Lisa Loeb. Born in Maryland, raised in Texas. Graduated high school in my birth year (!!!), and attended Brown University - a smartie! While there, she met drummer Elizabeth Mitchell, and they formed the duo Liz and Lisa. (Duncan Sheik was their guitarist!) They released two albums independently, but parted ways after graduation. Lisa then went to Berklee School of Music, where she stayed for a few months; there, she formed a band called Nine Stories. She moved to New York, and gained a following with her acoustic sets.
While there, she lived across the hall from actor Ethan Hawke. They met through mutual friends, and Lisa gave him a track she had just cut. He took it to Ben Stiller, who was directing Ethan in Reality Bites, and pitched it as the film's 'theme.'
The rest was history.
Audiences reacted to Stay (I Missed You) with fervor, appreciating its mad rush of emotion, along with the Hawke directed single shot video. It went to number one, making Lisa the first artist to have a number one single without being signed to a record label.
Lisa's debut album, Tails, was released in 1995, accompanied by another top twenty single - Do You Sleep?
Then came time for the sophomore album. Lisa turned it into the record label, but they didn't think she had a single to lead it. She did. Their standoff led to this, Lisa's last big hit:
Stay is so good, but I have no idea what her other material sounds like
You might know "I Do" without knowing it's by her. I feel like it was featured on a few late-'90s/early '00s movie and TV show soundtracks (think Melissa Joan Hart-type movies and TV shows).
You might know "I Do" without knowing it's by her. I feel like it was featured on a few late-'90s/early '00s movie and TV show soundtracks (think Melissa Joan Hart-type movies and TV shows).
Just listened to it. I don't distinctly remember it. But it sounds straight out of a 90s sitcom, so I've probably heard it somewhere before in my childhood of TV binge-watching
Are we finally getting Shawn Colvin in this one? I'm ready for "Sunny Came Home" to snatch.
Shawn Colvin. Another New York transplant, coming the Great Plains. So Western, she was, that she was a part of a Dixie band; the experience led her to take a sabbatical from singing. Luckily, she changed her mind, and at 24, joined the Big Apple's Buddy Miller Band. She hung around Greenwich Village, which was the center of a Fast Folk revival. She did some Off-Broadway productions, and in 1987, was hired to do backup vocals on Suzanne Vega's Luka. That led to a tour with Vega, and to a major label signing.
Her first album - and Grammy nomination - came in the late 80s, but we'll start with her first Female Pop Vocal nomination: 1992's I Don't Know Why.
1993 brought a marriage, 1995 brought a divorce - perhaps that inspired her next album, A Few Small Repairs.
AFSP gave Shawn her biggest hit, a Song/Record winner by the name of Sunny Came Home.
I Don't Know Why
Get Out of This House
Sunny Came Home
Yes! Thank you for including her, especially the oft-neglected "I Don't Know Why."
And, I'm gonna ask again (though, as usual, you will probably ignore me ), is Sophie B. Hawkins, performer of the massive hits "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" and "As I Lay Me Down" going to be included in one of these things? I keep checking and waiting.
There could not have been a more Massachusetts singer that made it in the 90s than Paula Cole. Another Berklee alum, she studies jazz and was offered a deal by a jazz studio. She declined, but did accept a spot on Peter Gabriel's 93-94 US tour, replacing Sinead O'Connor. It also led to an album for Imago records (who, I believe signed Kylie around this time!), but ultimately with nothing when the album folded.
Perhaps it wasn't her time then. But it would be a few years later, when the strong female singer-songwriter vibe that had brewed on the underground in the early part of the decade boiled over into the mainstream. She was signed to Warner Bros., and released a second album that she produced entirely by herself. Her first single became an 'instant smash.' Perhaps you've heard of it.
Or maybe you've seen a show called Dawson's Creek.
To say Paula was the Belle of the Grammy Ball was an understatement. She received seven nominations, including "The Big Four" AND Producer of The Year. She won Best New Artist.
But that award is said to have a curse ...
Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?
I Don't Want to Wait
I Believe in You
Just listened to it. I don't distinctly remember it. But it sounds straight out of a 90s sitcom, so I've probably heard it somewhere before in my childhood of TV binge-watching
IKR? Sitcom or rom-com. It just feels like the song that plays over that scene where the female lead comes out of her apartment building, closes her coat (peacoat or raincoat), and walks out ready to face the world, as she is then joined by her two best friends (girl and guy) and the camera zooms away to show the city where their dreams are gonna come true.
I didn't even know Toronto had a Scarborough, but that's where Deborah Cox was raised! A singer from a young age, she landed her first commercial at twelve, and began performing in talent shows and nightclubs soon thereafter. At sixteen, she landed a big break singing backup for Celine Dion. She went looking for a deal, but every Canadian label told her they had reached their "quota."
Disgusted, she moved to LA. A few years later, she was signed by Clive Davis. #justice
Her first single was Sentimental, a minor top forty hit - but a top 5 smash on R&B radio!
Second single Who Do You Love? fared better, going top 20 on the Hot 100.
As a single in between albums, Deborah released Things Just Ain't The Same. As a R&B ballad, it did its midtempo thing, but it would mark a real turning point in her career - as the Hex Hector Dance Remix was much, much bigger.
As y'all mostly cannot handle nine minute epics, I've included the radio version of the remix.
But Deborah wasn't done with R&B - or, it wasn't done with her. Not quite yet.
Somehow, in the fall of 98, Deborah would go on to have the BIGGEST R&B single of that Billboard Year - Nobody's Supposed to Be Here. Co-written by Montell Jordan, it topped R&B radio for a (then) record breaking fourteen weeks. On the Hot 100, it peaked at number two - but stayed there for TWO MONTHS.
True story: A couple of ... urban girls choreographed a "hood ballet" rendition of this song at my junior high school talent show. #impact
Deborah would go onto have another afterglow top ten, a rather forgettable ballad with "RL of Next." (We Can't Be Friends) She was also ROBBED of the Female R&B Vocal Grammy by her future collaborator Whitney Houston.
Sentimental
Who Do U Love
Things Just Ain't The Same (Hex Hector Radio Remix)
Nobody's Supposed to Be Here
Something about Natalie Merchant's voice and music is so soothing to me. Like Mother Nuture herself picking me up and wrapping me in her warm arms (while singing Wonder of course ).
Queen of reassurance and comfort
___
Nice to see Paula and Deborah here too! The classics Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? and Nobody's Suppose to Be Here deserve their proper slayage in one of these rates