Celebrity Online NewsOnline Celebrity Gossip and News

Meredith Brooks extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2008) (Find sources: Meredith Brooks – news, books, scholar)

Meredith Brooks
Birth name	Meredith Ann Brooks
Born	June 12, 1958 (1958-06-12) (age 51)
Origin	Oregon City, Oregon, United States
Genre(s)	Rock, pop
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1997–present
Label(s)	Capitol Gold Circle Kissing Booth
Website	www.meredithbrooks.com

Meredith Ann Brooks (born June 12, 1958, Oregon City, Oregon) is an American singer/songwriter and guitarist. She is best known for her 1997 hit song "Bitch", for which she was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Success with "Bitch" 3 Life today 4 Discography 4.1 Albums 4.2 Singles 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Meredith Brooks was born in Oregon City, Oregon in 1958. Her parents divorced while she was still a child. She and her brother and sister grew up in Corvallis, Oregon and were raised by their mother. At age eleven, Brooks became fascinated with the guitar and she soon learned how to play it. Brooks excelled at academics and skipped several grades in high school, graduating at age 16 from Corvallis High School. In the Early 1980s, Brooks performed at a number of clubs in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and in Washington, where she was popular to a broad range of fans. She often performed at the Last Hurrah, and Eli's Hard Rock Cafe in Downtown Portland. She was Managed by Denny Herman of Pacific Talent, who was also her boyfriend. She recorded Meredith Brooks and The Angels of Mercy: Recorded Live at the Starry Night, a one-hour TV show. The video production was headed up by Mark de Leon Martinez, an established young music Video producer from Portland. She performed that Night as the opening act for Jack Charles. She then moved to Los Angeles to further her career in music. At that time, she recorded the songs that later appeared on See It Through My Eyes. In the later 1980s and early 1990s, she was a member of The Graces, who recorded one album, Perfect View, in 1989.

Success with "Bitch"

In 1995, Brooks landed a major label contract with Capitol Records. She was 36 when her first hit single, "Bitch", garnered her nominations for the 1998 Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song. Her album Blurring the Edges achieved platinum sales and peaked at 22 on the Billboard 200. The album was produced by David Ricketts, formerly of David and David (with David Baerwald). Ricketts also played keyboards, among other instruments, on the album. Brooks toured in the US and Europe in 1997 and 1998 to support the album. The song was Brooks' only major hit on the charts. In 1998 she divorced her husband, Russell Jackson, after seven years of marriage.

Brooks recorded her second major album Deconstruction in 1999. It was a stylistic and thematic shift away from Blurring the Edges. She only toured in Europe and the album sold poorly. She originally wrote the song "Sin City", which appears on this album, for the movie Snake Eyes, directed by her friend Brian De Palma. She toured with Sarah McLachlan's success Lilith Fair for various performances.

In 2002, Brooks worked on her third solo album Bad Bad One on Gold Circle Records, an independent label. Immediately after releasing the album, the label folded and prevented the record from getting promoted or achieving significant sales. Track 11 - 'Shine' - was released as the lead single. The label's demise also interrupted her tour with Melissa Etheridge that summer, causing her and the band to return early to Los Angeles. Also in 2002, Brooks produced Jennifer Love Hewitt's album, BareNaked, and appeared on the VH1 Divas Las Vegas program as a guest guitar soloist with Celine Dion and Anastacia.

Life today

In 2003, Brooks remarried and the next year gave birth to her son, Troy. She also signed a new record deal with the SLG Records label and released the material of Bad Bad One as Shine. Television psychologist Dr. Phil chose the song "Shine" as the theme for his show.¹ Most recently, Brooks has completed a new children's album titled If I Could Be... and continuing to develop new artists as a producer and songwriter. In particular, she is producing Sony Music Entertainment artist Becca, a pop/rock singer/songwriter from Portland, Oregon.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	US Billboard 200
1997	Blurring the Edges	22
	See It Through My Eyes	-
1999	Deconstruction	-
2002	Bad Bad One	-
2004	Shine	-
2007	If I Could Be...	-

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions2							Album
		U.S.	U.S. Modern Rock	UK	IRE	NET	AUS	NZ
1997	"Bitch"	2	4	6	12	15	2	4	Blurring The Edges
	"I Need"	—	—	28	—	—	—	—
1998	"What Would Happen"	46	—	49	—	—	—	—
	"Stop"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1999	"Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)"	—	—	—	—	81	—	—	Deconstruction
	"Shout"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2004	"Shine"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Bad Bad One
	"You Don't Know Me"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"Where Lovers Meet"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

References

External links

• Meredith Brooks Official Site
• Meredith Brooks Top 40 Mainstream Page