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Background:
Acclaimed singer/composer Tori Amos stands out from other artists for her unique
musical work. Her first four solo albums, Little Earthquakes (1992), Under The
Pink (1994), Boys for Pele (1996) and From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998), received
platinum certification. Following the successful double album To Venus and Back
(1999) and the cover project Strange Little Girls (2001), the artist excelled
with Scarlet’s Walk (2002) and The Beekeeper (2005).
Amos, who often earns mixed reviews, received a Grammy nomination for her single
“Raspberry Swirl” (1998) and gained positive reviews for the dance hit
“Professional Widow” (1996). She also brought home a Grammy nomination for her
work in battling illegal Internet song trading, in which she bound closed
portable CD players containing the album and made her CD the access key to her
website.
Outside the limelight, Amos, whose central musical influence was her Eastern
Cherokee grandfather, experienced hallucinogenic drugs, particularly while
working on her 1996 album. The owner of the short-lived subsidiary label Igloo
Records, the artist published an autobiography book titled Piece by Piece, in
2005, which revealed her conflict with Atlantic Records. Because of an
experience with a sexual attack in her struggling days, Amos co-founded RAINN
(The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), a toll-free line connecting callers
to local rape crisis centers.
On a more private note, after ending her seven-year relationship with record
producer Eric Rosse, Amos was later married to Mark Hawley. She had three
miscarriages before finally giving birth to daughter Natashya Lorien Hawley on
September 5, 2000.
Conflict in School
Childhood and Family:
Tori Amos was born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963, in Newton, North
Carolina, to Methodist minister Dr. Rev. Edison Amos and Mary Ellen Amos. Not
long after her birth, the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. In November 2004,
Myra’s brother Michael Amos died in a car accident.
Myra began playing the piano at age 2. By age of five, she was enrolled in the
Peabody Conservatory of Music and became the youngest student ever accepted.
However, six years later, she left the school after having a different view on
the school’s technique in playing music.
Attending Richard Montgomery High School, Myra joined the drama club and was
named Homecoming Queen, the Female Most Likely to Succeed, the Female Most
Talented and the Best All-Around. While studying, she also played piano in
clubs. Later, when she began making singles, Myra adopted the name “Tori” and
made it her professional name.
On February 22, 1998, Tori married her sound engineer Mark Hawley. After three
miscarriages, Tore and Mark has a daughter named Natashya Lorien Hawley (born on
September 5, 2000).
Little Earthquakes
Career:
Tori Amos first received local notice after winning a county Teen Talent contest
in 1977. In her senior year in high school, Amos co-wrote “Baltimore” with her
brother for a local competition and won the contest. The song became her first
single and was eventually released locally, along with the self-penned “Walking
with You.” After several performances in East Coast piano bars, she headed to
Los Angeles.
Amid bar gigs in L.A., Amos landed several acting jobs, including a Kellogg’s
Just Right cereal commercial. In 1985, Amos formed the band Y Kant Tori Read,
whose name referred to her conflict with the conservatory school and her trouble
reading notes. Other members of the band were Steve Caton (guitar), Matt Sorum
(drum) and Brad Cobb. Revealing their potential, the band soon received a
six-record deal with Atlantic Records and in July 1988, a self-titled debut
album was released. Both critics and mainstream audiences, however, snubbed the
album.
Amos then worked as a backup vocal for Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo, Sandra
Bernhard and Al Stewart. She also became an additional vocalist in the track
“Distant Storm,” a soundtrack of the little-seen action movie China O’Brien
(1990).
Given a second chance, Amos worked with Steve Caton, Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor,
Carlo Nuccio and Dan Nebenzal to compile materials and fled to the UK to promote
her next album. After doing some promotional performances, an EP was launched in
October 1991, containing four tracks, including the 51st UK singles chart song
“Silent All These Years” and “Me and a Gun,” which was inspired by a sexual
assault which happened in L.A. Eventually, her first solo album, Little
Earthquakes, was released in January 1992 in the UK.
Following the UK success, her first solo recording was released in the US a
month later and received good response. In the US, Little Earthquakes, which set
off two EP leading singles and other tracks like “China,” “Winter” and
“Crucify,” also featured cover songs by The Rolling Stones and Nirvana. Apart
from her work on the platinum solo album, the singer also sang “The Happy
Worker” for the comedy Toys (1992).
Launched in January 1994, Amos’ second solo album, Under The Pink, debuted at
No.1 in the UK and No. 12 in the US, endorsed by the hit single “Cornflake
Girl.” The platinum recording, which later became one of Rolling Stone
magazine’s “Greatest Albums of the 1990s,” also generated “God,” her second Top
10 UK hit “Pretty Good Year” and “Past the Mission” (featuring the vocals of
Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor).
Amos also provided “Blue Skies” for the famous teen drama series “Party of Five”
(1994), as well as “Butterfly” and the cover of R.E.M’s “Losing My Religion” for
John Singleton’s drama Higher Learning (1995). Still in 1995, the female artist
performed a duet with Robert Plant in “Down by the Seaside,” a song in the Led
Zeppelin tribute album Encomium.
