Jagged Little Pill

Jagged Little Pill
Studio album by Alanis Morissette
Released	June 13, 1995
Recorded	1994–1995 at Westlake Recording Studios and Signet Sound, Hollywood
Genre	Alternative rock, post-grunge
Length	57:23
Label	Maverick, Reprise
Producer	Glen Ballard
Alanis Morissette chronology
Now Is the Time (1992) Jagged Little Pill (1995) Space Cakes (1995)
Singles from Jagged Little Pill
"You Oughta Know" Released: July 6, 1995 "Hand in My Pocket" Released: October 31, 1995 "Ironic" Released: February 27, 1996 "You Learn" Released: July 9, 1996 "Head over Feet" Released: September 16, 1996 "All I Really Want" Released: December 1995

Jagged Little Pill is the Alanis Morissette's 3rd studio album. It was her first internationally released album. It has sold over 33 million copies worldwide. Co-written with the album's producer, Glen Ballard, who introduced a pop sensibility to Morissette's bitter angst,

Morissette started recording the album after moving to Toronto, Canada until she traveled to Los Angeles where she met the producer Glen Ballard, who was the only producer for the album. The album had charting success worldwide, peaking at number one in her native Canada for 24 weeks (three weeks in late 1995, an unbroken 19-week run in 1996 and two separate weeks later in the year) as well as reaching number one on the U.S. [[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard 200, staying there for twelve non-consecutive weeks. By 2009, the album had sold over 33 million units/copies worldwide, topping the charts in ten countries, including the UK, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Finland and the Netherlands among them and even ranked in the top 100 on the countries' best selling of all time lists. Billboard further ranked the album as the number one Best Selling album of 1990's.

Background

Neither of Morissette's first two albums (Alanis and Now Is the Time) achieved much success outside of Canada. In 1993 after leaving MCA Records Canada, Morissette moved from her home town of Ottawa to Toronto. Living alone for the first time in her life, she met with a bevy of songwriters, but the results frustrated her. A visit to Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville a few months later also proved fruitless. Morissette began making trips to Los Angeles and working with as many musicians as possible, in the hopes of meeting a collaborator. During this time, she met producer and songwriter Glen Ballard. According to Ballard, the connection was "instant", and within 30 minutes of meeting each other they had begun experimenting with different sounds in Ballard's home studio in San Fernando Valley, California. Ballard and Morissette penned their first song together, called "The Bottom Line". The turning point in their sessions was the song "Perfect", which was written and recorded in 20 minutes. Morissette improvised the lyrics on the spot, and Ballard played guitar. The version of the song that appeared on Jagged Little Pill was the only take that the pair recorded.

Morissette later revealed that during her stay in L.A., she was robbed on a deserted street by a man with a gun. After the robbery, Morissette developed an intense and general angst and suffered daily panic attacks. She was hospitalized and attended psychotherapy sessions, but it didn't improve her emotional status. As Morissette later revealed in interviews, she focused all her inner problems on the soul-baring lyrics of the album for her own health. According to Morissette, Ballard was the first collaborator who encouraged her to express her emotions.

Development and recording

The demo recording sessions started in 1994 at Ballard's home studio and included only Morissette and the producer, who recorded the songs as they were being written. Ballard provided the rough tracks, playing the guitars, keyboards and programming drum machines, and Morissette played harmonica. The duo sought to write and record one song a day, in twelve- or sixteen-hour shifts, with minimal overdubbing later. All of Morissette's singing on the album respects that rule, and it was recorded in one or two takes each. The tracks that were redone later in a professional studio used the original demo vocals.

The first song to be shown to A&R and record company people was "Perfect", with a simple arrangement containing only Morissette's vocals and Ballard's acoustic guitar. In 1995, around the time that Morissette penned a deal with Maverick Records, the couple took the demos to a studio and started building some new band arrangements for some of them. During the overdub sessions, Michael Balzary|Flea and Dave Navarro (then Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmates) appeared at the studio, discovered Morissette's work, and offered to play on "You Oughta Know".

Demo tracks

Demos of several tracks, including "You Oughta Know," "Ironic," "Head Over Feet," "Forgiven," "Mary Jane" and "Right Through You," as well as two unreleased songs, "Superstar Wonderful Weirdos" and "No Avalon," have been made available by fans. Two other songs, "Keep the Radio On" and "The Bottom Line," are known by a set of handwritten lyrics once auctioned on eBay and a clip of the song played on Behind the Music.

