Alannah Myles
Gale Musician Profiles:
Top
Alannah Myles
| For The Record... |
| Surname originally Byles; born December 25, c. late 1950s; daughter of William (a broadcaster and nightclub owner) and Sheilagh Byles. Learned to play guitar at age 11; joined first band as a backup singer, 1980, later appeared as opening act and featured vocalist; also supported herself working as a makeup artist, interior designer, and model; solo artist, 1984—. Composer of song “Lover of Mine” on debut album. Awards: Winner of five Juno Awards, 1990, including best single (for “Black Velvet”), best album, for Alannah Myles, and most promising female vocalist. Addresses: Agent—1810 Birchmount Rd., Scarborough, Ontario, Canada MIP-2J1. Record company—Atlantic Records, 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019. |
Singer, songwriter
Shortly after the 1989 release of Alannah Myles’s solo hit "Black Velvet", the song hit the Number 1 spot on Billboard magazine’s Top 100, and the name and face of this remarkable singer, previously unknown, shot into the limelight. This raven-haired, green-eyed beauty has an amazing self-confidence, described by some as arrogance. She possesses a strong sense of bravado, and a joy derived from the rewards that have come to her after years of relentless pursuit of a precise musical identity. Few performers, especially those as new to the scene as Myles, have her strong sense of direction and drive. Her voice has a wide dynamic and expressive range; she can belt out a raunchy, Madonna-like rock sound, or slip into a smokey torrid blues voice. There is a strong country flavor to her sound that shows the influence of singers like Mavis Staples and the Judds.
Myles has a no-nonsense, aggressive approach to her music. Her self-titled debut album was released in 1989, and was an immediate success. An eclectic mixed bag, it seems to have come out of nowhere, but, in actuality, five years of preparatory work went into its making. Much of her success comes from the combined teamwork of Myles, producer/songwriter David Tyson, and manager/songwriter (and former boyfriend) Christopher Ward. The team did not come about by accident. As Myles told Music Express: "I made the choice of working with David Tyson because I thought he was a really good producer. I made the choice of Christopher Ward because he writes songs that no one else in the world writes. I knew if I had challenging songs, I could meet the demands of pushing myself."
Myles was born on Christmas day (she refuses to give her age but is reported by Maclean’s to be in her 30s) and spent her childhood alternately living in Toronto and on the family ranch in a little northern Ontario town, Buckhorn. By the age of five she knew that she would be a singer and began playing guitar, an old Spanish classical guitar that belonged to her mother, at age eleven. At that stage Alannah was a fan of such singers as Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell. By fifteen she was writing her own songs. At nineteen, Myles got herself an agent and began performing solo in and around Toronto, singing mostly original compositions. A couple of years later she put together her own rock and roll band, which has been called the Alannah Myles Band ever since.
Everything about Myles is fiery and intense. Her speech, her singing and her devotion to music. After ten years of being rejected by Canadian record companies, Myles shifted her sights to landing a deal with a U.S. record company. She picked the three songs that were to
appear on the demo tape and recorded them her way. This resulted in a contract with Atlantic Records in the U.S., an unusual move for a Canadian artist—particularly one with no proven track record. The people at Atlantic were so impressed that they gave her free rein to make the entire album as she wanted it. Their faith was rewarded with a quadruple platinum record in Canada. Four of her singles hit the Top 5 in Canada, with "Love Is" and "Black Velvet" hitting the Number 1 spot. "Love Is," re-released in the U.S. after it became a winner in Canada, fared much better there than after its original release.
Myles loves to do live shows. Following the release of her first album, she toured Europe and the U.S. as the opening act for Robert Plant. Myles, a musician who marches to the beat of her own drummer, feels that she has learned to hone her skills sharply enough to give her audience exactly what they want. Her act has definite sexual overtones, but as she told Music Express: "I’m not ashamed of that…. Perhaps I can bring a 1990’s contemporariness to that image that doesn’t have to be submissive." Myles feels she can take her place in the rock scene without sacrificing her femininity. With that conviction and her intense drive, she cannot fail to create waves on the music scene in the years ahead.
