Born in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, Alanis Morissette seemed destined for a career in entertainment from a young age. She wrote her first song when she was only ten. While in junior high school, Alanis appeared on the kids’ sketch comedy show You Can’t Do That on Television. But her eventual worldwide fame and success didn’t come overnight.
Alanis Morissette launched her music career in Canada in the early 1990s. Back then, she had a very different sound. After releasing two pop-leaning albums and graduating from high school, Alanis moved from Ottawa to cosmopolitan Toronto and began writing songs with other people. Along the way, she met songwriter and producer Glen Ballard who brought Alanis to Los Angeles where they would record her breakthrough 1995 album, Jagged Little Pill.
Led by the single “You Oughta Know,” the album was praised for its emotion. In the U.S., it debuted at No. 117 on the Billboard 200 and reached the top spot in October 1995, almost four months after it was released. It stayed at number one for a total of twelve weeks. It also topped the charts in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, all over Europe and, of course, Alanis’ native Canada.
Over the course of her prolific career, Alanis Morissette has released 10 studio albums, three live albums, six compilation albums, two EPs, 46 singles, 12 promotional singles, six video albums, and 41 music videos. She has won seven Grammy Awards, fourteen Juno Awards (Canada), and is in the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. She has also kept up her acting, appearing in numerous films, television shows, and plays. Alanis even adapted Jagged Little Pill for the stage in 2018. For this edition of the Throwback Threesome, let’s look at three videos from her 1995 album.
