Rickie Lee Jones
Encyclopedia
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician
, songwriter
, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B
, blues
, pop
, soul
, and jazz standards
.
Rickie grew up in the wide open spaces of Arizona, a powerful imagery that would haunt much of her writing throughout her life. Her early childhood was spent in the company of imaginary friends. Her elder sister was married at the age of 15, while her elder brother was severely hurt in a motorcycle accident at the age of 16. The young Rickie Lee struggled socially, the itinerant outside, the family moving and changing schools every year or two. Luckily she was a gifted student, though teachers reported that she 'daydreamed' all day. It was hard enough being new, but having a name like 'Rickie' put her on the defensive in each new school. Like a boy named Sue
, perhaps,
Rickie got tough or died and her sense of self was indisputable. This uniqueness of character would eventually find a home on stage. By 1966, her father had become a violent alcoholic. Bettye, on the other hand, had an intrinsic strength that carried the family no matter what befell them, perhaps due largely to her own childhood spent in orphanages with her three brothers. She vowed her children would never know poverty and would have a chance to do everything she could not. Richard, it seemed, provided the dreams and Betty provided the food. She often worked two shifts at her waitress jobs and made sure her children wanted for nothing. By the age of twelve, Rickie Lee had studied ballet and tap, acting, modeling, and was an AAU swimmer. When she ran away from home in 1969, she enrolled in Little Theater in Phoenix.
with Little Caesar and the Romans.
At the age of 22 she met Alfred Johnson
, an aspiring black singer/songwriter who shared a love of the music of Laura Nyro
and lyrics of Little Feat
. He heard Rickie sing and insisted she come over to his apartment, which was littered with headless dolls and thousands of dollars in recording equipment. The two hit it off right away. They wrote a song the day after they met, and soon began working clubs together as a duet. The early songs saw Jones fleshing out a style of her own, moving out of the black sound and into her own "'father's daughter' sound, less vibrato and more of my tone, the way he sang, it just seemed to come naturally to me, when I sang jazz."
Nick Mathe, ex-school teacher and a neighbor, took an interest in her music, helped her get publicity photos, and booked her at some local showcase clubs. She was signed within six months of this first show. It was clear she was unique and unaffected, unpressured to join the "New Wave" or belong to the Hotel California
-Linda Ronstadt
sound that permeated the radio at the time. Jones' voice was distinctively different, and she did not seem to be afraid of that; people loved her or hated her right away. She was instantly identifiable. When she met Lowell George
in 1977, she was already singing jazz standards ("Makin' Whoopee", "Lush Life
", "My Funny Valentine
", "Something Cool") in local Venice jazz dives. These songs would find their way to her performances in the pop success of her first hit, and her persona would be established as a risk taker—mixing the jazz singer and singer/songwriter genres in a time when it had not been done.
In 1977 she was noticed by rock journalist/attorney Stann Findelle who wrote about her in Performance Magazine and also helped her with some of her publishing. It was in 1978 that her faithful jack-of-all-trades on Westminster Avenue in Venice, offered to manage her, and in a few months had Bonnie Shiftman photographing her, Owen Sloan as her attorney, and major labels coming to see her three showcase performances, culminating in her being signed by Warner Bros. Records
after a bidding war between three labels. The showcases were 30 minutes long, including "Easy Money", "The Moon Is Made of Gold", "Chuck E.'s In Love
", "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as well as a few racy cover tunes. Warner Bros. knew Jones was "the real thing" and obtained a spot for her on Saturday Night Live
the week of her release. They had also filmed what came to be an early music video — a twelve-minute, three-song movie, in which Jones was depicted as kind of girl next door street character. With Time
magazine dubbing her "the Duchess of Coolsville" in its review of her first show, Jones' image was solidified. Saturday Night Live portrayed her amidst garbage cans. Five months later she sold out two shows at Carnegie Hall.
Jones met Tom Waits
at The Troubadour, where they hung out on the sidewalk and sang. During the mid-1970s, Jones also met her long-time collaborator Sal Bernardi, who inspired her "Weasel and the White Boys", and later, "Tigers", (with the Blue Nile) "Flying Cowboys," and "Stewart's Coat". Her definitive harp playing became associated with her early work. She wrote horn charts, including the harmonica. Her arrangements à la Miles Davis
of Sal's harmonica created the haunting "Traces of the Western Slopes," and in 2003, had Sal playing two harmonicas simultaneously on "Tree on Allenford." In 1978 Dr. John
, another future collaborator, appeared in her life. He was sent by legendary jazz producer Tommy Li Puma to check out Miss Jones for his label. Li Puma would eventually produce Dr. John and Rickie singing "Makin' Whoopee", which won them both Grammy Award
s for best jazz duet.
During this period, songwriter Tom Waits
was Rickie's romantic interest. The two met at the Troubadour during a three-song guest spot she had at a friend's (Ivan Ulz). Tom and Rickie were inseparable after her record came out. Waits, who had released three records by the time Rickie Lee Jones debuted, was with her as she toured Europe and America in the summer of 1979.
She went back to LA and he followed. Sometime in November 1979, Francis Ford Coppola
asked Rickie Lee to collaborate with Waits on his upcoming film, One from the Heart
, but she balked, citing the recent breakup. Francis responded that it would be perfect for the film, since the two characters are separated, and he asked her to reconsider. She refused. Waits called in November, but Jones did not return his call. A month later, Waits met his wife, a secretary at Zoetrope
. They never spoke to each other again.
introduced Lowell George
of Little Feat
to Jones' composition "Easy Money" by singing it to him over the telephone. George included the song on his album Thanks, I'll Eat it Here
in 1978. It became the only single for George's first solo attempt, and final record before his death. The announcement of George's death was recorded on the same Rolling Stone
cover featuring Rickie Lee Jones crouching in a black bra and white beret - an issue that would become the largest selling issue in the magazine's history up to that time. Her appearance - as an unknown (her debut record had been released less than a month before) - on Saturday Night Live
television show on April 7, 1979 sparked an overnight sensation. She performed "Chuck E's in Love" and "Coolsville".
A four-song demo of material was circulated around the L.A. music scene in 1978, with Emmylou Harris
later recalling that she had heard an early version of "The Last Chance Texaco" on the demo tape. The recordings came to the attention of Lenny Waronker
, producer and executive at Warner Bros. Records
. Jones was signed to the label, and work commenced on her debut album, co-produced by Waronker and Russ Titelman
. Jones was courted by the major labels, and chose Waronker because of his work with Randy Newman
, and because, she said, she had a vision of standing in his office the moment she saw his name on the back of Newman's Sail Away
album.