Selected discography
Alannah Myles (includes "Black Velvet," "Still Got This Thing," "Love Is," "Lover of Mine," and "Just One Kiss"), Atlantic, 1989.
Sources
Canadian Musician, June 1990.
Maclean’s, April 2, 1990.
Music Express, February 1990.
Related Videos:
Top
Alannah Myles
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
Top
Alannah Myles
- Genres: Rock
Biography
Toronto rock singer Alannah Myles spent several years struggling unsuccessfully to secure a Canadian record deal, so she and songwriting partner Christopher Ward set their sights south of the border. Myles recorded a demo and video for the song "Just One Kiss," which got the attention of several companies and ended up on her self-titled 1989 debut album. "Love Is" established her in her home country and made Alannah Myles the biggest-selling debut in Canadian history, but it was the smoky, sensual "Black Velvet" that became a worldwide hit, reaching number one in the U.S. An American release of "Love Is" fizzled as a follow-up, and Myles thus far remains something of a one-hit wonder to U.S. audiences. She released a follow-up album, Rockinghorse, in 1992. ~ Steve Huey, RoviWikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Alannah Myles
| Alannah Myles | |
|---|---|
 Alannah Myles photographed by Mike F. Campbell |
|
| Background information | |
| Born | December 25, 1958 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Rock, pop |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Labels | Atlantic |
| Website | www.alannahmyles.com |
Alannah Myles (born December 25, 1958, Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, the daughter of Canadian broadcast pioneer William Douglas Myles. In 1989, she released her eponymous debut album. In 1990, "Black Velvet", a single from that album, was a worldwide hit[1] and won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female.[2]
|
Contents
|
Biography
Alannah began writing songs at the age of 9. She performed in a songwriting group for the Kiwanis Music Festival in Toronto at 12 years of age and by the time she was a teenager, began performing solo gigs in Southern Ontario. She eventually met Christopher Ward, a WMG recording artist and songwriter who helped her to form her own band, and performed cover versions of T. Rex, AC/DC, Bob Seger, Ann Peebles, the Rolling Stones, and the Pretenders. By the time she was in her early mid-twenties, she and Christopher began collaborating with David Tyson to produce her self-titled debut album, Alannah Myles. She appeared in a 1984 installment of the television series program The Kids of Degrassi Street, in which she played the role of an aspiring singer and single mother. She was featured in several other TV and film productions as a guest prior to her success as a recording artist.
In May 1989, Warner Music in Canada released Alannah Myles. It produced four Top 40 selections, including "Love Is", "Lover of Mine", and "Still Got This Thing", and the number-one hit "Black Velvet". In early 1990 Atlantic Records released "Black Velvet" in the U.S., making her first album ineligible for possible Grammy nominations. For Myles, "Black Velvet" became a number one hit worldwide and was named the most played song on radio for 1989 & 1990. By 2000 it had received the ASCAP Millionaire Award for having received over five million airplays at radio.[citation needed] "Black Velvet" won Myles a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance in 1991, and three Juno Awards.[3]
The year 1992 brought the follow-up album, Rockinghorse, which included the hit singles "Song Instead of a Kiss" written by Alannah Myles, Nancy Simmonds and Canadian poet Robert Priest,[4] "Our World, Our Times", and "Sonny, Say You Will". She received a Grammy nomination for Rockinghorse and several global awards, including a Juno and Much Music's people's choice award for "Our World, Our Times".
The year 1995 produced Myles's final album on Atlantic Records before being released from the label, granting Warner/Atlantic a Best Of CD after only 3 records. The A-lan-nah album, which contained no Top 40 singles, included two tracks which made it into the Top 100: "Family Secret" and "Blow Wind, Blow".
