Alannah Myles

Alannah Myles

Alannah Myles photographed by Mike F. Campbell
Background information
Born December 25, 1958 (1958-12-25) (age 53)
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 Byles. 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. "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
  • Release date: March 28, 1989
  • Label: Atlantic
1 5 3 2 5 1 2 2 1
1992 Rockinghorse
  • Release date: December 19, 1992
  • Label: Atlantic Records
9 23 40 16
  • CAN: 2× Platinum[21]
1995 A-lan-nah
  • Release date: August 15, 1995
  • Label: Atlantic Records
47 40
1998 Arival
  • Release date: April 21, 1998
  • Label: Ark 21 Records/Universal Music
40
2008 Black Velvet
  • Release date: November 18, 2008
  • Label: Linus Entertainment/True North Records
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Compilation albums

Year Album details
1999 Alannah Myles: The Very Best Of
  • Release date: April 6, 1999
  • Label: Ark 21 Records/WMG Canada/Universal Music

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

  1. ^ Mann, Brent (2003). 99 Red Balloons…and 100 Other All-Time Great One-Hit Wonders. New York City: Citadel Press. pp. 131–132. ISBN 9780806525167. OCLC 56794239. 
  2. ^ "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. 
  3. ^ 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. 
  4. ^ New, William H (2002). Encyclopedia of literature in Canada. University of Toronto Press. p. 902. ISBN 9780802007612. OCLC 47689945. 
  5. ^ "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. 
  6. ^ "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. 
  7. ^ "Alannah Myles". CBC News: Sunday Night. CBC News. 2008-05-11. http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Shows/1221254309/ID=1278765249. Retrieved 2011-08-31. 
  8. ^ "Previous winners". International Songwriting Contest. http://www.songwritingcompetition.com/previouswinners. Retrieved 2011-08-31. 
  9. ^ "2010 Results". USA Songwriting Competition. http://www.songwriting.net/winners/. Retrieved 2011-08-31. 
  10. ^ "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. 
  11. ^ "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. 
  12. ^ "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. 
  13. ^ "allmusic ((( Alannah Myles > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p4985/charts-awards. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  14. ^ "Chart Stats - Alannah Myles". chartstats.com. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=5759. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  15. ^ "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. 
  16. ^ "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. 
  17. ^ "norwegiancharts.com - Norwegian charts portal". norwegiancharts.com. http://norwegiancharts.com/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  18. ^ "swedishcharts.com - Swedish charts portal". swedishcharts.com. http://swedishcharts.com/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  19. ^ "austriancharts.at - Austria Top 40". austriancharts.at. http://austriancharts.at/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  20. ^ "Die Offizielle Schweizer Hitparade und Music Community". hitparade.ch. http://hitparade.ch/search.asp?search=Alannah+Myles&cat=a. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  21. ^ a b "Canadian Recording Industry Association Search Results". Canadian Recording Industry Association. http://www.cria.ca/cert_db_search.php. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  22. ^ "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. 
  23. ^ a b "BPI Search Results". British Phonographic Industry. http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/search.aspx. Retrieved 2010-03-14. 
  24. ^ "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