Rickie Lee Jones
was released in March 1979 and became a hit, buoyed by the success of the jazz-flavored single "Chuck E.'s In Love
" (#4 Billboard Hot 100
, 1979) and its accompanying video. The album, which included guest appearances by Dr. John
, Randy Newman
, and Michael McDonald
, went to US #3 on the Billboard 200
and produced another US Top 40 hit with "Young Blood" (#40) in late 1979.
Following a successful world tour, the cover of Rolling Stone
magazine, Jones secured five nominations at the Grammy Award
s for Record of the Year
, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
, Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female
, Song of the Year
("Chuck E.'s in Love"), and Best New Artist
, which she won at the January 1980 ceremony. She was also voted Best Jazz Singer by Playboy
magazine's critic and reader polls. Jones was covered by Time
magazine on her very first professional show, in Boston, and they dubbed her "The Duchess of Coolsville."
After moving to New York City
, Jones spent the majority of 1981 working on a follow-up album, written and recorded partly in reaction to the break-up of her relationship with Tom Waits
sometime between late 1979 and early 1980. The songs were written between September 1979 and June 1981 - when the last lyrics to "Traces of the Western Slope" and the last bass on "A Lucky Guy" were put down. The recording sessions finally yielded Pirates
in July 1981.
Rolling Stone remained fervent supporters of Jones, with a second cover feature in 1981; the magazine also included a glowing five-star assessment of Pirates, which became a commercially successful follow-up by reaching US #5 on the Billboard 200. A single, "A Lucky Guy", became the only Billboard Hot 100 hit from the album, peaking at #64, but "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" and "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" became minor Top 40 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. More importantly, historically, is the fact that in America "Woody and Dutch..." became a kind of commercial mainstay. The finger snaps and jive talk beat were imitated in advertisements for McDonald's
, Dr. Pepper, and others.
Jones' quirky fashion as well became quickly edified as well, her skin-tight lycra pant suit, elbow length fingerless gloves, the famous red beret and the red high heels showed up in some capacity everywhere. Pat Benetar can be seen in Rickie Lee suits. Jones career suffered from a lack of guidance after her mentor Bob Regher died in 1986, and her signature vocal sound was imitated by so many, few
people born after 1990 seem to know who she is. Aside from being the first video star (her 11 minute WB short film was so successful in promoting her image that a year later MTV came into being), her influence on pop and jazz was prominent in the early years of her career.
Voted best jazz singer two year in a row by audiences and critics (Playboy and Rolling Stone polls, 1980, 1981), her insistence on covering jazz in a career that clearly was a pop career might have damaged her marketability, but it certainly opened the door for a wider scope of music from pop singers in general. Obscure jazz standards began to show up on the sudden rush of established pop singers to cover jazz standards (the obscure Billy Barnes ballad "Something Cool," for instance, had a rise in popularity after Jones introduced it in concert to rock audiences on her debut tour). Jones' impact on pop music may be rarely measured by the rock media, she was associated with no movement (punk, new wave, country rock) to bring her milage when her own work was ebbing, but there is no doubt that her appearance turned the tide of pop music from disco to singer songwriter.
Another lengthy and successful tour into 1982 followed, before Jones moved back to California, settling in San Francisco. A partial tour memento, the EP Girl at Her Volcano, was issued originally as a 10" record in 1983, featuring a mix of live and studio cover versions of jazz and pop standards, as well as one Jones original, "Hey, Bub," which was recorded for Pirates. Jones then relocated to Paris
.
Jones settled in France
and recorded new material, some of which was released on her third full-length solo album, The Magazine
, in September 1984. The Magazine found Jones combining the melodic, jazz-inspired sound of her debut with the complex structures of Pirates, with a more synth-driven sound, owed to working closely with composer James Newton Howard
on the album. Alongside the more commercially appealing material, Jones included a three-song suite, subtitled "Rorschachs", exploring multi-tracked vocals and synth patterns. Only the upbeat "The Real End" made it into the Billboard Hot 100
in 1984, peaking at #82.
She began to pursue jazz standards, recording "The Moon Is Made of Gold", which was written by her father, and "Autumn Leaves" for Rob Wasserman
's album Duets in 1985. Jones took a four-year break from her recording schedule, largely attributed to the deaths of her mentor Bob Regher and her father, Richard Loris Jones that same year.
Jones returned to the United States in 1987 after a tour of Israel
and Norway
, and the imminent birth of her daughter brought her home to California. In September 1988, work began on her fourth solo album following another Grammy nomination for her Wasserman collaboration "Autumn Leaves". With songs dating from the mid-1980s, Jones teamed up with Steely Dan
's Walter Becker
to craft Flying Cowboys
, which was released on the Geffen Records
label in September 1989. Jones also included some writing collaborations with her husband Pascal Nabet Meyer. "The Horses
", co-written with Becker, was featured in the movie Jerry Maguire
and became an Australian #1 hit single for Daryl Braithwaite
in 1991. The album made the US Top 40, reaching #39 on the Billboard 200, with the college radio hit "Satellites" making it to #23 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Jones ended the decade on a high note with her duet with Dr. John
, a cover of "Makin' Whoopee", winning her second Grammy Award
, this time in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Collaboration.
, Jones enlisted David Was
to helm her idiosyncratic album of covers, Pop Pop, ranging from jazz and blues standards to Tin Pan Alley
to Jimi Hendrix
's "Up from the Skies". The album, released in September 1991, was a hit on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums (#8, 1991), but became her least commercially successful record yet, reaching #121 on the Billboard 200.
Soon after, The Orb
issued "Little Fluffy Clouds
", featuring a sampled
Jones interview. However, Jones objected to the unauthorized use of her voice and pursued the issue in the legal system. In 1992 she toured extensively with Rob Wasserman, with whom she had collaborated in the mid-1980s.
Her swan song for Geffen Records was Traffic From Paradise
, released in September 1993. The album was slightly more successful than its predecessor, reaching #111 on the Billboard 200, and was notable for its collaboration with Leo Kottke
, its musical diversity, and a cover of David Bowie
's "Rebel Rebel", which was slated to be the title track for the Oscar-winning film Boys Don't Cry
, when Bowie's publishing pulled the plug by asking for too much money from the little independent movie.
A number of television and movies had licensed her work in these years, including Thirtysomething, Frankie and Johnny, When a Man Loves a Woman
, Jerry Maguire
, Friends with Money
and the French film Subway
. Jones sang a duet with Lyle Lovett on "North Dakota" for his Joshua Judges Ruth CD.
