simple:Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette (born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian singer/songwriter.
Alanis Morissette's 1995 American debut Jagged Little Pill became one of the most successful albums of all time. The raw intensity of the album's first single "You Oughta Know" led Morissette to be labeled the "first lady of rage", though the album itself contained only two songs that hinted at any sort of anger or resentment at all. Since the extraordinary success of Pill, Morissette's popularity has declined as singers Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera gained ground in the late '90s, though she is still one of the industry's premiere female singer/songwriters. Her latest album Under Rug Swept debuted at number one on the Billboard album charts and went platinum in less than two months.
Alanis Morissette was born on June 1, 1974, in Ottawa, Canada, to Alan and Georgia Morissette. She has an older brother, Chad, and a twin brother, Wade.
Morissette showed a love for singing and songwriting at an early age. When Morissette was nine years old, she went to the home of Olivia Newton-John, one of her idols, and said over the intercom at the front gates: "Hi...I'm Alanis...I want to meet you one day and I want to be famous, just like you." She wrote her first song, "Fate Stay With Me", at the age of nine also:
With the help of mentor Leslie Howe, Morissette released "Fate Stay With Me" when she was only eleven years old. It received moderate radio airplay, reaching stations as far away as Kansas.
When she was 12, Morissette auditioned for the Canadian children's television show You Can't Do That on Television. She won a role as a recurring cast member, but left after one season. With the support of her parents and a relentless desire to succeed, Morissette traveled to New York City with her childhood mentor Howe to meet with record executives, an experience she would later write about in songs such as "UR" (from the album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie):
In New York City, Howe helped Morissette land a spot on Star Search, a popular talent competition in America. Morissette traveled to Los Angeles to appear on the show, but lost after one round.
In 1990, Alanis Morissette finally inked a deal with MCA Records in Canada. A year later, she released Alanis, a pop-dance album that many saw as Canada's answer to Tiffany, Paula Abdul, and Debbie Gibson. At the time, Morissette was credited simply as "Alanis" to avoid possible confusion with fellow Canadian singer Alannah Myles. The album's first single, "Too Hot", reached the Top 10 on the Canadian charts, and featured these lyrics:
While in retrospect many fans may cringe at these lyrics, it is important to remember that Morissette was only seventeen years old at the time. Even now, Morissette says she does not regret that era in her life. In December of 2002, Morissette performed "Too Hot" for the first time in more than ten years in Toronto, Canada. Known as "Too Hot 2002", the song appears on many Alanis bootleg CDs.
Morissette was nominated for three Juno Awards: Single of the Year, Best Dance Record, and Most Promising Female Vocalist (which she won). She quickly released a follow-up to Alanis in 1992 entitled Now is the Time. The album attempted to move Morissete away from her first album's dance-pop sound, with little success. Now is the Time was a massive flop, and Morissette lost her recording contract with MCA. She became a punchline in Canada's industry circles, and no record company in the country was willing to take another chance on her.
By 1993, Alanis Morissette was a nineteen-year-old has-been. With nothing to lose, she moved to Los Angeles against the will of her parents, taking with her very little money and belongings. When a friend introduced her to producer Glen Ballard, Morissette was not signed to any record label and had no idea what kind of music she wanted to make, or even if she wanted a singing career anymore at all. The two began experimenting with different sounds in Ballard's home studio, recording the songs literally as they were being written. Despite Morissette's naivety, Ballard instantly knew that he was dealing with a nineteen-year-old wise beyond her years.
Morissette, however, was quickly growing up and gaining new life experience. On her way home from the gym one afternoon, she was robbed at gunpoint. A man rummaged through her bag while another held a gun to her head and made her lie face down on the pavement, but Morissette was only concerned about the book of lyrics she was carrying with her in the bag. To her relief, the lyrics were untouched. Most of those lyrics would end up on Jagged Little Pill.
She would later write about her move to Los Angeles in the song "Unprodigal Daughter" (from the album Feast on Scraps):
The turning point in their sessions was the song "Perfect", which took less than thirty minutes to write and record. The version that appeared on Jagged Little Pill was the first and only take of "Perfect" that the two ever recorded. Soon afterwards, Morissette and Ballard began writing and recording songs one after the other, most of which would go on to make up Jagged Little Pill.
