Meredith Brooks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Meredith Brooks | ||
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 Meredith Brooks is interviewed for the Lilith Fair documentary film in 1997.
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| Background information | ||
| Birth name | Meredith Ann Brooks | |
| Born | July 12, 1958 | |
| Origin | Oregon City, Oregon | |
| Genre(s) | Pop Rock | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, Songwriter | |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, Guitar | |
| Years active | 1997–Present | |
| Label(s) | Capitol Records Gold Circle Records Kissing Booth Records |
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| Website | Meredith Brooks Official Site | |
Meredith Ann Brooks (born June 12, 1958 in Oregon City, Oregon, USA) is an American singer/songwriter and guitarist. She is best known for her 1997 hit song "Bitch". She was nominated for a Grammy Award for the song.
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[edit] Early life
Meredith was born in Oregon City, Oregon in 1958. Her parents divorced while she was still a child. She and her brother and sister grew up in Corvallis, Oregon and were raised by their mother. At age eleven, Brooks became fascinated with the guitar and she soon learned how to play it. Brooks excelled at academics and skipped several grades in high school, graduating at age 15. In the early 1980s, she moved to Los Angeles to further her career in music. At that time, she recorded the songs that later appeared on See It Through My Eyes. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, she was a member of The Graces, which recorded one album, Perfect View, in 1989.
[edit] Success with Bitch
In the wake of the enormous success of Alanis Morissette in 1995, Brooks landed a major label contract with Capitol Records. She was nearly 39 years old before having her first hit single, "Bitch", in 1997, which garnered her a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Her album Blurring the Edges achieved platinum sales and peaked at 22 on the Billboard 200. She toured in the US and Europe in 1997 and 1998 to support the album. The song was Brooks' only major hit on the charts. In 1998 she divorced her husband, Russell Jackson, after seven years of marriage.
Brooks recorded her second major album Deconstruction in 1999. It was a stylistic and thematic shift away from Blurring the Edges. Due to a flood of records by female musicians at the time and the record label's decision to have her only tour in Europe instead of also promoting in the US, the album sold poorly. She originally wrote the song "Sin City", which appears on this album, for the movie Snake Eyes, directed by her friend Brian De Palma.
In 2002, Brooks worked on her third solo album Bad Bad One on Gold Circle Records, an independent label. Immediately after releasing the album, the label folded and prevented the record from getting promoted or achieving significant sales. Track 11 - 'Shine' - was released as the lead single. The label's demise also interrupted her tour with Melissa Etheridge that summer, causing her and the band to return early to Los Angeles. Also in 2002, Brooks produced Jennifer Love Hewitt's album, BareNaked, and appeared on the VH1 Divas Las Vegas program as a guest guitar soloist with Celine Dion and Anastacia.
[edit] Life today
In 2003, Brooks remarried and the next year gave birth to her son, Troy. She also signed a new record deal with the SLG Records label and released the material of Bad Bad One as Shine. Television psychologist Dr. Phil chose the song "Shine" as the theme for his show. [1]. Most recently, Brooks was completing a new children's album titled If I Could Be... and continuing to develop new artists as a producer and songwriter. In particular, she is producing Bec Hollcraft, a young pop/rock singer/songwriter from Portland, Oregon.
[edit] Trivia
- Her favorite guitar is the Fender Telecaster.
- Her favorite philosopher is Carl Jung.
- Her father was a county sheriff in Oregon.
- Her 1997 single "Bitch" was parodied by Australian bogan actor/comedian Chris Franklin as "Bloke" in 1999.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Singles
| Year | Single | US Hot 100 Singles | US Rock Singles | Adult Top 40 | Top 40 Mainstream Singles | Album |
| 1997 | "Bitch" | 2 | 4 | 14 | 1 | Blurring the Edges |
| 1997 | "What Would Happen" | 46 | - | 21 | 15 | Blurring the Edges |
| 1998 | "Stop" | - | - | - | 40 | Blurring the Edges |
| 2002 | "Shine" | - | - | 35 | - | Shine |
[edit] Albums
| Year | Album | US Billboard 200 |
| 1997 | Blurring the Edges | 22 |
| 1997 | See It Through My Eyes | - |
| 1999 | Deconstruction | - |
| 2002 | Bad Bad One | - |
| 2004 | Shine | - |
| 2007 | If I Could Be... | - |