Jones' first solo shows in 1994 paved the way for her "unplugged" acoustic album Naked Songs
, released in September 1995 through a one-off deal with Reprise Records
. The album, which reached US #121 on the Billboard 200, featured acoustic re-workings of Jones classics and album material, but no new songs.
Emphasizing her experimentation and change, Jones embraced electronic music for Ghostyhead, released on Warner Bros. Records
in June 1997. The album, a collaboration with Rick Boston
(both are credited with production and with twenty-one instruments in common), found Jones employing beats, loops, and electronic rhythms, and also showcased Jones' connection with the trip-hop movement of the mid-to-late 1990s. Despite some positive reviews, it did not meet with commercial success, peaking at US #159 on the Billboard 200. There are critics who consider this her best record, and who believe that it had large impact on electronic singer-songwriter music that would emerge 10 years later.
1990 - 1996 seemed to be Jones' lowest professional ebb. Everything she recorded was met with extreme skepticism and even harsh criticism. Her live shows, on the other hand, were lauded as a return to form. She had not really been on a stage in America (at least the eastern half) in eight years when she toured for Flying Cowboys.
Jones' second album of cover versions, It's Like This
, was released on the independent record label Artemis Records in September 2000. The album included cover versions of material by artists including The Beatles
, Steely Dan
, Marvin Gaye
, and the Gershwin brothers. The album made it onto three Billboard charts — #148 on the Billboard 200, #10 on Top Internet Albums, and #42 on Top Independent Albums. The album also secured Jones another Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
After starting up her official website, Artemis issued an archival Jones release, Live at Red Rocks, in November 2001, featuring material recorded during the Flying Cowboys era tour of 1989-1990, including a Lyle Lovett
duet.
After Ghostyhead, Jones largely retired from public view and admitted that she had battled writers' block. She spent much of her time at her home in Olympia, Washington
, tending her garden and bringing up her now-teenage daughter Charlotte.
Released on the independent V2
in October 2003, The Evening Of My Best Day
featured influences from jazz, Celtic folk, blues, R&B, rock
, and gospel
, and spawned a successful and lengthy spurt of touring. The album peaked at US #189 on the Billboard 200. The CD helped to swing her career away from an apparent middle-of the-road perception, a posture she seemed furiously bent on avoiding. She invited punk bass icon Mike Watt
(the Minutemen, Iggy Pop) to perform on "It Takes You There", while "Ugly Man" was a direct aim at the George Bush 'regime' evoking, with an anthem-like Hugh Masekela
arrangement, what she termed 'the Black Panther horns', and calling for 'revolution, everywhere that you're not looking, revolution.'
Renewed interest in Jones led to the three-disc anthology Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology, released through reissue specialists Rhino
in June 2005. A lavish package, the alphabetically arranged release featured album songs, live material, covers, and demos, and featured essays by Jones as well as various collaborators, as well as tributes from artists including Randy Newman
, Walter Becker
, Quincy Jones
, and Tori Amos
.
Also in 2005, Jones was invited to take part in her boyfriend and collaborator Lee Cantelon's music version of his book The Words, a book of the words of Christ, set into simple chapters and themes. Cantelon's idea was to have various artists recite the text over primal rock music, but Jones elected to try something that had never been done, to improvise her own impression of the texts, melody and lyric, in stream of consciousness sessions, rather than read Jesus' words. The sessions were recorded at an artist's loft on Exposition Boulevard in Culver City. When Cantelon could no longer finish the project, Jones picked it up as her own record and hired Rob Schnaf to finish the production at Sunset Sound in 2007, and the result was The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, released on the independent New West Records
in February 2007. It included "Circle in the Sand," recorded for the soundtrack
to the film Friends With Money
(2006), for which Jones also cut "Hillbilly Song." The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard debuted at #158 on the Billboard 200 and #12 on the Top Independent Albums tally. Writer Ann Powers included this on her list of Grammy-worthy CDs for 2007.
For her next project, Jones opted to finish half-written songs dating back as far as 1986 ("Wild Girl") as well as include new ones (the 2008-penned "The Gospel of Carlos, Norman and Smith," "Bonfires"). Working closely with long-time collaborator David Kalish, with whom Jones first worked on 1981's Pirates, Jones released Balm in Gilead on the Fantasy label in November 2009. The album also included a new recording of "The Moon Is Made Of Gold," a song written by her father Richard Loris Jones in 1954. Ben Harper
, Victoria Williams
, Jon Brion
, Alison Krauss
and the late Vic Chesnutt
all made contributions to the album.
In May 2010 Jones performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the VIVID festival.
's Peculiaroso
), and provided a voiceover for Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night
, in which she played the Blue Fairy (Known as the Good Fairy or Fairy Godmother in the film). Jones also enjoys gardening.
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
, blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
, soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
, and jazz standards
Standard (music)
In music, a standard is a tune or song of established popularity.-See also:* Blues standard* Jazz standard* Pop standard* Great American Songbook-Further reading:* Greatest Rock Standards, published by Hal Leonard ISBN 0793588391...
.
Childhood
Rickie Lee Jones was born on the north side of Chicago to Bettye and Richard Jones. Her paternal grandfather, Frank Jones, the son a West Virginia dry goods store owner, lost a leg as a young boy, playing by the railroad tracks. This handicap would become an asset on stage, when Frank 'Peg Leg Jones' became a Vaudevillian of some notoriety, A singer/dancer/comedian, Peg Leg Jones routine consisted of playing the ukelele, singing songs like 'Bye Bye Blackbird' and 'The Sunny Side of the Street', danced the soft shoe, and telling stories in a Civil War costume. His wife, Myrtle Lee, a chorus girl, had been adopted into a Virginia family, and while her ethnic origin is unknown, Frank was Welsh and Irish. The family traveled the Vaudeville circuit with their four children, making Chicago their home when not on the road. Richard Loris, the third child, returned to Chicago after four years in the army in WW II. There he met Rickie Lee's mother, Bettye Glen. Rickie was the third child, named after her father and grandmother, spending her early childhood in Chicago. Her elder brother and sister spent formative years in catholic boarding schools, before their father moved the family to Phoenix in 1960.Rickie grew up in the wide open spaces of Arizona, a powerful imagery that would haunt much of her writing throughout her life. Her early childhood was spent in the company of imaginary friends. Her elder sister was married at the age of 15, while her elder brother was severely hurt in a motorcycle accident at the age of 16. The young Rickie Lee struggled socially, the itinerant outside, the family moving and changing schools every year or two. Luckily she was a gifted student, though teachers reported that she 'daydreamed' all day. It was hard enough being new, but having a name like 'Rickie' put her on the defensive in each new school. Like a boy named Sue
A Boy Named Sue
"A Boy Named Sue" is a song written by Shel Silverstein and performed by Johnny Cash. Cash was at the height of his popularity when he recorded the song live at California's San Quentin State Prison at a concert on 24 February 1969. The concert was filmed by Granada Television for later...
