Songoftheday 7/15/21 - How 'bout getting off of these antibiotics? How 'bout stopping eating when I'm full up?
"Thank U" - Alanis Morissette
from the album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17 (after rule change)
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5
Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day comes from Canadian singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette, who went from being a former child actor pop princess in her home country to being the queen of emo pop in the late 1990s with her massive breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill. In the summer of 1998, her contribution to the movie City Of Angels, "Uninvited", reached the top five on the pop radio airplay chart, and earned her two Grammy Awards. Alanis returned later that year with her next studio album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, which, kind of like Madonna's Ray Of Light, delved more into spiritual topics than ones about love (which still were peppered in). The lead "single" from the record was the mantra-like "Thank U", written and produced by Morissette with Glen Ballard, who helmed Jagged Little Pill. Starting with a piercing keyboard that opened into a thundering drum beat, Alanis gives gratitudes to the things and emotions she feels shaped her in the time between her rocket to fame and that point, including India as well as frailty, along with choices she had to make in that time ("How 'bout me not blaming you for everything? How 'bout me enjoying the moment for once?") The result was a minor-key catharsis that seemed like the resolution of the troubles she was facing on Jagged. The music video for the song, directed by Stephane Sednaoui, has Alanis traversing places shot in L.A. completely naked (with long hair extensions blocking the naughty bits), symbolizing her baring herself to the world...
Since "Thank U" wasn't released as a commercially available "single", it wasn't initially able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 chart. However, the track got so much radio love that it climbed all the way to #2 on the airplay component of that list in November of 1998. It was one of the big songs that forced the music trade bible to amend its rules to allow all songs to chart no matter if sold separately or not, and in December, when that happened, "Thank U" was still in the top-20 at that point even without any "points" from sales. The song spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard's older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart, while getting to #12 on their Alternative Rock format list. Internationally, the single topped the single chart in her native Canada, and reached the top ten in New Zealand (#2), Norway (#3), Iceland (#3), the UK (#5), Italy (#8), the Netherlands (#8), Austria (#10). The Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie album, released as the song was cresting on radio in November, broke the record for first-week sales by a solo female, selling just under a half million copies. It topped the Billboard 200 sales tally for two weeks, going on to move over three million copies, which is huge, but of course, the media dubbed it a "flop" (because, you know, a woman). At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "Thank U" was nominated for Best Female Pop Performance, losing out to fellow Canadian Sarah McLachlan for her live version of "I Will Remember You".
The hard-edged Junkie track "Joining You" was promoted to rock radio, climbing to #16 on Billboard's Alternative Rock radio chart, but missed the Hot 100, but it did make the top-40 in Canada, the UK, Austria, and Italy. Despite the radio success for "Thank U", the next "single" from the record, the ultra-sweet highlight "Unsent", stalled down at #58 on the pop Hot 100, though it was a moderate hit at Adult Top-40, peaking at #14, and went all the way to #8 in Canada. That was followed by "So Pure", which climbed to #25 on Adult Top-40 radio, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance in 2001, which Sheryl Crow took home for her live version of "There Goes The Neighborhood". Alanis will return to this series in time, though.
(8/10)
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Next up, in concert in New York in 1999....
Moving up to 2001 in a festival in Germany...
and finally, a quarantine performance at her home in 2020...
Up tomorrow: Singer/songwriter ranks her errors.
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