"CORNFLAKE GIRL" TORI AMOS (1994)

This month on Twitter, @sotachetan hosts #BrandedInSongs – which is a head-on collision of my personal world of music and my professional world of branding and advertising. The challenge is to simply pick a song with a brand name in its lyrics or title. I added one more criteria to my picks, which is this: the songs themselves must be as iconic as the brands they mention. No filler here.

Music charts are very revealing – not just about certain bands, songs or genres. They’re also very telling about different countries. One of the biggest differences in chart positions for several decades now exists between the UK and the US. When I see a song chart really high in the UK, but barely make moves on the US charts, I have often have just one conclusion: there are just more true music fans in the UK by far. “Cornflake Girl”, an incredible song, was a big hit there, but it was relegated to a bit of a cult status in the U.S.

Now, “Cornflake Girl” is one of Tori Amos’ most well-known songs and one of the tracks she plays most in a live setting. So it’s not obscure by any means. But here in the States, it should’ve been much bigger. The song has all the makings of an epic composition. It’s a reminder that Tori, on her best days, could go toe to toe with Kate Bush. The vocals are sublime. And the composition is as ambitious as pop gets. You bet your life it is.

“Never was a cornflake girl. Thought it was a good solution Hanging with the raisin girls. She's gone to the other side.”

"LITTLE EARTHQUAKES" TORI AMOS (1992)

You can get off to a fast start. You can sustain your opener with the main course, not filler. But can you end on a high note? Sometimes I wonder if recording a strong closer is the most difficult thing to pull off when it comes to album rock. When it comes to the cream of the crop in music, I can think of more strong openers than strong closers. Nonetheless, I still have my favorites which I’ll be featuring on Mental Jukebox all month.

What was the first thing you thought of when you heard Little Earthquakes for the first time? I thought of Kate Bush. Not that their voices are that alike. Not that the music sounds strikingly similar. What’s undeniable is that both Bush and Tori Amos have demonstrated an incredible amount of maturity in their sound and craft from the very beginning. The debut album “Little Earthquakes” is almost astoundingly consistent and demonstrates exceptional breadth in terms of the songwriting. The singing is nothing short of angelic, too. It all culminates in “Little Earthquakes”, the album’s epic closer.

It’s hard to overlook the quality of lyrics and storytellling when you hear the song’s title. “Little Earthquakes” are like tremors inside our bones. The bass vibrates with bravado below your feet. The piano interludes leave fault lines sprawled across a classical-inspired landscape. And Tori’s vocals cause seismic shifts to the listener’s pulse. Any time you’re compared to a pioneer like Kate Bush, well, that’s a pretty big thing. In this case, it’s no exaggeration. This solo debut is worthy of the esteemed comparison.