, perhaps,
Rickie got tough or died and her sense of self was indisputable. This uniqueness of character would eventually find a home on stage. By 1966, her father had become a violent alcoholic. Bettye, on the other hand, had an intrinsic strength that carried the family no matter what befell them, perhaps due largely to her own childhood spent in orphanages with her three brothers. She vowed her children would never know poverty and would have a chance to do everything she could not. Richard, it seemed, provided the dreams and Betty provided the food. She often worked two shifts at her waitress jobs and made sure her children wanted for nothing. By the age of twelve, Rickie Lee had studied ballet and tap, acting, modeling, and was an AAU swimmer. When she ran away from home in 1969, she enrolled in Little Theater in Phoenix.
Early career
Jones started playing publicly at the age of 21, with Easy Money — a 9-piece country rock band based in Los Angeles as well as seen often jamming at the legendary Taurus Tavern in Santa Monica with Blues/Soul legend Sam Taylor & his band, A Band Called Sam. She had a brief job with a Top 40 band, and a gig at Art Leboe's on Sunset StripSunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
with Little Caesar and the Romans.
At the age of 22 she met Alfred Johnson
Al Johnson (musician)
Alfred Orlando Johnson is an American R&B singer, writer, arranger and producer.Born in Newport News, Virginia in 1948, Johnson attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. and while there, co-founded the soul group, The Unifics. The group, with Johnson as lead singer, scored three hits on the...
, an aspiring black singer/songwriter who shared a love of the music of Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved considerable critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry, and had commercial success with artists such as Barbra Streisand and The 5th...
and lyrics of Little Feat
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....
. He heard Rickie sing and insisted she come over to his apartment, which was littered with headless dolls and thousands of dollars in recording equipment. The two hit it off right away. They wrote a song the day after they met, and soon began working clubs together as a duet. The early songs saw Jones fleshing out a style of her own, moving out of the black sound and into her own "'father's daughter' sound, less vibrato and more of my tone, the way he sang, it just seemed to come naturally to me, when I sang jazz."
Nick Mathe, ex-school teacher and a neighbor, took an interest in her music, helped her get publicity photos, and booked her at some local showcase clubs. She was signed within six months of this first show. It was clear she was unique and unaffected, unpressured to join the "New Wave" or belong to the Hotel California
Hotel California
Hotel California is the fifth studio album released by the American rock band the Eagles, in late 1976. It is the first Eagles album without founding member Bernie Leadon and the first album with Joe Walsh. It is also the last album featuring original bass player and singer Randy Meisner...
-Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
sound that permeated the radio at the time. Jones' voice was distinctively different, and she did not seem to be afraid of that; people loved her or hated her right away. She was instantly identifiable. When she met Lowell George
Lowell George
Lowell Thomas George was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, who was the main guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Little Feat.- Early years :...
in 1977, she was already singing jazz standards ("Makin' Whoopee", "Lush Life
Lush Life (song)
"Lush Life" is a jazz standard with lyrics and music written by Billy Strayhorn from 1933 to 1938. However, the song was only performed privately by Strayhorn until he and vocalist Kay Davis performed it on November 13, 1948 with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Carnegie Hall...
", "My Funny Valentine
My Funny Valentine
"My Funny Valentine" is a show tune from the 1937 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart musical Babes in Arms in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green...
", "Something Cool") in local Venice jazz dives. These songs would find their way to her performances in the pop success of her first hit, and her persona would be established as a risk taker—mixing the jazz singer and singer/songwriter genres in a time when it had not been done.
In 1977 she was noticed by rock journalist/attorney Stann Findelle who wrote about her in Performance Magazine and also helped her with some of her publishing. It was in 1978 that her faithful jack-of-all-trades on Westminster Avenue in Venice, offered to manage her, and in a few months had Bonnie Shiftman photographing her, Owen Sloan as her attorney, and major labels coming to see her three showcase performances, culminating in her being signed by Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
after a bidding war between three labels. The showcases were 30 minutes long, including "Easy Money", "The Moon Is Made of Gold", "Chuck E.'s In Love
Chuck E.'s In Love
"Chuck E.’s In Love" is a song by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Released in 1979 on her eponymous debut album, Rickie Lee Jones from Warner Bros. Records, the song became her biggest hit, going to number 4 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 list."Chuck E.’s In Love" is Track 1 on Side 1...
", "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as well as a few racy cover tunes. Warner Bros. knew Jones was "the real thing" and obtained a spot for her on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
the week of her release. They had also filmed what came to be an early music video — a twelve-minute, three-song movie, in which Jones was depicted as kind of girl next door street character. With Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine dubbing her "the Duchess of Coolsville" in its review of her first show, Jones' image was solidified. Saturday Night Live portrayed her amidst garbage cans. Five months later she sold out two shows at Carnegie Hall.
Jones met Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
at The Troubadour, where they hung out on the sidewalk and sang. During the mid-1970s, Jones also met her long-time collaborator Sal Bernardi, who inspired her "Weasel and the White Boys", and later, "Tigers", (with the Blue Nile) "Flying Cowboys," and "Stewart's Coat". Her definitive harp playing became associated with her early work. She wrote horn charts, including the harmonica. Her arrangements à la Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
of Sal's harmonica created the haunting "Traces of the Western Slopes," and in 2003, had Sal playing two harmonicas simultaneously on "Tree on Allenford." In 1978 Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, another future collaborator, appeared in her life. He was sent by legendary jazz producer Tommy Li Puma to check out Miss Jones for his label. Li Puma would eventually produce Dr. John and Rickie singing "Makin' Whoopee", which won them both Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s for best jazz duet.
During this period, songwriter Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
was Rickie's romantic interest. The two met at the Troubadour during a three-song guest spot she had at a friend's (Ivan Ulz). Tom and Rickie were inseparable after her record came out. Waits, who had released three records by the time Rickie Lee Jones debuted, was with her as she toured Europe and America in the summer of 1979.
