Tori Amos little earthquakes Vinyl LP 1991

	£		21
	$		28

After leaving her home in Baltimore for Los Angeles in 1984, Amos spent three years as a struggling bar-room pianist and lounge act, performing a mix of covers and her own songs.

In 1986, she co-founded the synthpop band Y Kant Tori Read, and was signed to Atlantic Records. The band released an eponymous album in 1988 but it sank without a trace, and the band dissolved. In 1990, Tori came back to Atlantic Records with a 10-track demo tape. The track listing consisted of "Russia" (later to become "Take To The Sky") / "Mary" / "Crucify" / "Happy Phantom" / "Leather" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Song For Eric" / "Learn To Fly"" / Flying Dutchman".[1]

The album was then recorded in three phases. The first batch of tracks ("Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "Winter", "Happy Phantom", "Leather", "Mother", "Sweet Dreams", "Russia/Take To The Sky", "Upside Down" and "Flying Dutchman") were cut at Capitol Records in Los Angeles with Davitt Sigerson producing. After hearing the first group of songs, the record company was unhappy. Tori and her then boyfriend, Eric Rosse, recorded the second group of songs ("Girl", "Precious Things", "Tear In Your Hand" and "Little Earthquakes", plus "Take Me With You", which would not be completed until 2006 and finally released on "A Piano: The Collection"). This phase was recorded on a limited budget, using Eric's old 3M 24-track analog machine and a Yamaha CP-80 piano. They also went outside to Stag Studios to use a Yamaha grand.[2] During these sessions, Tori noted "Girl was being recorded and I couldn't get a take. I was freaking out. Eric was in the booth playing air ball encouraging me to take a ten minute. Glued on the bench, I started this thing coming from nowhere singing nonsense into the mic. When I finished, Eric said, 'It's a take.' I said, 'What?' - he had left the machine running.". This resulting track became the B-side "Thoughts".[3]

These two phases resulted in the original 'final' 13-track version of the album, submitted in January 1991, as revealed in the liner notes for the "A Piano: A Collection" box set. The tracklist is very similar to the released version: "Crucify" / "Girl" / "Silent All These Years" / "Precious Things" / "Winter" / "Sweet Dreams" / "Little Earthquakes" / "Leather" / "Russia" / "Mother" / "Tear In Your Hand" / "Upside Down" / "Flying Dutchman". Of all fourteen tracks recorded, only "Happy Phantom" was omitted at this point but would later appear on the released tracklist.

For phase three, Tori traveled to England to work with Ian Stanley. Here she recorded what would become two of her early singles. "Me And A Gun" was the last song written for the album, while "China" was an early track, originally titled "Distance", that she wrote in 1987 with some of the songs appearing on "Y Kant Tori Read"[4]. During those sessions, Tori also recorded several B-sides.

The second final version of the album was accepted by the record company. However, this was still revised before the final release; a 13-track promo cassette shows that "Little Earthquakes" was to appear after "Happy Phantom" on side one, with side two closing with "Flying Dutchman".[1] The latter track was presumably dropped due to the physical restraints of the vinyl LP format.

The record label relocated Amos to London, where they thought she would have an easier time of breaking into success, due to the country's renown for eccentric performers. Atlantic's European counterpart, East West, promoted the record extensively. Amos spent much of 1991 performing in small bars and clubs in London and playing for music executives and journalists, often in her own apartment. The "Me and a Gun" EP containing 4 tracks was released in October 1991, receiving considerable critical attention. The single was re-issued the following month with "Silent All These Years" as the lead composition, and it became her first chart entry at UK #51 following Single of the Week support from BBC Radio 1 and a TV debut on the high-rated chat show of Jonathan Ross on the BBC. The back cover contains pictures of Phallus mushrooms, also known as stinkhorns.

When the album was finally released in the UK in January 1992, it reached #14 and remained on the Top 75 charts (UK Albums Chart) for 23 weeks. A month later, it was released in the USA to breakthrough critical success and also announced itself as a chart mainstay, despite peaking outside the Top 50 on the Billboard 200. The accompanying singles (along with "Me and a Gun" and "Silent All These Years") were "China" (January 1992 UK), "Winter" (March 1992 UK/November 1992 US) and "Crucify" (May 1992 US/June 1992 UK), the US EP version of which featured covers of songs by artists including The Rolling Stones and Nirvana. During this time, Amos recorded the song "The Happy Worker" for the Toys movie soundtrack, and a cover of Anita Ward's UK no.1 "Ring My Bell" for the UK NME compilation "Ruby Trax".

In 1998 Q magazine readers voted Little Earthquakes the 66th greatest album of all time.

In 2002, Q Magazine named "Little Earthquakes" the 4th Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist.[5]

[edit] Track listing

All songs written and composed by Amos.