Alannah Myles Biography
25 December 1955, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto-based vocalist Myles spent much of her early career unsuccessfully shopping for a recording contract in her native Canada, but when she and writing partner Christopher Ward changed tack, targeting an American recording contract with a David Tyson-produced demo and a video for "Just One Kiss', they met with almost instant success. Tyson produced 1989"s Atlantic Records release Alannah Myles, an excellent commercial rock debut on which the vocalist turned her deep, soulful voice to a variety of material, from gentle acoustic guitar-based ballads to raunchy rock 'n' roll. After the years of struggle, the debut ironically took off rapidly in Canada, with "Love Is" helping Myles to achieve major status in just three months, but the slow, steamy raunch of the Elvis Presley tribute "Black Velvet" brought much wider success. She suddenly found herself topping the US singles chart and hitting number 2 in the UK as "Black Velvet" became a worldwide hit. Alannah Myles went on to become the most successful debut in Canadian music history, selling more than five million copies globally, and the singer received a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance.
Myles subsequently proved that she was no mere studio songbird, taking her band out on the road. The 1992 release Rockinghorse enjoyed some success, including the Canadian chart-topping single "Song Instead Of A Kiss', but ultimately was dwarfed by her debut album. The 1995 release A-lan-nah failed to find favour beyond her loyal following in Canada, and by the end of the decade Myles had severed her contract with Atlantic, releasing a new album for Miles Copeland's Ark 21 Records label. A lengthy hiatus was broken in 2007 with the release of Black Velvet, which featured a new version of Myles" most famous hit.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.
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