She went back to LA and he followed. Sometime in November 1979, Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
asked Rickie Lee to collaborate with Waits on his upcoming film, One from the Heart
One from the Heart
One from the Heart is a 1982 musical film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The characters themselves do not actually sing but the powerful score dominates the movie. It is set entirely in Las Vegas, on the Las Vegas Strip and the desert surrounding the city...
, but she balked, citing the recent breakup. Francis responded that it would be perfect for the film, since the two characters are separated, and he asked her to reconsider. She refused. Waits called in November, but Jones did not return his call. A month later, Waits met his wife, a secretary at Zoetrope
American Zoetrope
American Zoetrope is a studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Founded on December 12, 1969, American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV...
. They never spoke to each other again.
Early success: 1978–82
By 1977, Jones was performing original material at the Ala Carte club in Hollywood with Alfred Johnson, with whom she had composed "Weasel and the White Boys Cool" and "Company". She was noticed there by rock journalist/attorney Stann Findelle, who wrote about her in Performance Magazine and advised her in her career for a short time. Jones' success on the club scene soon translated into songwriting kudos, when her friend Ivan UlzIvan Ulz
Ivan Ulz is an American songwriter.-History:After writing and recording his first song, A Letter to Hayley in 1962, Ulz decided to pursue a songwriting career...
introduced Lowell George
Lowell George
Lowell Thomas George was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, who was the main guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Little Feat.- Early years :...
of Little Feat
Little Feat
Little Feat is an American rock band formed by singer-songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne in 1969 in Los Angeles....
to Jones' composition "Easy Money" by singing it to him over the telephone. George included the song on his album Thanks, I'll Eat it Here
Thanks, I'll Eat It Here
Thanks, I'll Eat it Here is the title of the only solo album by the late rock and roll singer-songwriter Lowell George. While George is best known for his work with Little Feat, by 1977 Lowell felt that they were moving increasingly into jazz-rock, a form in which he felt little interest. As a...
in 1978. It became the only single for George's first solo attempt, and final record before his death. The announcement of George's death was recorded on the same Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
cover featuring Rickie Lee Jones crouching in a black bra and white beret - an issue that would become the largest selling issue in the magazine's history up to that time. Her appearance - as an unknown (her debut record had been released less than a month before) - on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
television show on April 7, 1979 sparked an overnight sensation. She performed "Chuck E's in Love" and "Coolsville".
A four-song demo of material was circulated around the L.A. music scene in 1978, with Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...
later recalling that she had heard an early version of "The Last Chance Texaco" on the demo tape. The recordings came to the attention of Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker
Lenny Waronker is a record producer for Warner Bros. Records.-Career:He produced recording sessions for Nancy Sinatra, The Everly Brothers, Van Dyke Parks, The Beau Brummels, Harpers Bizarre, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie, Maria Muldaur, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, ...
, producer and executive at Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
. Jones was signed to the label, and work commenced on her debut album, co-produced by Waronker and Russ Titelman
Russ Titelman
Russ Titelman is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song "Higher Love", and his second and third for Eric Clapton's Journeyman and Unplugged albums...
. Jones was courted by the major labels, and chose Waronker because of his work with Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
, and because, she said, she had a vision of standing in his office the moment she saw his name on the back of Newman's Sail Away
Sail Away (Randy Newman album)
-Personnel:* Randy Newman - arranger, composer, piano, vocals* Ry Cooder - guitars on "Last Night I Had a Dream" & "You Can Leave Your Hat On"* Russ Titelman - guitars* Jim Keltner - drums* Gene Parsons - drums* Earl Palmer - drums* Chris Ethridge - bass...
album.
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones (album)
Rickie Lee Jones is the eponymous debut album of singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. After arriving in California in the mid-70s, Jones started taking songwriting more seriously, and by 1977 had met singer-songwriters Chuck E...
was released in March 1979 and became a hit, buoyed by the success of the jazz-flavored single "Chuck E.'s In Love
Chuck E.'s In Love
"Chuck E.’s In Love" is a song by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Released in 1979 on her eponymous debut album, Rickie Lee Jones from Warner Bros. Records, the song became her biggest hit, going to number 4 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 list."Chuck E.’s In Love" is Track 1 on Side 1...
" (#4 Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, 1979) and its accompanying video. The album, which included guest appearances by Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
, and Michael McDonald
Michael McDonald (singer)
Michael McDonald is a five-time Grammy Award winning American singer and songwriter. McDonald is known for a soulful baritone singing style and a multi-octave range. He began his career singing back-up vocals with Steely Dan...
, went to US #3 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
and produced another US Top 40 hit with "Young Blood" (#40) in late 1979.
Following a successful world tour, the cover of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, Jones secured five nominations at the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s for Record of the Year
Grammy Award for Record of the Year
The Record of the Year is one of the four most prestigious Grammy Awards presented annually. It has been awarded since 1959.-History:The honorees through its history have been:*1959-1965: Artist only.*1966-1998: Artist and producer....
, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance is the latest in a series of awards recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. The award goes to the artist...
, Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female
Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to female recording artists for works containing quality vocal performances in the rock music genre...
, Song of the Year
Grammy Award for Song of the Year
The Song of the Year is one of the four most prestigious awards in the Grammy Awards ceremony, if not in all of the American music industry. It has been awarded since 1959 and unlike the Record of the Year award, which goes to the performer and production team of a single song, Song of the Year...
("Chuck E.'s in Love"), and Best New Artist
Grammy Award for Best New Artist
The Grammy Award for Best New Artist has been awarded since 1959. Years reflect the year in which the Grammy Awards were handed out, for records released in the previous year. The award was not presented in 1967...
, which she won at the January 1980 ceremony. She was also voted Best Jazz Singer by Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine's critic and reader polls. Jones was covered by Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine on her very first professional show, in Boston, and they dubbed her "The Duchess of Coolsville."
After moving to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Jones spent the majority of 1981 working on a follow-up album, written and recorded partly in reaction to the break-up of her relationship with Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
sometime between late 1979 and early 1980. The songs were written between September 1979 and June 1981 - when the last lyrics to "Traces of the Western Slope" and the last bass on "A Lucky Guy" were put down. The recording sessions finally yielded Pirates
Pirates (album)
Pirates is the second album by Chicago-born singer, songwriter, and musician Rickie Lee Jones, released in July 1981, two years after her eponymous debut Rickie Lee Jones. The album is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician Tom Waits after the success of her debut album...
in July 1981.
