21 years ago today, Jagged Little Pill hit record stores, soon to be a smash hit and eventually one of the best-selling albums of all time. The album is now the age that Alanis Morissette was when it was released – it came out a couple weeks after her 21st birthday.
It was the third album from the Canadian singer but a major deviation from her first two studio albums, records that had a generic teen dance-pop sound before Morissette found the voice that would make her a breakout star. Alt-rock Jagged Little Pill captured the rollercoaster that is life as you”re transitioning from your teenage years into your 20s. Morissette was 19 when she wrote it. As evidenced by the album”s massive sales, there were plenty of people who identified with her lyrics and the raw emotion in the music, from “You Oughta Know,” an anthem for any woman who has been betrayed by someone they thought they loved, to the spiritual yearning in opening track “All I Really Want” to “You Learn,” one of the least angsty songs on the album, an ode to making mistakes and learning from them.
Jagged Little Pill was nominated for nine Grammy Awards. Morissette”s win for Album of the Year in 1996 made her the youngest artist to receive the honor. She held that record for 14 years, until Taylor Swift won the award in 2010.
Other notable June 13 happenings in pop culture history:
• 1967: The Temptations” single “You”re My Everything” was released. It got to the #3 spot on the U.S. R&B chart and #6 on the U.S. Pop chart.
• 1969: The Rolling Stones introduced new guitarist Mick Taylor at a press conference in London”s Hyde Park. He made his live debut with the Stones that July at a free concert in Hyde Park.
• 1970: The Beatles” album Let It Be hit the top spot on the U.S. album chart. It held the #1 spot for four weeks. Also on this day, The Beatles” “Long and Winding Road” hit #1 on the singles chart.
• 1977: Matthew Garber, who had played Michael Banks in Mary Poppins, died at age 21.
• 1988: Paula Abdul released her debut album, Forever Your Girl.
• 1989: Jerry Lee Lewis was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• 1989: The premiere screening of License to Kill is held in London. The James Bond film – Timothy Dalton”s second and final turn as 007 – opened in the U.S. the following month.
• 2003: English group Arctic Monkeys played their first gig at The Grapes, a pub in Sheffield, England.
• 2009: The final episode of Pushing Daisies finally aired, after the series” cancelation back in November.