Alanis Morissette

Early life and education

Morissette was born on June 1, 1974, at Riverside Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, the daughter of Georgia Mary Ann (née Feuerstein) and Alan Richard Morissette. Her elder brother, Chad (born 1971), is an entrepreneur, and her twin brother, Wade (12 minutes elder), is a musician. Alan is of French and Irish descent, while Georgia, who fled Hungary during the anti-Soviet uprising in 1956, has Jewish ancestry. Morissette ethnically identifies as "a quarter Jewish". On a 2024 episode of the American documentary television series Finding Your Roots, she stated that her parents had never told their children about the family's Jewish ancestry and that she did not discover it until her late 20s.

Legacy

Morissette and her music has inspired numerous artists including Brandi Carlile, Florence Welch, Adele, Melanie C, Natalie Imbruglia, Nelly Furtado, KT Tunstall, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Raven-Symoné, Teddy Sinclair, Lea Michele, Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and Bebe Rexha.

All I Really Want

"All I Really Want" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard, and produced by Ballard for Morissette's third album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). It was released by Maverick Records as the album's sixth and final single in the United Kingdom in November 1996, and in Australia in February 1997.

The song is also the opening track of Jagged Little Pill. It was the last song written for Jagged Little Pill but originated from a song called "The Bottom Line", which was the first song Morissette wrote with Glen Ballard.

Composition

"All I Really Want" opens the album Jagged Little Pill with a raw, energetic sound. The song features prominent harmonica, distorted guitars, and drum programming, creating an alternative rock and pop-rock arrangement. Morissette's vocal delivery is characterized by rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness phrasing that shifts between melodic singing and spoken-word passages.

Lyrics

The lyrics of "All I Really Want" express a desire for genuine connection and personal freedom. Throughout the song, Morissette references Estella, the cold and emotionally distant character from Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations, using the comparison to explore themes of emotional unavailability and learned defensiveness in relationships.

Critical reception

Helen Lamont from Smash Hits gave "All I Really Want" five out of five and named it Best New Single, writing, "Aww, wow! This is fantastic! This is definitely the strangest Single of the Fortnight — and the best. Alanis growls her way through from start to finish, squealing over a dancebeat and tripping over her words. Her vocals are—uh—distinctive (the closest thing is Dolores from The Cranberries), but when you get past all the gimmicky fancy bits, what you've left with is still a brilliant, original tune. There's not many bands who can do both, because having both makes a top song indeed."

Music video

The song has no official video, but there was a promo video that contained footage from concerts and the videos for "You Oughta Know" and "Hand in My Pocket".

Uninvited

"Uninvited" is a song by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette, released as a single from the soundtrack of City of Angels in February 1998, becoming Morissette's first new recording since her international debut album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). Morissette wrote the song and co-produced it with Rob Cavallo.

"Uninvited" is driven by four piano notes and builds to an instrumental climax with a haunting atmosphere.

Background and release

After the massive success of her breakthrough album, Jagged Little Pill (1995) (which spawned the worldwide hits "You Oughta Know", "Ironic", "Head over Feet" and "You Learn"), Morissette was considered one of the biggest music stars in the world, and many fans anxiously awaited a follow-up album. That would be Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, released in November 1998; however, "Uninvited" was released as the lead single from the City of Angels soundtrack prior to that.

Composition

"Uninvited" is driven by four piano notes and builds to an instrumental climax. According to one critic, "Uninvited" is a moody song that contains an "indelible melody and haunting atmosphere" accompanied by cryptic lyrics.

Reception

"Uninvited" was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 1998: Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television, winning in the Female Rock Vocal and Best Rock Song categories. It also won an ASCAP Award for Most Performed Song from Motion Pictures and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song - Motion Picture. Additionally, the song entered About.com's "Top 10 Alanis Morissette Lyrics" list at number 10, with Bill Lamb picking the lyrics, "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" as the best. Although never officially released as a single to retail outlets...

Music video

No music video accompanied the single's release, but three videos of performances of "Uninvited" were released: the first one at the 1999 Grammy Awards, another on the Feast on Scraps (2002) release, and another on the extended cut of VH1 Storytellers: Alanis Morissette. This performance was not included in the original Storytellers broadcast in 1999.

Hand in My Pocket

"Hand in My Pocket" is a song by Canadian recording artist and songwriter Alanis Morissette from her third studio album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). The song was written by Morissette and Glen Ballard and was released as the album's second single on October 16, 1995, by Maverick and Reprise Records.

The song received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who applauded Morissette's songwriting.

Writing and composition

"Hand in My Pocket" was written by Morissette and Glen Ballard. Ballard met Morissette on March 8, 1994, after his publishing company matched them up. 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 also declared to Rolling Stone that: I just connected with her as a person, and, almost parenthetically, it was like 'Wow, you're 19?' She was so intelligent and ready to take a chance on doing something that might have no commercial application. Although there was some question about what she wanted to do musically, she knew what she didn't want to do, which was anything that...

