"Parting Gift" is a song written by American singer Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Apple met international acclaim for her 1996 debut album, Tidal, which was a critical and commercial success...

 and recorded for her third album Extraordinary Machine

Extraordinary Machine

Extraordinary Machine is the third album by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple, released by Epic Records in the United States on October 4, 2005. Produced by Jon Brion, it was expected to be released in 2003 but was delayed several times by the record label without explanation, leading to...

(2005). It was produced by Mike Elizondo

Mike Elizondo

Michael "Mike" Elizondo is a well-known songwriter, bassist, keyboardist, and hip hop music producer.-Musical career:Mike Elizondo is especially known for his collaborations with internationally successful producer Dr. Dre and rapper Eminem. He has played the bass for many of Dr...

 and Brian Kehew

Brian Kehew

Brian Kehew is a Los Angeles-based musician and music producer. He is a member the The Moog Cookbook and co-author of the Recording The Beatles book, an in-depth look at the Beatles' studio approach...

 and is the only song from Extraordinary Machine not to have been originally recorded during the Jon Brion

Jon Brion

Jon Brion is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.-Early life:...

-produced sessions. Apple was able to record it on her first take. MTV News

MTV News

MTV News is the news division of MTV, one of the first and most popular music television network in the U.S., as well as some of MTV's related channels around the world. MTV News began in the late 1980s with the program The Week In Rock, hosted by Kurt Loder, the first official MTV News correspondent...

 described the song as "a characteristically bitter breakup song", and its protagonist chastises a former beau (calling him a "silly, stupid pastime") whilst lamenting their failed relationship: "It ended bad but I loved what we started".

On August 15, 2005 (see 2005 in music

2005 in music

-Events:*During the year 2005, 12 rock music albums scored number 1 in the USA. This was the first time even ten albums have scored number 1 since 1996.-January:...

), ahead of the album's release in early October, Epic Records

Epic Records

Epic Records is an American record label, owned by Sony Music Entertainment. Though it was originally conceived as a jazz imprint, it has since expanded to represent various genres. L.A...

 made available for streaming

Streaming media

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.The term "presented" is used in this article in a general sense that includes audio or video playback. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather...

 both "Parting Gift" and "O' Sailor

O' Sailor

"O' Sailor" is a song written by American singer Fiona Apple and recorded for her third album Extraordinary Machine . On August 15, 2005 , ahead of the album's release in early October, Epic Records made available for streaming both "Parting Gift" and "O' Sailor" on Apple's...

" on Apple's official website. The following day, the songs were released for digital download

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 at the online iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 Music Store. The music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for "Parting Gift" was directed by Spencer Maggart (Apple's brother), and it premiered on LAUNCHcast

LAUNCHcast

Yahoo! Music Radio is an Internet radio service offered by CBS Radio through Yahoo! Music. The service, formerly offered by LAUNCH Media, and originally developed by Todd Beaupré and Jeff Boulter, debuted on November 11, 1999, and was purchased by Yahoo! in October, 2001...

on August 23, 2005.

External links

• Extraordinary Machine press release from Epic Records — August 15, 2005
• Lyrics