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Thursday, July 7, 2011

The #34 Album of All-Time in the Rock Era--"Pieces of You" by Jewel

As we approach the Top 30 Albums of the Rock Era*, today Inside the Rock Era features #34 from Jewel.


In listening to Pieces of You or evaluating its success, it's hard to believe it was a debut release.  The album did not attract immediate attention but nearly a full two years after its release, it peaked at #4.  Jewel's great debut remained in the Top 10 for 28 weeks and spent a total of 114 weeks on the chart.  Little by little, more and more people and radio stations discovered it and found the hidden gems inside.  The album continues to sell well and has reached 12 million in just 16 years. It has an excellent Track Rating* of 9.00.



The timeless "Who Will Save Your Soul" was the single that finally got this album the attention it deserved.  After that, it was icing on the cake as "Foolish Games" and "You Were Meant For Me" also were huge hits.  Both of these were re-recorded for release and two years after the release of the album, those hit versions were included on the album instead of the original versions.   "Morning Song" was released in the U.K. as a fourth single.  At that point, there shouldn't have been anyone that didn't realize that not only was Pieces of You an incredible album but that Jewel was going to be a big star.  Any station that remotely had any aspirations of being popular should have played everything on the album they could.


Pieces of You tracks through for most listeners; it's the type of album you want to listen to all the way.  You will like different songs than I, but here are some of the top ones:  "I'm Sensitive" is a great track with deep meaning like so many of Jewel's songs.  "Pieces of You" may be controversial, but it tells it like it is and I think should be required listening for every junior high school kid and up around the world.  "Little Sister" is another example of Jewel's amazing lyrics.  "Don't" and "Angel Standing By" are other nice tracks.  She may have never been able to match this album, but all we are concerned with is the actual product and what its achievements are.




Pieces of You:
(All songs by Jewel Kilcher unless otherwise noted.)


1. "Who Will Save Your Soul" --4:00
2. "Pieces of You" --4:15
3. "Little Sister" --2:29
4. "Foolish Games" --5:39
5. "Near You Always" --3:08
6. "Painters" --6:43
7. "Morning Song" --3:35
8. "Adrian" --(Jewel Kilcher, Steve Poltz) --7:02
9. "I'm Sensitive" --2:54
10. "You Were Meant For Me" --4:13
11. "Don't" --3:34
12. "Daddy" --3:49
13. "Angel Standing By" --2:38
14. "Amen" --4:32





Jewel also plays guitar on the album in addition to her amazing lyrics and vocals.  She gets help from Robbie Buchanan and Charlotte Caffey on piano, from Spooner Oldham on keyboards, Tim Drummond, Mark Howard and Craig Young played bass and Oscar Butterworth was the drummer.  Kristin Wilkinson added nice strings to the mix.


Pieces of You was recorded in 1994.  Ben Keith produced this amazing album, the engineers were Tim Mulligans and John Nowlands.  Nowlands, Mulligans, Gene Eichelberger and Joe Baldrige mixed the album, Jewel and Charlotte Caffey arranged it  and Mulligans mastered it.  John Codlins was in charge of art direction while Hugh Hales-Tooke provided photography.  The album was released February 28, 1995 on Atlantic Records.


Jewel comes in at #34 with Pieces of You.

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