Lisa Loeb

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Lisa Loeb
Background information
Birth name	Lisa Anne Loeb
Born	March 11, 1968 (age 39) Bethesda, Maryland
Origin	Dallas, Texas
Genre(s)	contemporary folk / Country / Rock / Indie
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter,solo singer, guitarist, composer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, Guitar
Years active	1989 - present
Label(s)	Geffen, A&M, Artemis, Zoe
Associated acts	Liz and Lisa
Website	Lisa Loeb Official Site

Lisa Anne Loeb (born 11 March 1968) is an American singer-songwriter and reality television star. In 1994, she had her first hit with the song "Stay (I Missed You)". The song today still remains as her signature song. Later in her career, she moved on to other things, like television. In 2006, she had her own reality TV show on the E! channel.

1 Early Years
2 Recording Career
3 Acting and Reality Television
4 Style
5 Trivia
6 Discography
- 6.1 Singles
- 6.2 Albums
7 External links

[edit] Early Years

Born in Bethesda, Maryland, and raised in Dallas, Texas, Loeb attended The Hockaday School, an all-girls private school in Dallas. She has three siblings -- Benjamin Loeb, Debbie Loeb, and Philip Loeb. After graduating from high school in 1986, she went to Brown University where she graduated in 1990 with a degree in comparative literature. At Brown, she and Elizabeth Mitchell formed a band named Liz and Lisa, featuring future singer/songwriter and fellow Brown classmate Duncan Sheik as a guitarist as well as the upcoming influential jazz/rock bassist Rick Lassiter while contemplating band names such as Nine Stories and Soto Voce'. The duo released the albums Liz and Lisa and Liz and Lisa - Days Were Different independently. Loeb had developed a following from her solo acoustic performances on the New York City coffeehouse circuit, where she sold a collection of her songs referred to as The Purple Tape.

Loeb's big break came when she was discovered by actor and friend Ethan Hawke, who lived in an apartment across the street from her in New York City. She met Hawke through mutual friends in the NYC theatre community. Hawke gave a tape of Loeb's song "Stay (I Missed You)" to director Ben Stiller during the making of the 1994 film Reality Bites. Stiller subsequently agreed to use the song in the film and on the film's soundtrack. "Stay" ultimately went on to become a number one hit on the American charts. When her song hit number one, Loeb earned the distinction of being the only artist to top the Hot 100 before being signed to any record label.

[edit] Recording Career

In September 1995, Loeb's debut album, Tails, was released. The album was co-produced by Juan Patiño, her longtime then-boyfriend. Although none of the singles from Tails could quite match the breakthrough appeal of "Stay" (which was also included on this album), Loeb still managed a Top-Twenty hit with "Do You Sleep?" and two moderately successful radio hits with "Taffy," and "Waiting for Wednesday." Tails went on to achieve platinum status.

In 1997, a second major-label album, Firecracker, was released. Though critically praised, it did not have the commercial success of Tails, but the single "I Do" was very popular on radio (it charted in the Top Twenty) and music television. The song "How" was contributed to the soundtracks for the films Twister and Jack Frost. It was also featured in the Buffy episode Homecoming. The single "Let's Forget About It" was also released. At this point Lisa dropped the name of her support band, Nine Stories and performed under her own name. "Firecracker" went Gold.

In 2000 she participated on Ozzy Osbourne tribute album Bat Head Soup performing Goodbye to Romance with Dweezil Zappa on guitar.

Lisa's next project was Cake and Pie the release of which was delayed until 2002. The album was a commercial failure (despite excellent reviews) and did not receive any major backing or promotion from her record label. She was eventually dropped, and she bought the rights to the masters of the songs from that album. It was re-released independently in late 2002, with the songs rearranged and some deletions/additions. Featuring new packaging, it was retitled Hello Lisa. A children's album called Catch the Moon was independently released in 2003. Videos from this album have been featured on the Noggin TV network for children, alongside those of Laurie Berkner and Dan Zanes, rockers who have crossed over much further into the children's music field.

