Songoftheday 1/5/21 - I've been a bad bad girl, I've been careless with a delicate man...

 

 

"Criminal" - Fiona Apple

from the album Tidal (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

 

Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Fiona Apple, who was born into an artistic family. Her dad, Brandon Maggart, was already known to me most from playing the gruff Lou on the way-before-its-time sitcom Brothers, but he also won a Tony Award being in the musical Applause with Lauren Bacall. Signed to Columbia Record's imprint Work, home to Jamiroquai, Apple released her debut album Tidal in the summer of 1996. The lead single, "Shadowboxer", got some notice by critics and by radio, and climbed to #32 on Billboard magazine's Adult Top-40 radio chart, and #34 on the Alternative Rock format list. That was followed by "Sleep To Dream", which was the first I heard her. The twisty dark song rose to #28 at Alternative Rock radio, and won an award for Best New Artist at the MTV Music Video Awards. It also was her first minor hit in the UK at #79. The exposure from that set Fiona up for the reception of the third single from the record, "Criminal". 

Written by Fiona and produced by Andrew Slater, the track had the same slinky presence as "Sleep To Dream", but even more sinister and brooding, as she confesses how she is toying with a man but wants to make amends and be who she needs to be. The problem is she doesn't know if she can, and who is she confessing this to anyway (God? Another Man?). The mystery adds to the vulnerable allure of the song, which doesn't end with any resolution. The crashing of the piano over the (synthetic) flute trills are simply beautiful to hear, and Fiona's voice is pained but resolute without being shaky...

"Criminal" became Fiona's first (and so far only) top-40 pop hit on the Hot 100 in November of 1997. The song also climbed to #4 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart (her best), and #17 on the Adult Top-40 format list. Internationally, the single was also a top-40 success in Canada at #28. At the Grammy Awards in 1998, "Criminal" won for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and it was also nominated for Best Rock Song (losing to the Wallflowers' "One Headlight"), while Fiona was up for Best New Artist (which went to Paula Cole). The Tidal album would reach a high of #15 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, going on to move over three million copies.

Apple returned in 1999 with her more experimental sophomore effort When The Pawn..., which got to #13 on the Billboard 200, but the esoteric rhythms of lead single "Fast As You Can" turned off pop radio, as it failed to make the Hot 100. The song did reach #28 at Adult Top-40 radio and #20 on Alternative Rock, her most recent success at both formats so far. The single also became her only top-40 hit in Britain at #33. The album recieved a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album, which Radiohead took home for their groundbreaking Kid A set, while album track "Paper Bag" earned Fiona a second nod for Best Female Rock Vocal, which went to Sheryl Crow's "There Goes The Neighborhood". 

There would be a six-year gap until Fiona's next album, during which time she racked up another Grammy nomination for her duet with country icon Johnny Cash on the cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (which Willie Nelson and Lee Ann Womack won for their admittedly superior "Mendocino County Line"). The resulting record, Extraordinary Machine, landed Apple in the Billboard 200 top ten for the first time at #7, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album (which Kelly Clarkson took home for Breakaway), but radio in America gave its tracks a pass. Another long break transpired before she returned with her fourth album The Idler Wheel in 2012. Again, radio gave it a hard pass, but the Grammy voters loved her again, although the trophy for Best Alternative Album went to Australian singer Gotye for his Making Mirrors. Also, the set was her highest ranked release on the Billboard 200 sales chart at #3. 

Which brings us to this past year in 2020. At the crest of the first wave of the pandemic, Apple released her fifth opus Fetch The Bolt Cutters after a quiet break of eight years. At only 43, Fiona was by now a veteran of the alternative music scene, and her heart-bare record has gotten her more praise than anything since her debut. It's again up for Alternative Album at the upcoming Grammys (and very conspicuously left off the Album of the Year category), while single "Shameika" is up for both Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song. That song also put her back on the radio, where she climbed to #19 on the Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) Rock radio chart. Meanwhile, an artist I personally associate as a musical legacy of hers, Billie Eilish, was a darling of the Grammys just last year.

 

(10/10)

 

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Here's Fiona appearing on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1997...

and lastly, live in concert in 2006...

Up tomorrow: A tall order of drinks from this bunch of anarchists.