Jagged Little Pill

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Professional reviews
Jagged Little Pill

Studio album by Alanis Morissette
Released	June 13, 1995 (U.S.)
Recorded	Westlake Studios and Signet Sound, Hollywood
Genre	Pop/Rock
Length	57:33
Label	Maverick
Producer(s)	Glen Ballard
All Music Guide Image:4.5 stars.svg link Robert Christgau (B+) link Melody Maker (7/10) Sept. 9, 1995 Q Image:4 stars.svg Sept. 1995, p.118
Alanis Morissette chronology
Now Is the Time (1992)	Jagged Little Pill (1995)	Space Cakes (1995)

Jagged Little Pill is Canadian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette's third album in total and first to be released outside Canada, released on June 13, 1995 (see 1995 in music). Morissette's confessional lyrics and emotional vocals helped Jagged Little Pill dominate the year's sound in music.

1 History
2 Track listing
3 Personnel
4 Charts and certifications

[edit] History

The demo recording sessions started in 1994 at Glen Ballard's home studio in San Fernando Valley, California, and included only Morissette and the producer. The rough tracks were basically provided by Ballard, playing the guitars, keyboards and programming drum machines, plus some harmonica played by Morissette. The method used by the duo was the goal-stablishment of one song written and recorded a day, in twelve- or sixteen-hour shifts, with minimal overdubbing later. All Morissette's singing on the album respects that rule, and it was all recorded in one or two takes each. Even the tracks that were redone later on a professional studio use the original demo vocals.

The first song to be shown to A&R and record company people was "Perfect", with a simple arrangement containing only the singer and the producer's acoustic guitar. As Morissette penned a deal with Maverick Records, the couple took the demos to a studio and started building some new band arrangements for some of them. However, half of the songs stood 100% original: "All I Really Want", "Hand in My Pocket", "You Learn", "Head over Feet", "Ironic" and "Not the Doctor". During the overdub sessions, Flea and Dave Navarro, then Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmates, appeared at the studio, discovered Morissette's work and offered to play on her first single, "You Oughta Know".

Jagged Little Pill spawned six hit singles: "You Oughta Know", "Hand in My Pocket", "All I Really Want", "Ironic", "You Learn" and "Head over Feet". Selling 14.5 million copies by 1999 in the United States, it is the second best-selling album by a female solo artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era, behind Shania Twain's Come on Over (1997). It spent twelve non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 and sixty-nine consecutive weeks in the top ten. This makes it one of only three albums — the others being Falling into You (1996) by Celine Dion and Thriller (1982) by Michael Jackson — to remain in the top ten of the Billboard 200 for one full year. The album has sold thirty million copies worldwide.

Jagged Little Pill won Grammy Awards for "Best Rock Album" and "Album of the Year". In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Jagged Little Pill the nineteenth greatest album of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 327 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

In 2005 Morissette re-released an acoustic version of the album, Jagged Little Pill Acoustic, on the tenth anniversary of the original album's date of release. This album was originally sold through Starbucks' successful Hear Music brand in an exclusive six-week deal that ended on July 26, 2005. For the duration of this partnership, music retailer HMV boycotted the sale of all of Morissette's catalogue.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Glen Ballard and Alanis Morissette.

"All I Really Want" – 4:44
"You Oughta Know" – 4:09
"Perfect" – 3:07
"Hand in My Pocket" – 3:41
"Right Through You" – 2:55
"Forgiven" – 5:00
"You Learn" – 3:59
"Head over Feet" – 4:27
"Mary Jane" – 4:40
"Ironic" – 3:49
"Not the Doctor" – 3:47
"Wake Up" – 4:53

Some CDs contain two unlisted bonus tracks. At index mark number 13, there is another version of "You Oughta Know" with a heavier bass guitar (a mix of the original song known as the "Jimmy the Saint Blend"), followed by an un-indexed a cappella recording of "Your House". Other CDs only contain "Your House" as a bonus track.

[edit] Personnel

Alanis Morissette - harmonica, vocals
Glen Ballard - guitar, keyboards, programming, producer, engineer, mixing
Dave Navarro - guitar
Basil Fung - guitar
Michael Landau - guitar
Joel Shearer - guitar
Lance Morrison - bass
Flea - bass
Michael Thompson - organ
Benmont Tench - organ
Taylor Hawkins - drums, percussion
Rob Ladd - percussion, Drums
Matt Laug - drums
Gota Yashiki - rhythm
Ted Blaisdell - engineer
David Schiffman - engineer
Victor McCoy - engineer
Rich Weingart - engineer
Chris Fogel - engineer, mixing
Francis Buckley - mixing
Jolie Jones Levine - production coordination
Chris Bellman - mastering
Tom Recchion - art direction, design
John Patrick Salisbury - photography

[edit] Charts and certifications

Chart (1995)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard 200	1
U.S. Billboard Top Heatseekers	2
Chart (1996)	Peak position
Australian ARIA Albums Chart	1
Chart (1997)	Peak position
Top Canadian Albums	7

Country	Certification
Australia	14x platinum
Austria	2x platinum
Brazil	2x platinum
Canada	2x diamond
Europe	7x platinum
Finland	2x platinum
France	Platinum
Germany	2x platinum
Netherlands	4x platinum
Norway	Platinum
Poland	Gold
Switzerland	Platinum
UK	10x platinum
U.S.	16x platinum

Billboard (North America) - singles
Year	Title	Hot 100	Modern Rock	Mainstream Rock	Top 40 Mainstream	Adult Top 40	Adult Contemporary	Adult Top 40 Recurrents	Rhythmic Top 40
1995	"You Oughta Know"	6	1	3	7	-	-	-	-
	"Hand in My Pocket"	-	1	8	4	25	30	9	-
	"All I Really Want"	-	14	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	"Ironic"	4	1	18	1	5	28	1	11
	"You Learn"	6	7	40	1	3	23	1	32
	"Head over Feet"	-	25	-	1	1	27	1	-