Tori Amos “Silent All These Years” released

Silent All These Years Tori Amos

Writer(s): Tori Amos (see lyrics here) Released: October 21, 1991 First Charted: November 23, 1991 Peak: 65 US, 26 A40, 27 AR, 26 UK, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 4.7 video, 10.13 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: After the failure of 1988’s Y Kant Tori Read, Tori Amos did some self-reflection and wrote “Silent All These Years.” She told Rolling Stone she thought, “I’m only in my twenties and it’s over.” SF She was inspired by reading Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid to her niece, Cody. Amos said, “I realized that when she had no voice, that just completely took me to the place where I needed to go to reclaim it.” TA Before she’d reclaimed her music, she tried writing songs for others, including Cher and Tina Turner. TA According to VH1 Storytellers, she wrote “Years” with Al Stewart in mind. When Eric Rosse, her then-boyfriend who was producing her songs, heard it, he said, “You’re out of your mind. That’s your life story.” WK Amos said, “I think this song became my mantra. As a child…I had been silenced to my ambition to have a career beyond the bar rooms.” SF The song was first released as the B-side of “Me and a Gun,” but the decision was made to release it as a single on its own after it was named “Song of the Week” by BBC Radio One in the UK. It was released several times in different formats. Most notably, a UK cassette version saw the inclusion of her cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as a B-side. The video reflected themes from the song by literally putting Tori in a box and showing a little girl – likely a representation of Tori as a child – who runs free. It was shot over two days by Cindy Palmano, who was a first-time director who’d worked as a British stills photographer. SF Tori said, “Cindy helped me to put my vision out into the world and without her it would nave never been interpreted the way that it was. She has such a pure eye that she was able to…capture my soul on film.” TA Rolling Stone ranked it one of the top 100 videos of all time. Resources: SF Songfacts TA ToriAmos.Fandom.com WK Wikipedia Related Links: First posted 11/13/2021; last updated 7/13/2023.