In 1997 she managed to terminate her eight-record contract with Atlantic Records with the help of her then-manager, Miles Copeland III, who immediately signed her to his Ark 21 Records. There she released A Rival, which had the Top 40 hit "Bad 4 You", written and recorded by Myles, Desmond Child and Eric Bazilian at Copeland's castle songwriting retreat at Grand Brassac, France.
In February 2005, together with the Swedish band Kee Marcello's K2, she participated in the third semi-final of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song "We Got It All" scored very few points and finished seventh out of eight songs yet managed to dominate the leading newspaper and media headlines in Sweden.[5]
In April 2008, she went public about her then upcoming album Black Velvet, which featured a new recording of her song of the same name in addition to ten new studio recordings.[6] She discussed the subject in May 2008 in an interview with Evan Solomon on the TV program CBC News: Sunday Night.[7]
In the fall of 2009, Myles released the CD Black Velvet on Linus Entertainment, which merged with Canada's legendary True North Records and released the album in America in the spring of 2010. This was followed by a video for the song "Trouble" that features a jug band performance. "Trouble" was awarded an 'Honourable Mention' as a finalist in the blues category at the 2009 International Songwriting Contest.[8] Myles won the 15th annual USA Songwriting Competition for both best rock/alternative song as well as grand prize finalist for a song written with Nancy Simmonds for her "Black Velvet" CD entitled "Give Me Love".[9]
Myles toured in support of her Black Velvet CD beginning with a string of European dates in March 2011. Her song Black Velvet was one of four selected to be covered on the CBC Television reality television show Cover Me Canada.[10]
At a Toronto music festival on July 1, 2011 she revealed that she has suffered severe spinal nerve damage from an excess of chiropractic treatments and has been left unable to move her head or neck. Her voice is unaffected and she continues to perform and record.[11]
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
|||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN [12] |
US [13] |
UK [14] |
AUS [15] |
NZ [16] |
NOR [17] |
SWE [18] |
AUT [19] |
SWI [20] |
||||||
| 1989 | Alannah Myles
|
1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 1992 | Rockinghorse
|
9 | — | — | — | — | — | 23 | 40 | 16 |
|
|||
| 1995 | A-lan-nah
|
47 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 40 | ||||
| 1998 | Arrival
|
40 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 2008 | Black Velvet
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
Compilation albums
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 1999 | Alannah Myles: The Very Best Of
|
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales threshold) |
Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CAN | CAN AC | US | US Main | US AC | UK | NL | AUS | |||||||
| 1989 | "Love Is" | 16 | — | 36 | 19 | — | 61 | 32 | 12 | Alannah Myles | ||||
| "Black Velvet" | 2 | — | 1 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| 1990 | "Still Got This Thing" | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| "Lover of Mine" | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | 78 | — | 47 | ||||||
| 1992 | "Song Instead of a Kiss" | 1 | 1 | 60 | — | — | — | 32 | — | Rockinghorse | ||||
| "Tumbleweed" | 51 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| 1993 | "Our World, Our Times" | 27 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| "Living on a Memory" | 31 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| "Sonny Say You Will" | 23 | 15 | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||
| 1995 | "Family Secret" | 10 | 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — | A-lan-nah | ||||
| 1996 | "Blow Wind Blow" | 64 | 11 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||
| "You Love Who You Love" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Two If By Sea (soundtrack) | |||||
| 1997 | "Bad 4 You" | 45 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Arival | ||||
| "What Are We Waiting For? (with Zucchero) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Prince Valiant (soundtrack) | |||||
| 2000 | "Like Flames" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album song | ||||
| 2008 | "Comment Ca Va" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Black Velvet | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
See also
References
- ^ Mann, Brent (2003). 99 Red Balloons…and 100 Other All-Time Great One-Hit Wonders. New York City: Citadel Press. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-0-8065-2516-7. OCLC 56794239.
