Sheryl Crow's fresh, updated spin on classic roots rock made her one of the
most popular mainstream rockers of the '90s. Her albums were loose and eclectic
on the surface,
yet were generally tied together by polished, professional songcraft.
Sheryl Crow's sunny, good-time rockers and world-weary ballads were radio staples
for much of the '90s, and she was a perennial favorite at Grammy time. Although
her songwriting style was firmly anchored to the rock tradition, she wasn't a
slave to it -- her free-associative, reference-laden poetry could hardly have
been the product of any era but the '90s. Her production not only kept pace with
contemporary trends, but sometimes even pushed the envelope of what sounds could
be heard on a classicist rock album, especially on her self-titled sophomore
effort. All of this made
Sheryl Crow one of the most dependable stars of the decade, and she showed no signs
of relinquishing her hard-won success in the new millennium.
Sheryl Suzanne Crow was born February 11, 1962, in Kennett, MO. Her parents
had both performed in swing orchestras, her father on trumpet and her mother as
a singer; her mother was also a piano teacher, and ensured that all her
daughters learned the instrument starting in grade school.
Sheryl Crow wrote her first song at age 13, and majored in music at the University
of Missouri, where she also played keyboards in a cover band called
Cashmere. After graduating, she spent a couple of years in St. Louis working
as a music teacher for autistic children. She sang with another cover band,
P.M., by night, and also recorded local advertising jingles on the side. In
1986,
Sheryl Crow packed up and moved to Los Angeles to try her luck in the music
business. She was able to land some more jingle-singing assignments, and got her
first big break when she successfully auditioned to be a backup singer on
Michael Jackson's international Bad tour. In concert, she often sang the
female duet part on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," and was inaccurately rumored
by the tabloids to have been
Jackson's lover. After spending two years on the road with
Jackson,
Sheryl Crow resumed her search for a record deal, but found that record companies
were only interested in making her a dance-pop singer, which was not at all to
her taste.
Frustrated,
Sheryl Crow suffered a bout of severe depression that lasted around six months. She
revived her career as a session vocalist, however, and performed with the likes
of
Sting,
Rod Stewart,
Stevie Wonder,
Foreigner,
Joe Cocker,
Sinead O'Connor, and
Don Henley, the latter of whom she toured with behind The End of the
Innocence. She also developed her songwriting skills enough to have her
compositions recorded by the likes of
Wynonna Judd,
Celine Dion, and
Eric Clapton. Thanks to her session work, she made a connection with
producer Hugh Padgham, who got her signed to A&M. Padgham and
Sheryl Crow went into the studio in 1991 to record her debut album, but Padgham's
pop leanings resulted in a slick, ballad-laden record that didn't reflect the
sound
Sheryl Crow wanted. The album was shelved, and fearing that she'd let her best
opportunity slip through her fingers,
Sheryl Crow sank into another near-crippling depression that lingered for nearly a
year and a half. However, thanks to boyfriend
Kevin Gilbert, an engineer who'd attempted to remix her ill-fated album,
Sheryl Crow fell in with a loose group of industry pros that included
Gilbert, Bill Bottrell,
David Baerwald, David Ricketts,
Brian MacLeod, and
Dan Schwartz. Dubbed the Tuesday Night Music Club, this collective met once
a week at Bottrell's Pasadena recording studio to drink, jam, and work out
material. In this informal, collaborative setting,
Sheryl Crow was able to get her creative juices flowing again, and the group agreed
to make its newest member -- the only one with a recording contract -- the focal
point.
Sheryl Crow and the collective worked out enough material for an album, and with
Bottrell serving as producer, she recorded her new official debut, titled
Tuesday Night Music Club in tribute. The record was released in August 1993 and
proved slow to take off. Lead single "Run Baby Run" made little impact, and
while "Leaving Las Vegas" attracted some attention through its inclusion in the
acclaimed film of the same name, it reached only the lower half of the charts.
A&M took one last shot by releasing "All I Wanna Do," a song partly written by
poet
Wyn Cooper, as a single. With its breezy, carefree outlook, "All I Wanna Do"
became one of the biggest summer singles of 1994, falling just one position
short of number one. Suddenly, Tuesday Night Music Club started flying out of
stores, and spawned a Top Five follow-up hit in "Strong Enough" (plus another
minor single in "Can't Cry Anymore").