Rolling Stone remained fervent supporters of Jones, with a second cover feature in 1981; the magazine also included a glowing five-star assessment of Pirates, which became a commercially successful follow-up by reaching US #5 on the Billboard 200. A single, "A Lucky Guy", became the only Billboard Hot 100 hit from the album, peaking at #64, but "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" and "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" became minor Top 40 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. More importantly, historically, is the fact that in America "Woody and Dutch..." became a kind of commercial mainstay. The finger snaps and jive talk beat were imitated in advertisements for McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
, Dr. Pepper, and others.
Jones' quirky fashion as well became quickly edified as well, her skin-tight lycra pant suit, elbow length fingerless gloves, the famous red beret and the red high heels showed up in some capacity everywhere. Pat Benetar can be seen in Rickie Lee suits. Jones career suffered from a lack of guidance after her mentor Bob Regher died in 1986, and her signature vocal sound was imitated by so many, few
people born after 1990 seem to know who she is. Aside from being the first video star (her 11 minute WB short film was so successful in promoting her image that a year later MTV came into being), her influence on pop and jazz was prominent in the early years of her career.
Voted best jazz singer two year in a row by audiences and critics (Playboy and Rolling Stone polls, 1980, 1981), her insistence on covering jazz in a career that clearly was a pop career might have damaged her marketability, but it certainly opened the door for a wider scope of music from pop singers in general. Obscure jazz standards began to show up on the sudden rush of established pop singers to cover jazz standards (the obscure Billy Barnes ballad "Something Cool," for instance, had a rise in popularity after Jones introduced it in concert to rock audiences on her debut tour). Jones' impact on pop music may be rarely measured by the rock media, she was associated with no movement (punk, new wave, country rock) to bring her milage when her own work was ebbing, but there is no doubt that her appearance turned the tide of pop music from disco to singer songwriter.
Another lengthy and successful tour into 1982 followed, before Jones moved back to California, settling in San Francisco. A partial tour memento, the EP Girl at Her Volcano, was issued originally as a 10" record in 1983, featuring a mix of live and studio cover versions of jazz and pop standards, as well as one Jones original, "Hey, Bub," which was recorded for Pirates. Jones then relocated to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
Period of transition: 1983–89
The remainder of the 1980s found Jones falling out of favor commercially and pursuing a more complex and experimental sound.Jones settled in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and recorded new material, some of which was released on her third full-length solo album, The Magazine
The Magazine (album)
The Magazine is an album by Rickie Lee Jones, released in September 1984. It is her third full-length studio album, and was released as the follow-up to Pirates...
, in September 1984. The Magazine found Jones combining the melodic, jazz-inspired sound of her debut with the complex structures of Pirates, with a more synth-driven sound, owed to working closely with composer James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films...
on the album. Alongside the more commercially appealing material, Jones included a three-song suite, subtitled "Rorschachs", exploring multi-tracked vocals and synth patterns. Only the upbeat "The Real End" made it into the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
in 1984, peaking at #82.
She began to pursue jazz standards, recording "The Moon Is Made of Gold", which was written by her father, and "Autumn Leaves" for Rob Wasserman
Rob Wasserman
Rob Wasserman is an American bass player, who has played with a wide variety of musicians including David Grisman, Lou Reed, Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Bruce Cockburn, Van Morrison, Rickie Lee Jones, Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, Mark Morris, Aaron Neville, Chris Whitley, Studs Terkel, Pete Seeger,...
's album Duets in 1985. Jones took a four-year break from her recording schedule, largely attributed to the deaths of her mentor Bob Regher and her father, Richard Loris Jones that same year.
Jones returned to the United States in 1987 after a tour of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, and the imminent birth of her daughter brought her home to California. In September 1988, work began on her fourth solo album following another Grammy nomination for her Wasserman collaboration "Autumn Leaves". With songs dating from the mid-1980s, Jones teamed up with Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
's Walter Becker
Walter Becker
Walter Carl Becker is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder, guitarist, bassist and a co-writer of Steely Dan.-Career:...
to craft Flying Cowboys
Flying Cowboys
Flying Cowboys is an album by Rickie Lee Jones, released in September 1989 and produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan.- Genesis :After the release of The Magazine in 1984, Jones retreated from the limelight...
, which was released on the Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
label in September 1989. Jones also included some writing collaborations with her husband Pascal Nabet Meyer. "The Horses
The Horses
"The Horses" is a song written by Rickie Lee Jones and Walter Becker. It originally appeared on Jones' 1989 album Flying Cowboys. Whilst not released as a single, the original version did appear in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, also featuring on the film's soundtrack.The song was covered by Daryl...
", co-written with Becker, was featured in the movie Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe...
and became an Australian #1 hit single for Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite is an Australian pop singer. Best known as the lead vocalist of Sherbet, Braithwaite has also sustained a successful solo career, placing 15 singles in the Australian top 40, including the No...
in 1991. The album made the US Top 40, reaching #39 on the Billboard 200, with the college radio hit "Satellites" making it to #23 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Jones ended the decade on a high note with her duet with Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, a cover of "Makin' Whoopee", winning her second Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
, this time in the category of Best Jazz Vocal Collaboration.
Experimentation and change: 1990–2001
Following a tour with Lyle LovettLyle Lovett
Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...
, Jones enlisted David Was
David Was
David Was is, with his stage-brother Don Was, the founder of the 1980s pop group, Was .Was was born in Detroit, Michigan...
to helm her idiosyncratic album of covers, Pop Pop, ranging from jazz and blues standards to Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
to Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
's "Up from the Skies". The album, released in September 1991, was a hit on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums (#8, 1991), but became her least commercially successful record yet, reaching #121 on the Billboard 200.
Soon after, The Orb
The Orb
Throughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...
issued "Little Fluffy Clouds
Little Fluffy Clouds
"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the English ambient house group The Orb. It was originally released in July 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at #87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld...
", featuring a sampled
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
Jones interview. However, Jones objected to the unauthorized use of her voice and pursued the issue in the legal system. In 1992 she toured extensively with Rob Wasserman, with whom she had collaborated in the mid-1980s.
Her swan song for Geffen Records was Traffic From Paradise
Traffic from Paradise
Traffic From Paradise is the seventh album by musician Rickie Lee Jones, released in September 1993.-Track listing:Songs written by Rickie Lee Jones, except where noted.# "Pink Flamingos" – 6:31# "Altar Boy" – 2:27# "Stewart's Coat" – 4:31...
, released in September 1993. The album was slightly more successful than its predecessor, reaching #111 on the Billboard 200, and was notable for its collaboration with Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke
Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
, its musical diversity, and a cover of David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
's "Rebel Rebel", which was slated to be the title track for the Oscar-winning film Boys Don't Cry
Boys Don't Cry (film)
Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë...
