Oh Alanis! Decades later she's still such a huge presence here, her songs are played as recurrents on an almost daily basis. I'll love to get the chance to get into her since I admittedly haven't even heard Jagged Little Pill.
Also:
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But real impact? A decade and a half later, two of the most successful pop stars of their respective generation - Britney and Beyoncé - cover your song live, and make it a part of the setlist. One even does it on the Grammys!
But real impact? A decade and a half later, two of the most successful pop stars of their respective generation - Britney and Beyoncé - cover your song live, and make it a part of the setlist. One even does it on the Grammys!
The album from whence You Oughta Know came, Jagged Little Pill, sold eighteen million copies in the US alone - almost forty million worldwide. It also won Album of The Year, making Alanis (at the time!) the youngest musician to achieve that honor.
Well, until a certain country-pop chanteuse snatched that record from her.
It also launched six singles. We'll be focusing on YOK, and three more:
Hand in My Pocket, which got the Canucks back on board and went number one of the "Modern Rock" charts:
Ironic, a song that has no earth-bound relation to any dictionary definition of 'irony.' It became her biggest hit ever, and was aided by an eye-popping video helmed by visionary/ex-boyfriend of Kylie Minogue, Stéphane Sednaoui:
And perhaps the sweetest song on the record, Head Over Feet.
It wasn't released as a CD single (after five singles, what's the point) - but it did top the AC and Pop radio charts, so pretty sure it would have gone to number one! A stunner with the sixth single - hew else?
Obviously, after all that success, Alanis was spent. She took her time putting out new material, and didn't even commercially release her next "single," Uninvited. Written by her (solo!) for the film City of Angels, fans were ravenous enough to get radio to play it - and it topped the pop charts. It also won Alanis two more Grammys.
Later that year, Alanis put out her first official single from her new album - Thank U.
The video caused controversy because it featured a nude Alanis walking the city streets.
I also take a point, at least once a month, to thank disillusionment. And clarity. And to remember my divinity. Thank you Alanis!
Fun Fact: Alanis LOST the Pop Female Vocal Grammy award to the woman you'll see next - her fellow Canadian. SCANDAL.
You Oughta Know
Hand in My Pocket
Ironic
Head Over Feet
Uninvited
Thank U
Born in 1968, in Halifax, young Sarah had a love for music that she fortified with vocal and piano lessons. Coming out of them as a mezzo-soprano to be reckoned with, Sarah started writing and recording. In the late 80s, she joined a few bands, but eventually became a solo artist. Her first REAL breakthrough, in the US at least, came with 1993's still stunning. Possession.
An example of true female power, Sarah took a crippling moment - receiving letters from stalkers - and turned it into sexy, but never not sinister, music.
A few years later, Sarah became exasperated with the lack of support for female touring musicians, and set up a micro tour with Paula Cole as co-headliner. Some fans called it the Lilith Fair. It would go on to, in no small way, change the industry.
While on tour, Sarah premiered her newest song - Building a Mystery. Inspired by the little lies lovers tell, Sarah wrote it in an effort for a little more honesty on the dating field. Obviously that didn't work, but it did win her a Grammy!
Well DUH!
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I like these Alanis songs. I wanna participate but 82 songs
What you do is start listening now! Listen to each woman as I post her - not overwhelming that way.
Although, tbh y'all should know these songs like the back of your hand. Heaven knows I do!
Like Sweet Surrender.
The BIG hit was still eluding Sarah, though.
Until Adia.
Released in the spring of 1998, this song was MASSIVE. Like, I'm pretty sure there was not a WB or FOX drama that did not use it as part of an emotional montage at least once.
The song's message? Be kind to yourself. REMEMBER YOUR DIVINITY.
If My Heart Will Go On had not exploded, this would have been Sarah's second Grammy.
But Sarah got them all back with Angel. Oh, Angel.
Alias.
As The World Turns.
Cold Case.
Dawson's Creek.
Early Edition.
Felicity.
General Hospital.
The Pretender.
Providence.
Strong Medicine.
Not only did I WATCH most of these shows, but I vividly REMEMBER when and where I was when Alias used it. Like, Sydney Bristow had issues y'all.
The song was inspired by the heroin overdose of Smashing Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin, as well as Sarah's dismay at the emaciated models of the day. Those poor teenage girls gave Sarah mo' bank.
If you're Canadian, "I Will Remember You" is guaranteed to play in some form at your high school graduation.
Edit: Oop beat to the punch.
You mean the track that was originally on the Brothers McMullan soundtrack, smashing in your homeland but doing nothing in the US?
Until a live version was released five years later, SLAYING the charts and netting Sarah her second Grammy - beating Britney and Christina in the process?
Oh yes, I Will Remember You.
You know how, in the summer of 2013 every white girl went OFF when We Can't Stop came on? Or, last fall, how the club CHANGED when Blank Space started?
In late 1999, this was every white woman's SONG. Her Fight Song, if you will. A proto-A Thousand Miles tea.
Possession
Building a Mystery
Sweet Surrender
Adia
Angel
I Will Remember You
This was LIFE when I was younger. I was barely even in Kindergarten yet I knew every lyric.
My sister even had a Lillith Fair phase as she likes to call it where she cut off her hair and went out and bought Sarah her discography.