Sheryl Crow was a big winner at the Grammys in early 1995, taking home honors for
Best New Artist, Best Female Rock Vocal, and Record of the Year (the latter two
for "All I Wanna Do"). Her surprising sweep pushed Tuesday Night Music Club into
the realm of genuine blockbuster, as its sales swept past the seven million
mark. After close to a decade of dues-paying,
Sheryl Crow was a star.
Unfortunately, success came at a price. In 1994,
Sheryl Crow had been invited to perform "Leaving Las Vegas" on Late Night With
David Letterman. In a brief interview segment, Letterman asked if the song was
autobiographical, and
Sheryl Crow offhandedly agreed that it was. In actuality, the song was mostly
written by
David Baerwald, based on the book by his good friend
John O'Brien (which had also inspired the film). Having been burned by the
industry already, some of the Tuesday Night Music Club took
Sheryl Crow's comment as a refusal to give proper credit for their contributions.
Baerwald in particular felt betrayed, and things only got worse when
O'Brien committed suicide not long after
Sheryl Crow's Letterman appearance. Although
O'Brien's family stepped forward to affirm that
Sheryl Crow had nothing to do with the tragedy, the rift with
Baerwald was already irreparable. Some Club members bitterly charged that
Sheryl Crow's role in the collaborative process was rather small, and that the
talent on display actually had little to do with her. Tragedy struck again in
1996 when
Sheryl Crow's ex-boyfriend,
Kevin Gilbert, was found dead of autoerotic asphyxiation.
Stung by the charges,
Sheryl Crow set out to prove her legitimacy with her second album when the heavy
touring for Tuesday Night Music Club finally ended. Bill Bottrell was originally
slated to produce the record, but fell out with
Sheryl Crow very early on, and the singer ended up taking over production duties
herself. However, she did bring in the noted team of
Mitchell Froom and
Tchad Blake as assistant producer and engineer, respectively.
Froom and
Blake were known for the strange sonic experimentation they brought to
projects by roots rockers (the
Latin Playboys) and singer/songwriters (Richard
Thompson,
Suzanne Vega), and they helped
Sheryl Crow craft a similarly non-traditional record. Released in the fall of 1996,
Sheryl Crow definitely bore the stamp of the singer's personality and
songwriting voice, especially in the idiosyncratic lyrics; plus, she was now
writing mostly with her guitarist,
Jeff Trott, proving that she could cut it without her estranged
collaborators. The singles "If It Makes You Happy," "Everyday Is a Winding
Road," and "A Change Would Do You Good" were all radio smashes, and "Home" also
became a minor hit. Sheryl Crow went triple platinum, and
Sheryl Crow brought home Grammys for Best Rock Album and another Best Female Rock
Vocal (for "If It Makes You Happy").
Sheryl Crow toured with the Lilith Fair package during the summer of 1997 (the
first of several times), and subsequently wrote and performed the title theme to
the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. In the fall of 1998, she returned with
her third album, The Globe Sessions. A more straightforward, traditionalist rock
record than Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions didn't dominate the airwaves in
quite the same fashion, but it did become her third straight platinum-selling,
Top Ten LP, and it won her another Grammy for Best Rock Album. It also spawned
two mid-sized hits in the Top 20: "My Favorite Mistake" and "Anything but Down."
In 1999, she contributed a Grammy-winning cover of
Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child o' Mine" to the soundtrack of the
Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy. She also performed a special free concert in
New York's Central Park, with an array of guest stars including
Keith Richards,
Eric Clapton,
Chrissie Hynde,
the Dixie Chicks,
Stevie Nicks, and
Sarah McLachlan. The show was broadcast on Fox and later released as the
album Live in Central Park, just in time for the holidays. "There Goes the
Neighborhood" won her another Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal; however, partly
because of some shaky performances, the album flopped badly, not even going
gold.
Hit with a case of writer's block,
Sheryl Crow took some time to deliver her fourth studio LP. In the meantime, she
produced several tracks on
Stevie Nicks' 2001 album, Trouble in Shangri-La, and also recorded a duet
with
Kid Rock, "Picture," for his album Cocky. Finally, in the spring of 2002,
Sheryl Crow released C'mon C'mon, which entered the LP charts at number two for her
highest positioning yet. It quickly went platinum, and the lead single, "Soak up
the Sun," was a Top 20 hit and another ubiquitous radio smash. The follow-up,
"Steve McQueen," was also a lesser hit. At the beginning of 2005 it was
announced that there would be two simultaneously released new albums available
by the end of the year. The project was then scaled back to the single disc
Wildflower which saw release at the end of September. ~ Steve Huey, All Music
Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
Sheryl Crow for your next corporate or private event.
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