One of the Boys Song Sorter

About One of the Boys

This is the one that started it all, out on June 17, 2008. It's technically her second album - the first, a gospel record, came out when she was 16 - but this was the first as Katy Perry. She'd already been signed to and dropped from a label deal without releasing a thing, and she said she'd been working on these songs since she was 18. Unused ones went to other artists, and she co-wrote everything here. Thinking of You, Mannequin and the title track she wrote alone.

Jason Flom, then head of Capitol, put her in sessions with Dr. Luke and Max Martin, and that's where I Kissed a Girl and Hot N Cold came from. The rest of the album was built from older material, recorded at around 15 studios across Los Angeles, New York, Surrey and Glasgow. Ur So Gay had been a buzzy promo single the year before.

I Kissed a Girl went to number one in the US, and Hot N Cold peaked at number 3. Waking Up In Vegas and Thinking of You followed as singles. The album itself debuted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 with 47,000 copies, a modest start - it kept selling for years, and the RIAA now has it at 3x Platinum. Both of those big singles were Grammy-nominated.

The two Deluxe tracks, A Cup of Coffee and I Think I'm Ready, are the 2023 remasters from the 15th anniversary edition. With them it's 14 songs and about three minutes to sort.