Essential Atlantic: Jewel, PIECES OF YOU

For the next several weeks (or maybe just until we decide that we want to stop doing it, since normalcy seems likely to remain on hiatus for the foreseeable future), Rhino.com will be spotlighting an album from the Atlantic Records discography that qualifies as “Essential.” And what rigorous standards and/or mathematical algorithm did we use to come up with the criteria to define “Essential,” you ask? None at all. You’ll just have to trust our instincts. But they’re really good, we swear...

Today we spotlight the debut album from Jewel Kilcher, who grew up in Alaska, attended the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan as a teenager, and then moved to San Diego to seek her fortune as a singer-songwriter. As it happens, she succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, not only securing a recording contract with Atlantic Records but selling more than 12 million copies of that aforementioned debut album, PIECES OF YOU.

Produced by Ben Keith, the songs from the LP were written during the course of Jewel’s late teens, and they won over San Diego audiences so profoundly that a live bootleg of one of her shows was played on local radio station 91X FM, resulting in the label bidding war that led to her deal with Atlantic. A portion of the album was recorded live at the Innerchange, a coffeehouse where Jewel had played regularly, while the rest of it was recorded in the studio at Neil Young’s Broken Arrow Ranch.

Jewel might’ve described PIECES OF YOU in her memoir as “imperfect, full of mistakes and guitar flubs,” but given the success of the album and singles like “Who Will Save Your Soul” and “You Were Meant For Me,” it’s clear that a whole lot of people weren’t bothered one bit.