, when Bowie's publishing pulled the plug by asking for too much money from the little independent movie.
A number of television and movies had licensed her work in these years, including Thirtysomething, Frankie and Johnny, When a Man Loves a Woman
When a Man Loves a Woman (film)
When a Man Loves a Woman is a 1994 American romantic drama film written by Al Franken and Ronald Bass, starring Andy García, Meg Ryan, Tina Majorino, Mae Whitman, Ellen Burstyn, Lauren Tom and Philip Seymour Hoffman....
, Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe...
, Friends with Money
Friends with Money
Friends with Money is a 2006 film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. It opened the 2006 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2006 and went into limited release in North America on April 7, 2006.-Plot:...
and the French film Subway
Subway (film)
Subway is a 1985 French film directed by Luc Besson, starring Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert and is part of the Cinema du look movement.-Plot:...
. Jones sang a duet with Lyle Lovett on "North Dakota" for his Joshua Judges Ruth CD.
Jones' first solo shows in 1994 paved the way for her "unplugged" acoustic album Naked Songs
Naked Songs - Live and Acoustic
Naked Songs - Live and Acoustic is an album by American singer–songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in October 1995 via Reprise Records. It reached No...
, released in September 1995 through a one-off deal with Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
. The album, which reached US #121 on the Billboard 200, featured acoustic re-workings of Jones classics and album material, but no new songs.
Emphasizing her experimentation and change, Jones embraced electronic music for Ghostyhead, released on Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
in June 1997. The album, a collaboration with Rick Boston
Rick Boston
Rick Boston is a musician based in Los Angeles. As of about 1990, he was a member of Hand of Fate. He subsequently worked extensively with Dave Allen as the frontman of Low Pop Suicide, making a series of releases on World Domination Recordings...
(both are credited with production and with twenty-one instruments in common), found Jones employing beats, loops, and electronic rhythms, and also showcased Jones' connection with the trip-hop movement of the mid-to-late 1990s. Despite some positive reviews, it did not meet with commercial success, peaking at US #159 on the Billboard 200. There are critics who consider this her best record, and who believe that it had large impact on electronic singer-songwriter music that would emerge 10 years later.
1990 - 1996 seemed to be Jones' lowest professional ebb. Everything she recorded was met with extreme skepticism and even harsh criticism. Her live shows, on the other hand, were lauded as a return to form. She had not really been on a stage in America (at least the eastern half) in eight years when she toured for Flying Cowboys.
Jones' second album of cover versions, It's Like This
It's Like This
It's Like This is an album by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in 2000.- Track listing :#"Show Biz Kids" – 4:35#"Trouble Man" – 5:12#"For No One" – 2:32...
, was released on the independent record label Artemis Records in September 2000. The album included cover versions of material by artists including The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, and the Gershwin brothers. The album made it onto three Billboard charts — #148 on the Billboard 200, #10 on Top Internet Albums, and #42 on Top Independent Albums. The album also secured Jones another Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
After starting up her official website, Artemis issued an archival Jones release, Live at Red Rocks, in November 2001, featuring material recorded during the Flying Cowboys era tour of 1989-1990, including a Lyle Lovett
Lyle Lovett
Lyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...
duet.
Artistic renaissance: 2002 and beyond
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census...
, tending her garden and bringing up her now-teenage daughter Charlotte.
Released on the independent V2
V2 Records
V2 Records is a record label that is owned by Universal Music Group as of October 2007. The label was founded in 1996 by Richard Branson, five years after he sold Virgin Records to EMI....
in October 2003, The Evening Of My Best Day
The Evening of My Best Day
The Evening of My Best Day is an album by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in 2003.-Track listing:All tracks composed and arranged by Rickie Lee Jones; except where indicated# "Ugly Man" – 4:20# "Second Chance" – 4:53...
featured influences from jazz, Celtic folk, blues, R&B, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, and spawned a successful and lengthy spurt of touring. The album peaked at US #189 on the Billboard 200. The CD helped to swing her career away from an apparent middle-of the-road perception, a posture she seemed furiously bent on avoiding. She invited punk bass icon Mike Watt
Mike Watt
Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...
(the Minutemen, Iggy Pop) to perform on "It Takes You There", while "Ugly Man" was a direct aim at the George Bush 'regime' evoking, with an anthem-like Hugh Masekela
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramopolo Masekela is a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, composer, and singer.-Early life:Masekela was born in Kwa-Guqa Township, Witbank, South Africa. He began singing and playing piano as a child...
arrangement, what she termed 'the Black Panther horns', and calling for 'revolution, everywhere that you're not looking, revolution.'
Renewed interest in Jones led to the three-disc anthology Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology, released through reissue specialists Rhino
Rhino Entertainment
Rhino Entertainment Company is an American specialty record label and production company. It is owned by Warner Music Group.-History:Rhino was originally a novelty song and reissue company during the 1970s and 1980s, releasing compilation albums of pop, rock & roll, and rhythm & blues successes...
in June 2005. A lavish package, the alphabetically arranged release featured album songs, live material, covers, and demos, and featured essays by Jones as well as various collaborators, as well as tributes from artists including Randy Newman
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart "Randy" Newman is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist who is known for his mordant pop songs and for film scores....
, Walter Becker
Walter Becker
Walter Carl Becker is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the co-founder, guitarist, bassist and a co-writer of Steely Dan.-Career:...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, and Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...
.
Also in 2005, Jones was invited to take part in her boyfriend and collaborator Lee Cantelon's music version of his book The Words, a book of the words of Christ, set into simple chapters and themes. Cantelon's idea was to have various artists recite the text over primal rock music, but Jones elected to try something that had never been done, to improvise her own impression of the texts, melody and lyric, in stream of consciousness sessions, rather than read Jesus' words. The sessions were recorded at an artist's loft on Exposition Boulevard in Culver City. When Cantelon could no longer finish the project, Jones picked it up as her own record and hired Rob Schnaf to finish the production at Sunset Sound in 2007, and the result was The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, released on the independent New West Records
New West Records
New West Records is a record label based in Los Angeles, California, Austin, Texas, and Athens, Georgia. It was established in 1998, and has been home to several indie rock and alternative country bands as well as representing the PBS show Austin City Limits...
in February 2007. It included "Circle in the Sand," recorded for the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
to the film Friends With Money
Friends with Money
Friends with Money is a 2006 film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. It opened the 2006 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2006 and went into limited release in North America on April 7, 2006.-Plot:...