- ^ "Alannah Myles". Past winners search. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=Alannah+Myles&title=&year=All&genre=All. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ Crenna, Carol. "Meaning of Success: Canadian Singer Alannah Myles". Vista Magazine. Archived from the original on 2009-04-26. http://web.archive.org/web/20090426042526/http://www.vistamagonline.com/vista_articles/page.php?tp=&p=&id=&s=meaning_of_success_canadian_singer_alannah_myles. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ New, William H (2002). Encyclopedia of literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press. p. 902. ISBN 978-0-8020-0761-2. OCLC 47689945.
- ^ "Melodifestivalen 2005 - Deltävling 3 [Third Semi-Final]". Gylleneskor. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927234925/http://www.gylleneskor.se/history/logged/mf_year.php?mf_year=2005. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ "Alannah Myles reclaims 'Black Velvet' with modern reworking". The Telegram. The Canadian Press. 2008-04-19. http://www.thetelegram.com/Arts---Life/Fashion/2008-04-19/article-1443194/Alannah-Myles-reclaims-Black-Velvet-with-modern-reworking/1. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ "Alannah Myles". CBC News: Sunday Night. CBC News. 2008-05-11. http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=1278765249. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ "Previous winners". International Songwriting Contest. http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/previouswinners. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ "2010 Results". USA Songwriting Competition. http://www.songwriting.net/winners/. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ "New CBC reality contest to focus on Canadian music". CBC News. 2011-06-06. http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2011/06/06/cbc-cover-me-canada.html. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ "Alannah Myles shares tragic health news with Canada day crowdsic". 680 News. 2011-07-01. http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/248658--alannah-myles-shares-tragic-health-news-with-canada-day-crowd. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
- ^ "Search Results - RPM - Alannah Myles Top Albums". RPM (magazine). http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=4fta2o9h11phmtbdi16o9f64k0&q1=Alannah+Myles+Top+Albums&x=0&y=0. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "allmusic ((( Alannah Myles > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p4985/charts-awards. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "Chart Stats - Alannah Myles". chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=5759. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "australian-charts.com - Australian charts portal". australian-charts.com. http://www.australian-charts.com/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "charts.org.nz - New Zealand charts portal". charts.org.nz. http://charts.org.nz/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "norwegiancharts.com - Norwegian charts portal". norwegiancharts.com. http://norwegiancharts.com/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "swedishcharts.com - Swedish charts portal". swedishcharts.com. http://swedishcharts.com/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "austriancharts.at - Austria Top 40". austriancharts.at. http://austriancharts.at/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "Die Offizielle Schweizer Hitparade und Music Community". hitparade.ch. http://hitparade.ch/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ a b "Canadian Recording Industry Association Search Results". Canadian Recording Industry Association. http://www.cria.ca/cert_db_search.php. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "RIAA - Gold & Platinum - March 14, 2010: Alannah Myles certified albums". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH_RESULTS&artist=Alannah%20Myles&format=ALBUM&go=Search&perPage=50. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ a b "BPI Search Results". British Phonographic Industry. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
- ^ "RIAA - Gold & Platinum - July 24, 2010: Alannah Myles certified singles". Recording Industry Association of America. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=SEARCH_RESULTS&artist=Alannah%20Myles&format=SINGLE&go=Search&perPage=50. Retrieved 2010-07-24.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Alannah Myles |
- Official website
- Alannah Myles's channel on YouTube
- Alannah Myles at the Internet Movie Database
- Alannah Myles on Myspace
- Alannah Myles biography in Rolling Stone online
- Alannah Myles talks to the Canadian Press about the new version of Black Velvet
- Review of 'Black Velvet' (2007)
- Videos and Concerts
- USA Songwriting Competition
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
Gale Musician Profiles
Contemporary Musicians © 1989-2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Black Velvet
(1990 Album by Robin Lee)
Alannah
(1995 Album by Alannah Myles)
The Very Best of Alannah Myles
(1999 Album by Alannah Myles)
Billboard #1 Hits of the '90s
(2003 Album by Various Artists)
Essential Music Videos: Extraordinary Women
(2004 Music Film)
» More