Tonight and the Rest of My Life is the debut album from Veruca Salt

Veruca Salt (band)

Veruca Salt is an alternative rock band founded in 1993 in Chicago, Illinois. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included vocalist-guitarist Louise Post. Guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick has been with the band since 1999 and drummer Kellii Scott has worked with the group on and off since 1999...

 co-founder, Nina Gordon

Nina Gordon

Nina Rachel Shapiro Gordon is an American rock singer, and is the co-founder of the band Veruca Salt, having written the songs "Seether" and "Volcano Girls"...

. The album was recorded with Bob Rock

Bob Rock

Robert Jens Rock, , is a Canadian musician, sound engineer, and record producer best known for producing bands such as Aerosmith, The Cult, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, 311, Metallica, Our Lady Peace, The Offspring and most recently Bush.-Payola$ and Rock and Hyde:Rock began his music career in Langford,...

 at his Maui

Maui

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the state of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui County's four islands, bigger than Lānai, Kahoolawe, and Molokai. In 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444,...

 recording studio.

Track listing

• All songs written By Nina Gordon, except where noted.

1. "Now I Can Die" – 3:07
2. "2003" – 4:05
3. "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" – 5:14
4. "Badway" – 3:08
5. "Horses in the City" – 4:08
6. "Hold on to Me" – 4:05
7. "New Year's Eve" – 3:28
8. "Fade to Black" – 4:07
9. "Number One Camera" – 2:58
10. "Got Me Down" – 4:05
11. "Too Slow To Ride" – 3:49
12. "Hate Your Way" – 4:46
13. "The End of the World" (Sylvia Dee, Arthur Kent) – 3:39
14. "Black and Blonde" (Gordon) [iTunes & Japanese Bonus Track] – 4:23

Personnel

• Nina Gordon: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Vocals
• Bob Rock: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Bass
• Jim Shapiro: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Mellotron
  Mellotron
  The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...
  
  
• Jon Brion: Electric, Acoustic, Pedal Steel
  Pedal steel guitar
  The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
  
   & Bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
   Guitars, Organ
  Organ (music)
  The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
  
  , Chamberlin
  Chamberlin
  The Chamberlin is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument that was a precursor to the Mellotron. It was developed and patented by Iowa, Wisconsin inventor Harry Chamberlin from 1949 to 1956, when the first model was introduced. Various models and versions of these Chamberlin music instruments...
  
  
• John Webster: Acoustic & Wurlitzer
  Wurlitzer
  The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
  
   Electric Piano, Chamberlin, Mellotron, Organ
• Scott Riebling: Bass
• Stacy Jones: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Drums, Percussion

Chart performance

The album peaked at #123 on The Billboard 200 chart. It remained on the chart for 10 weeks. The album peaked at number one on Billboard's Heatseekers chart, remaining for 26 weeks and into 2001. The album was very popular in the Northeast, staying on Billboard's Northeast Heatseekers chart for 16 weeks. "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" was played very heavily on Adult Top 40 and Top 40 radio stations throughout the Northeast. It stayed on Billboard's Pacific Heatseekers chart for 8 weeks, Billboard's West North Central Heatseekers chart for 13 weeks, Billboard's Mountain Heatseekers chart for 14 weeks, Billboard's Middle Atlantic Heatseekers chart for 9 weeks. The album went on to sell 350,000 copies in America.

Chart (2000)	Peak position
Billboard 200	123
Heatseekers	1

Singles

Year	Single
2000	"Tonight and the Rest of My Life"
2001	"Now I Can Die"
2001	"2003" (Promo Only)

In 2000, "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" peaked at #7 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart. It also peaked at #9 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 Recurrent chart. The single charted on Billboard's Bubbling Under The Hot 100 Singles chart in September 2000 for 4 weeks and was played on Pop radio heavily in the late summer/early fall of 2000. MTV and VH1 put the video for "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" into constant rotation around the same time.

In 2001, "Now I Can Die" peaked at #29 on Billboard's Adult Top 40 chart and remained on the chart for 10 weeks. VH1 also played the music video.

Non-album tracks

These tracks were recorded for the album but were not included in the final release.

• "Alone With You"
• "Black and Blonde (Original Edit)"
• "Like It Happens Everyday"
• "Unsafe At Any Speed"

These can be heard on Nina's official website link and Alone With You can be purchased on the iTunes Music Store.

Tonight and the Rest of My Life was recorded while Nina was signed to Outpost Records, a label owned by 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:...

, following her departure from Veruca Salt

Veruca Salt (band)

Veruca Salt is an alternative rock band founded in 1993 in Chicago, Illinois. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included vocalist-guitarist Louise Post. Guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick has been with the band since 1999 and drummer Kellii Scott has worked with the group on and off since 1999...

 in 1998. In 1999, Outpost Records folded and Nina was left without a label. Shortly after, Nina was signed to 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...

.

The original Tonight and the Rest of My Life tracklist on Outpost Records was:

1. "Tonight and the Rest of My Life" (Gordon) – 5:14
2. "Now I Can Die" (Gordon) – 3:07
3. "2003" (Gordon) – 4:05
4. "Badway" (Gordon) – 3:08
5. "Horses in the City" (Gordon) – 4:08
6. "Hold on to Me" (Gordon) – 4:05
7. "New Year's Eve" (Gordon) – 3:28
8. "Fade to Black" (Gordon) – 4:07
9. "Number One Camera" (Gordon) – 2:58
10. "Got Me Down" (Gordon) – 4:05
11. "Black and Blonde" (Gordon) – 4:23
12. "Too Slow To Ride" (Gordon) – 3:49
13. "Hate Your Way" (Gordon) – 4:46

Black and Blonde was removed from album because Nina felt it was a mean song about someone she didn't want to be mean to anymore. The End of the World, a last-minute recording Nina did while recording with then boyfriend Stacy Jones' band American Hi-Fi

American Hi-Fi

American Hi-Fi is an American pop punk band from Los Angeles, California, which originally hailed from Boston, Massachusetts. The band consists of vocalist Stacy Jones, guitarist Jamie Arentzen, bassist Drew Parsons, and drummer Brian Nolan...

, replaced it.

The singles for Tonight and the Rest of My Life also changed numerous times. When Outpost Records was in the initial stages of promoting the album and Nina they stated that the first single would be Horses in the City. After Nina moved to 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...

promo singles were circulated for the song Now I Can Die the March before the album's June 27 release date. One month later, Nina stated that the first single would be Tonight and the Rest of My Life, which shortly after was released as the first single from the album.

"Hold On to Me" and "Now I Can Die" were the lead contenders for second single, but "2003" and "Got Me Down" were also being considered.