The result was Jagged Little Pill, an album that was composed entirely of raw cuts and demo tracks. None of the songs that appeared on the album were intended to be final tracks. When a copy of Pill was sent to a Maverick Records executive, Madonna's record label immediately showed interest in Morissette and signed her.
In 1995, at age 20, Alanis Morissette released her first international album, Jagged Little Pill (lyrics). Expectations for the album were low, with record executives hoping that the album would sell about 250,000 copies overall and at least "get her name out there". The album debuted at number 118 on the Billboard 200 charts.
Fate stayed with Morissette, however, and dealt her a fortunate hand when a Los Angeles deejay stumbled onto "You Oughta Know", Pill's first single, and began playing it non-stop:
You Oughta Know quickly garnered attention for its use of the word "fuck". The word was not inserted randomly into the song for shock value; rather, it was used as an action verb. The video went into heavy rotation on MTV, and soon became Morissette's breakthrough single. Radio listeners were shocked, appalled, unnerved and delighted by the song. As one fan put it, "Finally, someone who's speaking for me."
Subsequent singles, including "Hand In My Pocket", "You Learn", and "Ironic" sent Jagged Little Pill to number one on the Billboard album charts. The record went on to sell 16 million copies in the United States alone, and its singles became some of the most recognizable songs of the late 90s.
Morissette, however, received heavy criticsm for the song "Ironic". The song asked the listener after every verse, "Isn't it ironic?", even though the verses described situations that were clearly not ironic. The song, however, was called "Ironic":
Morissette was also dismissed by some as a record industry puppet, mostly by cynics who were oblivious of the pure production of spontaneity that was Jagged Little Pill. She was attacked for collaborating with producer and supposed image-maker Glen Ballard, though Morissette was responsible for all of Pill's lyrics and much of the album's music, and many bands at the time featured members collaborating on songs, though only the front member ever received most of the credit.
Others called her sudden image change "calculated" and "greedy", ignoring the possibility of artistic growth Morissette may have experienced since she was seventeen years old. Despite this backlash, the album managed to garner six Grammy Award nominations. At the 1996 cermony, Morissette performed a moving rendition of "You Oughta Know", one that all but drained the anger from the song, leaving only an air of sorrow and despair. That night, Morissette won awards for Album of the Year, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album.
Later that year, Morissette embarked on a one-and-a-half year world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. The DVD Jagged Little Pill, Live followed Morissette most of the way.
In 1998, Alanis Morissette recorded "Uninvited", a song from the soundtrack to the motion picture City of Angels. The song was never officially released as a single, but received widespread radio airplay. Later that year, Morissette released Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (lyrics), an experimental album whose lyrics matched its wordy title. Morissette once again collaborated with Ballard, but this time she helped produce the album as well.
Most of the songs on Junkie went against traditional song formulas, including "The Couch":
and "I Was Hoping"
The album debuted at number one on the Billboard charts, and broke the record for most albums sold in a single week by a female artist. In 1999, the song "Uninvited" won two Grammy awards for Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. The first single off of Junkie, "Thank U", was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. That same year, Morissette released the live, acoustic album MTV Unplugged.
Fans today generally consider Junkie to be Morissette's best work to date. Critics, however, labeled the record as "wordy" and "verbose". Morissette herself has admitted that while her music is largely self-centered, her hope is that her thoughts, ideas and emotions will connect with listeners who may be going through similar situations. Most Pill fans avoided the ultra-personal, ultra-introspective Junkie in droves.
Also in 1999, Alanis Morissette appeared in the Kevin Smith film Dogma in the role of God. Smith, who claims to be a big fan of Morissette, asked her to be in the film several times. She turned down the female lead, and by the time her schedule allowed her to participate in the film, only the role of God was left. She also expanded her acting resume by appearing on the hit HBO comedy Sex and the City, and starring in the play "The Vagina Monologues".
In 2003, she appeared in the off-Broadway play "The Exonerated" as Sunny Jacobs, a death-row inmate freed after proof surfaced she didn't commit the crime. In 2004, Morissette will appear with Sheryl Crow, Natalie Cole, Diana Krall, Robbie Williams, Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd in the film De-lovely, a tribute to composer Cole Porter.
In 2002, after a four-year absence, Alanis Morissette released her third American studio album Under Rug Swept, with the noticeable absence of Junkie and Pill collaborator Ballard. For the first time, Morissette took on the role of sole writer and producer.
