Songoftheday 5/8/21 - Like anyone would be I am flattered by your fascination with me, like any hot-blooded woman I have simply wanted an object to crave...

 

 

"Uninvited" - Alanis Morissette

from the album City Of Angels (Original Soundtrack) (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #4 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 24

 

Today's song of the day comes from Canadian child actor turned local teen pop star turned worldwide emo-rock queen Alanis Morisette, whose breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill had sold millions upon millions, winning Grammys and spinning off five huge pop hits with "You Oughta Know", "Hand In My Pocket", "Ironic", "You Learn", and "Head Over Feet", the latter reaching the American pop radio top ten in the fall of 1996. After touring for a full year and a half, and a stint visiting India, which would influence a lot of her upcoming music, Alanis returned with a contribution to the soundtrack to the Meg Ryan/Nicholas Cage movie City Of Angels. "Uninvited", written by the singer, who also produced it with Rob Cavallo, was a dark and brooding piece but in a more grandiose and dramatic way than the personal reflections on Jagged Little Pill. With scarce lyrics that swirl around desire and "forbidden fruit", as it will, it vaguely mirrors the film's plot of an angel (Cage) that wants to become mortal to pursue his love (Ryan). There was no big promotion for the track, not even a music video, but her fans as well as mainstream radio ate it up nevertheless...

Since "Uninvited" wasn't released as a commercially-available retail single, it wasn't able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, the track got enough radio love to reach the top ten on the airplay component of that tally in June of 1998. The song also spent two weeks at #3 on Billboard's older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart, while rising to #26 on their Alternative Rock format list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Belgium (#2F/#11W), the Netherlands (#5), Canada (#7), and the UK (#8). The City Of Angels soundtrack, released in March of 1998, climbed to the top of the Billboard 200 sales chart, spending three weeks at #1 and going on to move over five million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 1999, "Uninvited" won Alanis a pair of trophies for Best Rock Song and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, and was nominated for Best Song from a Motion Picture/Television/Media, losing out to the unstoppable "My Heart Will Go On" from Celine Dion.

(8/10)

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Here's Alanis performing with a live orchestra...

Next up, the singer at Woodstock 99...

Then on her own tour...

 

 In 2007, dance act the Freemasons had their biggest British hit with a club makeover of "Uninvited" featuring Bailey Tzuke on vocals. It reached #8 in the UK, and placed on the American Dance Radio chart at #23...

 

 

and lastly, an acoustic take from 2019...

Up tomorrow: British boy band counts down to a dark top ten hit.