Little earthquakes

At the end of 1989, after the breakup of Y Kant Tori Read , Atlantic Records decided to give Amos a second chance and offered to prepare material for a new record by March of next year. The first set of her new songs was rejected by the label. In early 1990, the singer began to cooperate with producer David Sijerson, who, after listening to some of her new songs (“Take To The Sky”, “Leather”), approved her chosen direction. She recorded the tape Atlantic sent the singer back. In collaboration with Eric Ross, she prepared 4 more songs (“Girl”, “Precious Things”, “Tear In Your Hand”, “Little Earthquakes”). It was only after this that the label gave the go-ahead for the preparation of the album and at the end of 1990 sent Tori Amos along with manager Arthur Spivak to London , at the disposal of his subsidiary EastWest Records .

In London, Amos began a collaboration with Ian Stanley . Here she made records for two early singles. The song “China” (the final version of which was recorded in London) was originally written in 1987 during the Y Kant Tori Read sessions called “Distance” ^[1] . The last was recorded the ballad “Me and a Gun”, where Tori tells about a real event from her life: at 21, putting a knife to her throat, raped a fellow traveler, whom she agreed to give a ride home in her car after the concert. According to Amos, the change in this narrative was only a couple of details: the weapon that she was threatened with and the name of the abuser ^[2] .

In November 1991, Me and a Gun was released on an EP (with “Silent All These Years”) and the release was seen in the British press. In late November, with the second of these songs, Amos first appeared on the British BBC channel, in the program of Jonathan Ross.

The first American performance of Amos was held on April 20, 1992 in the New York Hall of the Bottom Line. Fragments of this concert were subsequently included in the video compilation "Little Earthquakes" (it was released in October of the same year). Having performed the song “ Crucify ” on David Letterman’s show two days later, she went on tour, held 18 concerts in the USA , then performed in Canada and returned to Los Angeles, from where she went on tour to Australia. July 30 in Louisville, Kentucky, began a four-month tour of Amos in the United States, organized by manager John Witherspoon and held with the participation of sound engineer Jan Thorne. On September 9, she visited Los Angeles at the MTV awards ceremony, where she was nominated in the categories "Best New Artist of the Year", "Best Female Video", "Breakthrough in Video", "Best Cinematography". The tour ended in November 1992 with concerts in Perth , Melbourne , Sydney ( Australia ) and Auckland ( New Zealand ).

After the release of the album in January 1992 in the UK, it reached number 14 and remained in the Top 75 charts ( UK Albums Chart ) for 23 weeks. A month later, he was released in the United States, where he was met with commercial success, where he also rose to the highest positions in the charts, despite being present outside the top 50 on the Billboard 200 . The album was supported by a number of singles: (“Me and a Gun” and “Silent All These Years”) “China” (January 1992 United Kingdom), “Winter” (March 1992 United Kingdom / United States November 1992) and “Crucify” (May 1992 USA / June 1992 UK) The American version of the EP includes cover versions of The Rolling Stones and Nirvana songs.

In 1998, readers of the British magazine Q put the album on the 66th position in the list of the best album of all time, and in 2002 the same magazine named it the fourth among the greatest albums of all time from female performers ^[10] .

The album also entered book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . This is the only Tori album that is mentioned there.

The words and music of all the songs are written by Tori Amos.