In May 2004, Loeb announced that her longtime relationship with Dweezil Zappa was over. In 2004, Loeb changed record labels once again, due to a lack of promotion from her former label, Artemis Records. She was signed to the independent label Zoe/Rounder, and The Way It Really Is was released August 2004. The album was Loeb's fifth studio-recorded album.

Her latest album, The Very Best of Lisa Loeb, was released in January 2006.

When not touring, or doing other promotional work, she resides in Los Angeles.

[edit] Acting and Reality Television

Loeb has done several guest appearances on popular television shows, such as The Nanny in 1997. In 1998, she played the voice of a newborn baby in The Rugrats Movie and played a musician in an episode of Cupid. In 1999, Loeb was featured as a news reporter in the horror film House on Haunted Hill. In 2004, she was featured in Serial Killing 101. On January 16, 2004, her reality show Dweezil & Lisa first aired on Food Network, in which she shared title billing with her longtime boyfriend Dweezil Zappa. In 2005, she appeared on The Colbert Report as herself as part of a small gag in which the eponymous host could not remember all the lyrics of "Stay," and asked Loeb, who was standing by a camera with her guitar, how it went. She sang and strummed a little to jog Colbert's memory.

Lisa Loeb, circa 2004.

She has also been featured as the voice of Mary Jane Watson in the animated show Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, broadcast on MTV.

In the fall and winter of 2005, Loeb taped a reality show, #1 Single, for the E! Channel, in New York City. The show focused on her quest for love, success, career and family and premiered on the E! Channel in January 2006 in an eight-part series, coinciding with the release of Loeb's new album, The Very Best of Lisa Loeb.

On August 2, Lisa Loeb co-hosted The View. In the episode, she defended a "woman's right to choose, a right to control her body, and have an alternative...something that's safe", clashing with regular co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on more than one exchange.

She also did voice acting in the video game Grandia Xtreme as the character of Lutina.

[edit] Style

Loeb is known for wearing distinctive cat-eye shaped tortoiseshell glasses. She says she's allergic to contact lenses. Lisa also has stated in numerous interviews she is very nearsighted with a prescription near -6.00.

[edit] Trivia

Lisa's band, "Nine Stories", is named after the J. D. Salinger collection.
Stay (I Missed You) earned Lisa the distinction of being the first and only unsigned artist to have a number one hit on the American charts.
According to her one-season Food TV show, she refers to herself as a "bacon-loving" vegetarian.
Lisa is an avid collector of Hello Kitty items, including a Hello Kitty Stratocaster, manufactured by Squier. She was featured on the American Sanrio website.
Her father is Dallas gastroenterologist Peter Loeb.
Loeb guest performed on the song Anti-Hero on all-female Japanese musical group Rin''s album Inland Sea.
In the opening for each episode of Dweezil & Lisa, she claimed to be a vegetarian who enjoyed eating the occasional serving of bacon.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

Year	Single	US Hot 100 Singles	U.S. Modern Rock	U.S. Adult Contemporary	U.S. Adult Top 40	Album
1994	"Stay (I Missed You)"	#1	#7	#5	-	Tails
1995	"Taffy"	-	-	-	-	Tails
1995	"Do You Sleep"	#18	#20	#30	#26	Tails
1996	"Waiting For Wednesday"	#83	-	-	#36	Tails
1997	"I Do"	#17	-	-	#3	Firecracker
1998	"Let's Forget About It"	#71	-	-	#38	Firecracker
2002	"Underdog"	-	-	-	#39	Cake and Pie
2004	"Fools Like Me"	-	-	-	-	The Way It Really Is
2007	"Jenny Jenkins"	-	-	-	-	-

[edit] Albums

Year	Album	Chart Position*
1989	Liz and Lisa	-
1990	Liz and Lisa - Days Were Different	-
1992	Purple Tape	-
1995	Tails	#30
1997	Firecracker	#88
2002	Cake and Pie	#199
2002	Hello Lisa	-
2003	Catch the Moon	-
2004	The Way It Really Is	-
2006	The Very Best of Lisa Loeb	-