The album spawned the hit single "Hands Clean". The song's many layered lyrics brilliantly told the story of a young Morissette's affair with an older man from two points of views:
The album debuted at number one on Billboard, and sold over a million copies in the United States alone, even though only one song from the album received any substantial radio airplay. Despite eleven very well-done songs, Maverick Records only released two of them as singles, a move criticized by many fans.
The album was overlooked by the Grammy Awards, most likely due to its release date, but Morissette won yet another Juno for Producer of the Year.
In December 2002, Morissette released a dual DVD/CD combination package, Feast on Scraps, which included live footage from a Rotterdam concert and eight previously unreleased songs from the Swept recording sessions. It also showed what Morissette was like backstage and behind-the-scenes. One scene showed her pulling up beside a car loudly blasting the song "Hands Clean", and staring at the driver until the driver realized who was in the car next to her. Needless to say, the driver freaked out. Cameras planted around the studio also captured a headphone-clad Morissette struggling with the lyrics to "Surrendering" before breaking down into tears.
Alanis Morissette returned to the studio in April, 2003, to begin work on her fourth American studio album, entitled So-Called Chaos. She has already debuted the song "Eight Easy Steps" on NBC's "The Today Show". The exact release date is not clear, though Morissette is said to be eyeing a February, 2004 release.
Some of the songs Morissette recorded include "So-Called Chaos", "Knees of My Bees", "This Grudge", "Excuses", "Out Is Through", and the aforementioned "Eight Easy Steps":
A tentative tracklisting for So-Called Chaos was published in the Januaray 2004 issue of ICE Magazine (subject to change):
In September 2003, Alanis Morissette made headlines for supposedly exclaiming, "Thank you, Brazil!" after her show in Lima, Peru, though concert attenders clearly heard her say, "Thank you, bless you." Morissette later posted a journal entry on her website indicating that she did indeed say, "Thank you, bless you," but by then, damage to her reputation had already been done. The incident appeared on the E countdown, "101 Celebrity Oops".
Studio Albums:
Alanis Morissette has an official website
and a popular fan message board. A comprehensive list of her lyrics is also available here. A database featuring hundreds of images of Morissette, organized by category, is available here.Overview
The Early Years
A dream to carry me forever
This is all the hope I got left
Help me to get it together, now
I can sing or act or dance but I still won't get far
Unless you help me, please, to be a big star
And your fake identification
When they said, 'Is there something, anything
You'd like to know, young lady?'
You said, 'Yes, I'd like to know what kind of people
I'll be dealing with.'Alanis
You make your best shot, too hot too hold
Never too young, never too old
You gotta go for the goldMoving to Los Angeles
I hit the town reeling, forgetting all that came before
I felt primed and ready, once surrounded by the palms
I felt culture-shocked, but dissuaded, I was notJagged Little Pill
It feels so good, swimming in your stomach
Wait until the dust settles
-from the song "You Learn"
Wasn't able to make it enough for you
To be open wide, no
And every time you speak her name
Does she know how you told me you'd hold me
Until you died, 'til you died
But you're still alive
He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damn life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down, he thought, 'Well isn't this nice'
And isn't it ironic, don't you think?Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
I sink three-pointers and you wax poetically
-from the song "So Pure"
You see in getting beyond knowing it solely intellectually
You're not relinquishing your majestry
You are wise, you are warm, you are courageous, you are big
And I love you more now than I ever have in my whole life
'Goodbye sir, thank you for your business, sir
You're successful and established, sir
And we like the frequency with which you dine here, sir
And your money,' and when I walked by they said,
'Thank you, too, dear,' I was all pigtails and cords
And there was a day when I would've said something like,
'Hey, dude, I could buy and sell this place, so kiss it'
I too once thought I was owed somethingActing
Under Rug Swept
What part of your memory's selective and tends to forget?
What with this distance it seems so obvious?
-from the song "Hands Clean"
You're a kind of protege, and one day you'll say you learned all you know from me
I know you depend on me like a young thing would to a guardian
I know you sexualize me like a young thing would and I think I like it
So-Called Chaos
I wanna invite these so-called chaos that you think I dare not greet
-from the song "So-Called Chaos"
How to defer to men in solvable predicaments
How to control someone to be a carbon copy of you
How to have that not work and have them run away from youRecent Updates
Notable Works
Other Albums:
Notable Songs:
Stage and Film
External Resources