Musicians - Sheryl Crow

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	Musicians - Sheryl Crow

Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is a nine-time Grammy winning American blues rock singer, guitarist, bassist and songwriter.

Early life

Crow was born in Kennett, Missouri. Her parents were members of a local big band in which her father, an attorney, played trumpet. The family was very musical and owned three pianos.

Biography

In school she was active in choir, athletics, and school plays. Even at a young age, she was a perfectionist who strived to please her parents. In high school she was a drum majorette, member of the Pep Club, the National Honor Society, Future Farmers of America, Freshman Maid, Senior Maid and Paperdoll Queen. When her prom date was later questioned about her fame, he said that at the time he thought she "would be a doctor's wife someday." She graduated in 1984 from the University of Missouri where she majored in music education with a concentration in piano. Coincidentally, actor Brad Pitt and ABC-TV news anchor Elizabeth Vargas were also students at the University of Missouri at the same time Sheryl was studying there; however, it is unknown whether or not any of these three future celebrities actually knew each other while they were students at the University. She sang in the local band Cashmere. She was a member of the Kappa Alpha Theta social sorority, as well as Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity.

Her career

Following college she became an elementary school music teacher in a suburb of St. Louis where she was closer to her fiance. While teaching during the day she sang in bands on the weekends. Many people who knew her socially then describe her as a nice, kind, elementary school teacher who was settling down to raise children and who at times struggled to get by on a teacher's salary. Other than comments about wanting to go to California someday make it and her weekend band gig, few during this period of her life saw the relentless determination that would someday carry to a multi-millionaire rockstardom. Or if they saw it, they didn't realize they were witnessing a future rockstar in training. This time in her life, in retrospect, might accurately be considered by those who knew her then as her "wilderness years."

After a couple years of teaching and healing from a broken engagement, she was introduced to a local musician/producer. He had a thriving studio in the basement of his parent's home and helped her and began using her in advertising jingles. Her first jingle was a back-to-school spot for the St. Louis department store Famous-Barr. McDonald's and Toyota commercial jingles soon followed. She was recently quoted in her 60 Minutes segment as saying she made $50,000 on her McDonald's commercial alone. This success spurred her into thinking what she might do if she went into music full time.

Move to Los Angeles

Motivated by her new-found success, Crow decided to move to Los Angeles in 1986. Using her demo jingle tapes from St. Louis and perservering through constant rejections, she eventually found work as a backup vocalist for many major label acts. She was recruited to perform as a backup singer for Michael Jackson on his Bad tour. Whether she crashed the audition as widely reported at the time is uncertain. She spent the next 17 months touring the world singing back up and a duet, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" on stage with Jackson. After the tour ended in 1989 she sang back up for Don Henley and in the following year made her first appearance on Saturday Night Live singing back up ("time, time, take it, take it away") for Henley. Later she credited Henley for helping her write better songs. Also around this time she was romantically linked to Peter Horton, star of thirtysomething.

By 1990, Crow had attracted the attention of A&M Records, eventually leading to her debut album, to be released in 1991. However, she did not like the slick and well-produced pop sound of the record and implored the label to allow her to start anew. What followed was months of depression that was mentioned years later in People Magazine where she stated she felt her career was over. She eventually teamed up both professionally and romantically with producer Bill Bottrell. The pair began to meet regularly with other musicians to form what they called "The Tuesday Night Music Club." They would get together and improvise songs until they had finished works.

Debut

This creative period resulted in her debut album, called Tuesday Night Music Club. She appeared in the New Faces section of Rolling Stone the summer of 1993. The album featured many of the songs written by Crow and her friends, including the first single, "Leaving Las Vegas". The album was slow to garner attention until "All I Wanna Do", became an unexpected smash radio hit in the spring of 1994. As she later stated in People Magazine, she found an old poetry book in a used book store in the L.A. area and used a poem as lyrics in the song. To her and Bottrell's credit, they tracked down the author and according to People magazine, he ended up being paid over $50,000 in royalties. The singles "Run, Baby, Run" and "Strong Enough" were also released. Crow received several Grammy awards in 1994: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "All I Wanna Do"; Record of the Year for "All I Wanna Do"; and Best New Artist. The album, which sold 6 million copies, was controversial in that there were disputes among the other Tuesday Night Music club members about not being fairly credited for their contributions.

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