Critical reception

While reviewing Jagged Little Pill, AllMusic dubbed "Hand in My Pocket" an album highlight. Steve Baltin from Cash Box described it as "enticing", noting that it includes "a well-placed harmonica solo from Morissette herself." British magazine Music Week rated the song four out of five, adding, "The second single from the abrasive and rampantly successful Alanis sees her Marianne Faithfull-circa-Wydja Do It attitude coupled with pop metal guitar and loping bass for maximum effect." Mark Sutherland from NME called it "a bite-the-hand assault on slackerdom".

Music video

Directed by Mark Kohr and filmed in black-and-white and slow motion, the song's video features Morissette among a homecoming parade. It was filmed in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. As well as censoring the song's profanity, the video features extra guitar 'licks' on the lead-up to the bridge.

Thank U

"Thank U" is a song by Canadian-American singer Alanis Morissette from her fourth studio album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie (1998). She wrote and produced it with Glen Ballard after coming back from a trip to India.

Maverick and Reprise Records released the song as a single on October 12, 1998.

Background

Alanis Morissette wrote "Thank U" during a trip to India in 1997. In 1998, Morissette contributed the song "Uninvited" to the soundtrack of the 1998 film City of Angels. In September of the same year, "Thank U" was released on radio and Alanis talked with MTV about the break between LPs and the first single: "Basically, I had never stopped in my whole life, hadn't taken a long breath, and I took a year and a half off and basically learned how to do that. When I did stop and I was silent and I breathed... I was just left with an immense amount of gratitude, and inspiration, and love, and bliss, and that's where the song came from, you know."

Composition and writing

"Thank U" was written and produced by Alanis Morissette and Glen Ballard. "Thank U" is a rock song composed in the key of C Major. It is written in common time and moves at a moderate tempo of 91 beats per minute. The song uses a simple chord progression alternating between a tonic C major chord, dominant G major chord, and the subdominant F major chord. The music is simple, mid-tempo rock, with the drum track being a loop of the oft-sampled break in Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song". An electric piano intro underscores Morissette's vocals, which begin by asking, "How bout getting off these antibiotics?" The rest of the song continues with Morissette posing similar questions -- "How bout remembering your divinity?"—and her...

Critical reception

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic picked the song as a highlight from the album, writing that "the textured production functions as a backdrop for Morissette's cryptically introspective lyrics." Liana Jones also of AllMusic wrote that the song's lyrics are "a real boon for contemporary rock music, which tends to be simplistic and hackneyed in its themes." Larry Flick of Billboard praised the singer's performance, acknowledging her "zen-like confidence", calling it "an instantly memorable single that will saturate radio airwaves at all possible formats within a split-second." Daily Record noted that Morissette "returns to angst-ridden form". Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the song's structure "creates an immediate...

Music video

The music video for the song was directed by French director Stéphane Sednaoui (who previously directed "Ironic" for Morissette) and premiered on October 12, 1998, on MTV's Total Request Live. It features Morissette walking around and being embraced by strangers in a variety of public locations, such as in the street, at a supermarket, and on a subway car. Throughout the video, Morissette is completely nude with her long hair shrouding her breasts and her pubic region blurred out. Slight modifications to the video were made before broadcasting by MTV in India and certain other Asian countries. Subsequent replays, however, aired the video in its original format. In May 2001, the video was voted number 66 on VH1's 100 Greatest Videos.

You Oughta Know

"You Oughta Know" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette and the second track on her third studio album, Jagged Little Pill (1995). It was released in July 1995 by Maverick as the album's lead single.

After releasing two studio albums, Morissette met producer Glen Ballard in Los Angeles, with whom she wrote songs including "You Oughta Know". Despite much speculation concerning whom the song is about, Morissette has never disclosed the person's identity and has never indicated an intention to do so.

Background

In 1991, MCA Records Canada released Morissette's debut studio album Alanis, which went platinum in Canada. This was followed by her second album, Now Is the Time, which was a commercial failure, selling only a little more than half the copies of her first album. With her two-album deal with MCA Records Canada complete, Morissette was left without a major label contract. In 1993, Morissette's publisher Leeds Levy at MCA Music Publishing introduced her to manager Scott Welch. Welch told HitQuarters he was impressed by her "spectacular voice", her character, and her lyrics. At the time she was still living with her parents. Together they decided it would be best for her career to move to Toronto and start writing with other people.

Recording

Ballard met Morissette on March 8, 1994, after his publishing company matched them up. 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 also declared to Rolling Stone, "I just connected with her as a person, and, almost parenthetically, it was like 'Wow, you're 19?' She was so intelligent and ready to take a chance on doing something that might have no commercial application. Although there was some question about what she wanted to do musically, she knew what she didn't want to do, which was anything that wasn't authentic and from her heart."

Lyrics

Morissette has never publicly identified anyone as the ex-boyfriend portrayed in the song. In 2008, she said,

Release

Maverick Records released Jagged Little Pill internationally in 1995. The album was expected only to sell enough for Morissette to make a follow-up, but the situation changed quickly when KROQ-FM, an influential Los Angeles modern rock radio station, began playing "You Oughta Know", which was released as the album's first single. The single was added in the set list for Morissette's concert tour, Jagged Little Pill World Tour (1995). The song was added to the tour's video album Jagged Little Pill Live (1997).