(2006), for which Jones also cut "Hillbilly Song." The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard debuted at #158 on the Billboard 200 and #12 on the Top Independent Albums tally. Writer Ann Powers included this on her list of Grammy-worthy CDs for 2007.
For her next project, Jones opted to finish half-written songs dating back as far as 1986 ("Wild Girl") as well as include new ones (the 2008-penned "The Gospel of Carlos, Norman and Smith," "Bonfires"). Working closely with long-time collaborator David Kalish, with whom Jones first worked on 1981's Pirates, Jones released Balm in Gilead on the Fantasy label in November 2009. The album also included a new recording of "The Moon Is Made Of Gold," a song written by her father Richard Loris Jones in 1954. Ben Harper
Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
, Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams
Victoria Williams is an American singer-songwriter and musician, originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, although she has resided in Southern California throughout her musical career. She is noted for her descriptive songwriting talent, which she has used to immerse the listener of her songs into a...
, Jon Brion
Jon Brion
Jon Brion is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.-Early life:...
, Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
and the late Vic Chesnutt
Vic Chesnutt
James Victor "Vic" Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success didn't come until 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a tribute album of mainstream artists...
all made contributions to the album.
In May 2010 Jones performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the VIVID festival.
Other work
In 2001, Jones was the organizer of the web community "Furniture for the People", which is involved in gardening, social activism, bootleg exchange and left wing politics. She has produced records (including Leo KottkeLeo Kottke
Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...
's Peculiaroso
Peculiaroso
Peculiaroso is an album by American guitarist Leo Kottke, released in 1994.-History:Coming more than two years after the Great Big Boy album, where all tracks included vocal parts, Peculiaroso returned to Kottke's usual mix of vocal and instrumental selections...
), and provided a voiceover for Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night
Pinocchio and the Emperor of The Night is a 1987 animated film that was released on December 25, 1987 by New World Pictures. and is a unofficial sequel to Pinocchio . Created by the now defunct Filmation Studios, the movie underperformed at the box office, having a cost of $10 million but making...
, in which she played the Blue Fairy (Known as the Good Fairy or Fairy Godmother in the film). Jones also enjoys gardening.
Albums
- Rickie Lee JonesRickie Lee Jones (album)Rickie Lee Jones is the eponymous debut album of singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. After arriving in California in the mid-70s, Jones started taking songwriting more seriously, and by 1977 had met singer-songwriters Chuck E...
- (1979) US #3, UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
#18 - PiratesPirates (album)Pirates is the second album by Chicago-born singer, songwriter, and musician Rickie Lee Jones, released in July 1981, two years after her eponymous debut Rickie Lee Jones. The album is partially an account of her break-up with fellow musician Tom Waits after the success of her debut album...
- (1981) US #5, UK #37 - Girl at Her VolcanoGirl at Her VolcanoGirl at Her Volcano is an EP and the third release by musician Rickie Lee Jones.- Overview :After touring through much of 1982 following the release of Pirates, Rickie Lee Jones released the Girl at Her Volcano EP...
(EP) - (1983) US #39, UK #51 - The MagazineThe Magazine (album)The Magazine is an album by Rickie Lee Jones, released in September 1984. It is her third full-length studio album, and was released as the follow-up to Pirates...
- (1984) US #44, UK #40 - Flying CowboysFlying CowboysFlying Cowboys is an album by Rickie Lee Jones, released in September 1989 and produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan.- Genesis :After the release of The Magazine in 1984, Jones retreated from the limelight...
- (1989) US #39, UK #50 - Pop Pop - (1991) US #121
- Traffic from ParadiseTraffic from ParadiseTraffic From Paradise is the seventh album by musician Rickie Lee Jones, released in September 1993.-Track listing:Songs written by Rickie Lee Jones, except where noted.# "Pink Flamingos" – 6:31# "Altar Boy" – 2:27# "Stewart's Coat" – 4:31...
- (1993) US #111 - Naked Songs - Live And AcousticNaked Songs - Live and AcousticNaked Songs - Live and Acoustic is an album by American singer–songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in October 1995 via Reprise Records. It reached No...
- (1995) US #121 - GhostyheadGhostyheadGHoSTYhead is an album by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in 1997.- Track listing :#"little yellow town" – 6:54#"road kill" – 4:41#"matters" – 6:04#"firewalker" – 3:56#"Howard" – 4:45#"ghOsTYhead" – 5:36...
- (1997) US #159 - It's Like ThisIt's Like ThisIt's Like This is an album by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in 2000.- Track listing :#"Show Biz Kids" – 4:35#"Trouble Man" – 5:12#"For No One" – 2:32...
- (2000) US #148, UK #185 - Live at Red Rocks - (2001)
- The Evening of My Best DayThe Evening of My Best DayThe Evening of My Best Day is an album by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in 2003.-Track listing:All tracks composed and arranged by Rickie Lee Jones; except where indicated# "Ugly Man" – 4:20# "Second Chance" – 4:53...
- (2003) US #189 - Rickie Lee Jones: Duchess of Coolsville - (2005)
- The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard - February 2007 US #158
- Balm in Gilead - November 2009
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
US Modern Rock | US Mainstream Rock | UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
|||
| 1979 | "Chuck E.'s In Love Chuck E.'s In Love "Chuck E.’s In Love" is a song by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones. Released in 1979 on her eponymous debut album, Rickie Lee Jones from Warner Bros. Records, the song became her biggest hit, going to number 4 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 list."Chuck E.’s In Love" is Track 1 on Side 1... " |
4 | - | - | 18 | Rickie Lee Jones |
| "Young Blood" | 40 | - | - | - | ||
| 1981 | "A Lucky Guy" | 64 | - | - | - | Pirates |
| "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" | - | - | 40 | - | ||
| "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" | - | - | 31 | - | ||
| 1984 | "The Real End" | 82 | - | - | - | The Magazine |
| 1989 | "Satellites" | - | 23 | - | - | Flying Cowboys |
| 2009 | "Old Enough" | - | - | - | - | Balm in Gilead |
Other contributions
- WFUV: City Folk Live VIIWFUV: City Folk Live VIIWFUV: City Folk Live VII is a compilation album released by WFUV in November 2004 to highlight songs performed live in the studio by some of the year's favorite guests...
(2004) - "Mink Coat at the Bus Stop" - Little Fluffy CloudsLittle Fluffy Clouds"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the English ambient house group The Orb. It was originally released in July 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at #87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld...
(1990–93) - Spoken word sampled by British ambient-house group, The OrbThe OrbThroughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...
, charting three times on the UK Singles Chart: number 87(1990), number 95(1991), and number 10(1993).