Dave's Song of the Day
Who Will Save Your Soul – Jewel
Sunday song of the day: Today’s song took two years to become a hit.
Yesterday I mentioned that
Labour of Love by Frente! was similar in tone to
Who Will Save Your Soul by Jewel. Both feature dense lyrics, a bouncy beat, and the singers’ voices are similar. Jewel’s song was a much, much bigger hit, however.
Jewel Kilcher wrote the song during a long road trip she took when she was sixteen years old. When she started her musical career four years later, she included
Who Will Save Your Soul on her first album,
Pieces of You. It was released as a single in late 1994 in advance of the album but failed to find an audience. Over the next year or so, radio stations gradually started playing the song, and in 1996 it was re-released as a single. This time it sold well and made it to #11 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Who Will Save Your Soul was Jewel’s first hit, prompting the release of more singles from the album. Two of these,
You Were Meant for Me and
Foolish Games, both hit #2 on the Hot 100 and helped the album sell over twelve million copies.
Tomorrow: I just got your message, baby