After two albums of quirky, piano-based pop music with a classical influence,
Amos produced a darker sound and style in her third recording, Boys for Pele
(1996). Despite mixed reactions toward its unconventional lyrics and
instrumentation, the album became a second top album in the US and UK. The
platinum Boys for Pele tossed out chart-burning tracks like “Caught a Lite
Sneeze,” “Hey Jupiter,” a dance club remix of “In the Springtime of His Voodoo”
and “Professional Widow,” which was remixed by Armand Van Helden and turned into
an international club hit, topping the US and UK dance charts.
In early 1997, Amos performed in the highly publicized television concert “The
Concert for RAINN” and sang “Muhammad My Friend” with friend Maynard James
Keenan of the Tool band. She also co-wrote and performed “It Might Hurt a Little
Bit” with R.E.M’s Michael Stipe.
During her recovery period from two miscarriages, the artist wrote and recorded
songs with sound engineer and partner Mark Hawley in the barn-turned-studio
Martian Engineering Studios, which resulted in the platinum album From the
Choirgirl Hotel (1998). Inspired by the remixed version of “Professional Widow,”
the album offered expanded piano sound with some electronic and jazz elements,
which proved friendlier to her fans. Sitting on the 6th spot in the UK and the
5th position in the US, From the Choirgirl Hotel was voted “One of the Best
Albums of the Year” by Q magazine. The first single, “Spark,” which dealt with
her miscarriage, was a UK Top 20 hit, whereas “Raspberry Swirl” and “Jackie’s
Strength” were remixed and made into staple dance hits. Furthermore, “Raspberry
Swirl” was also the only single that brought her a Grammy nomination for Best
Alternative Performance.
Getting involved in movie producing, Amos served as the song producer of Great
Expectation (1998), a loosely based interpretation of Charles Dicken’s novel.
She also performed “Finn” and “Siren” for the movie. The artist rounded up the
year with the “Plugged ‘98” tour.
Amos, who had another miscarriage, issued the double album To Venus and Back in
September 1999. The experimental “Bliss” was released as the lead single,
whereas the closing track, “1000 Oceans,” and the radio hits “Glory of the ‘80s”
and “Concertina” (2000) continued to boost the singer’s eminence in the music
industry.
After taking a little break and giving birth to her daughter, Amos decided to do
a cover project for the album titled Strange Little Girls, which she released in
September 2001. The recording received mixed reviews after reworking Eminem’s
“97’ Bonnie and Clyde,” Slayer’s “Raining Blood,” The Beatles’ “Happiness is a
Warm Gun,” and Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.” It also featured songs by Tom
Waits, The Velvet Underground, Depeche Mode, The Stranglers (the titular track),
Public Enemy, Elvis Costello and David Bowie. Strange Little Girls became the
center of press attention and achieved commercial success. The successive tour,
“StrangeLittleTour,” is widely considered by Amos fans to be her finest tour to
date, despite its short period of staging.
Leaving Atlantic Records, Amos’ name still shone under the new label, Sony/Epic
Records, starting in early 2002. In October 2002, she emerged with Scarlet’s
Walk, and claimed to work as Scarlet, her alter ego. The landmark album rose up
with its first single, “A Sorta Fairytale,” which became a Top 10 Adult
Contemporary hit in the US (Amos produced and wrote the concept of its music
video). Additionally, “Taxi Ride” (homage to the late make-up artist Kevyn
Aucoin) reached the US Top 40 Adult Contemporary chart, while “Strange” made its
way to heavy radio play. The dance track “Don’t Make Me Come to Vegas” was
released commercially in the US on a 12” vinyl single.
Amos, trying to avoid Internet trading, was nominated for a Grammy for her
elaborate packaging of the limited edition version of Scarlet’s Walk, in which
her CD served as the key to access Scarlet’s Web, a website with rare contents
about Amos’ discography. The limited edition eventually gained huge success and
was her biggest-selling album for five years. Meanwhile, the artist appeared as
a wedding singer in the drama Mona Lisa Smile (2003).
With a six-year record agreement with Atlantic, Amos made a hits collection
album called Tales of a Librarian (2003), which combined her popular songs and
the lesser-known tracks like “Way Down” and “Mr. Zebra.” It also featured two
new songs, “Angels” and “Snow Cherries from France,” and two re-recorded tracks
(“Sweet Dreams” and “Mary”). Predictably, the recording received varied
response, but still earned five-star reviews.
The greatest hits recording was followed up with Amos’ second studio album under
Sony/Epic Records, The Beekeeper (2005), which became the 4th Top US album at
its debut. The Beekeeper did not launch any official single, but radio aired
three songs from it, “Sleeps with Butterflies,” “Sweet the Sting” and “Cars and
Guitars.” The album release was accompanied by Amos’ “Original Sinsuality Tour,”
where she sang Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head” and Crowded
House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over.”
In 2006, Amos is scheduled to release A Piano: The Collection, under the label
of Rhino Records. The CD set will be comprised of five discs spanning her entire
career, starting from her 1992 debut Little Earthquakes up to her 2005 album The
Beekeeper.
Award:
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