Release

Jagged Little Pill was released on June 13, 1995 in the United States, with a worldwide release after that.

Commercial response

Jagged Little Pill was one of the most successful albums in the 1990s.

Morissette had later toured for the album, with promotion as well. It was told that due to the success of the album, Morissette had toured the worldwide for a total of 18 months for the album. A DVD and VHS was released, under the title Jagged Little Pill, Live. That had received positive reviews from music critics as well. The tour had spanned from different countries (which was eventually featured on the VHS) where she had travelled to Australia, New Zealand, Germany, United Kingdom, South America, Asia, United States and her native Canada. It had won a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video.

Singles

• "You Oughta Know" written by Alanis and Glen Ballard.
• "Hand In My Pocket"
• "Ironic"
• "You Learn"
• "Head over Feet"
• "All I Really Want"

Legacy

Social impact and acoustic re-release

As of 2009, it has sold 33 million copies worldwide.

In 2005 Morissette re-released an acoustic version of the album, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, on the tenth anniversary of the original album's release. This album was originally sold through Starbucks' Hear Music brand in an exclusive six-week deal that ended on July 26, 2005. For the duration of this partnership, music retailer HMV boycotted the sale of Morissette's entire catalogue in Canada. It is one of the most successful 1990's albums in music history. The album was released on June 15, 2005, ten years to the day after the original United States release. The artwork of the acoustic version is similar to the original version, but is sepia tinted instead.

Accolades, nominations and awards

The album was nominated for six Grammy Awards in 1996, and Morissette won "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance", "Best Rock Song", "Best Rock Album", and "Album of the Year" (she won all but "Best New Artist" and "Song of the Year"). Up until 2010 she held the record for being the youngest person to receive the Album of the Year award, at age 21, which was later broken by Taylor Swift. Later that year, she embarked on an 18-month world tour in support of Jagged Little Pill, beginning in small clubs and ending in large venues. In 1997 she was nominated for two more Grammy Awards: "Record of the Year" and "Best Music Video, Short Form" for "Ironic". The video Jagged Little Pill, Live, which chronicled the bulk of the tour, won a 1998 Grammy Award for "Best Long Form Music Video". In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Jagged Little Pill the 19th greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 327 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Alanis Morissette, all music composed by Morissette and Glen Ballard.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"All I Really Want"	4:45
2.	"You Oughta Know"	4:09
3.	"Perfect"	3:08
4.	"Hand in My Pocket"	3:42
5.	"Right Through You"	2:56
6.	"Forgiven"	5:00
7.	"You Learn"	4:00
8.	"Head over Feet"	4:27
9.	"Mary Jane"	4:41
10.	"Ironic"	3:50
11.	"Not the Doctor"	3:48
12.	"Wake Up"	4:54
13.	"You Oughta Know (Jimmy the Saint Blend)" + "Your House (a cappella)" (hidden track which appears on all CDs and cassette releases)	8:13
Total length:		57:23

Personnel

The following people contributed to Jagged Little Pill:

Alanis Morissette – harmonica, vocals Glen Ballard – guitar, keyboards, programming, producer, engineer, mixing Dave Navarro – guitar on "You Oughta Know" Basil Fung – guitar Michael Landau – guitar Joel Shearer – guitar Lance Morrison – bass on "Perfect", "Right Through You", "Forgiven", "Mary Jane", "Ironic", "Wake Up" Flea – bass on "You Oughta Know" Michael Thompson – organ Benmont Tench – organ

Rob Ladd – percussion, drums Matt Laug – drums Gota Yashiki – groove Activator on "All I Really Want" Ted Blaisdell – additional engineering David Schiffman – additional engineering Victor McCoy – assistant engineer Rich Weingart – assistant engineer Chris Fogel – engineering and mixing Francis Buckley – additional mixing Jolie Levine – production coordination Chris Bellman – mastering Tom Recchion – art direction, design John Patrick Salisbury – photography

External links

• Jagged Little Pill (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)
• Jagged Little Pill (U.S. Version) (Adobe Flash) at Myspace (streamed copy where licensed)

{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}

{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}

{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}

{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}

{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}

{{{header}}}
{{{body}}}