the top of the Canadian Hot 100, the Dutch Top 40, the Irish Singles Chart, the New Zealand Singles Chart, and the UK Singles Chart, as well as within the top ten in Australia, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The music video was directed by Ethan Lader and was released on September 8, 2010. Included on the album is "The Other Side", featuring rappers Cee Lo Green and B.o.B, earlier released as a single from It's Better If You Don't Understand.[28] The accompanying music video was directed by Nick Bilardello and Cameron Duddy, and was released in July 2010.

As promotional singles, "Liquor Store Blues" featuring Damian Marley and "Grenade" were released to the iTunes Store on September 21 and September 28, 2010, respectively. "Liquor Store Blues" debuted at number ninety-seven on the Canadian Hot 100 for the week of October 1, 2010. The following week, "Grenade" debuted at number ninety-two in Canada, and has so far peaked at number seventy-nine in the US. Another song, "The Lazy Song", charted at number eighty-two in the US the week of the album's release.

Release and promotion

Doo-Wops & Hooligans saw its premiere on MySpace on September 24 and was released to digital retailers on October 4, then to stores on October 5, 2010. A deluxe edition was released that includes two more tracks: a remix of "Just the Way You Are" featuring Lupe Fiasco and "Somewhere in Brooklyn", originally from It's Better If You Don't Understand. The deluxe edition also includes the music videos of "Just the Way You Are" and "The Other Side".

Mars premiered several of the album's songs during a performance at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City on August 25, 2010. He appeared as the musical guest for Saturday Night Live on October 9, 2010, alongside host Jane Lynch, and performed "Just the Way You Are", "Nothin' on You", and "Grenade". Along with OneRepublic, Mars is promoting the album, opening for Maroon 5 on the fall leg of the Hands All Over Tour beginning October 6, 2010. He will also support Travie McCoy on his European tour from mid-October through November 2010.

Critical reception

Upon its release, Doo-Wops & Hooligans received generally positive reviews from most music critics; it was given a normalized rating of 69/100, based on four reviews on the aggregate website Metacritic. Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt gave the album a B+ rating, praising Mars for his "instant-access melodies" and "sly snatches of dance-floor swagger", but noting weaknesses in songs deviant from his conventional pop and soul genres. Sean Fennessey of The Washington Post gave the album a favorable review, calling it "effortlessly tuneful" and a good start to a "durable career". Rolling Stone's Jody Rosen called the album "the year's finest debut" whose tracks "deliver pleasure without pretension". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times called Doo-Wops & Hooligans a "fantastically polyglot record that shows him to be a careful study across a range of pop songcraft", applauding its diverse range of influences. Darrly Sterdan of CANOE praised Mars' "romantic crooning" that "will have little girls over the moon in short order." and About.com's Bill Lamb called the album "one of the top debut albums of the year".

Of those who gave the album less-than-positive reviews, Tim Sendra of allmusic gave it a mixed rating, calling it "an uneven debut ... [that] doesn't tap into his potential as a writer or a producer". Sendra commended the earlier released song "The Other Side" as the highlight of the album, noting, though, that it "points to a direction Mars could have taken with the album but didn't". Eric Henderson writing for Slant Magazine criticized the album, saying it "manages to wear out its welcome about halfway through", calling it an attempt to "please just about everybody."

Chart performance

In the United States, Doo-Wops & Hooligans debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 for the week of October 13, 2010, selling 55,000 copies. The album debuted the same week on the Canadian Albums Chart at number six. The next week, the album dropped to number twelve in the US, with sales of 27,000.