Tuesday, October 15, 1996

Jewel “You Were Meant for Me” released

You Were Meant for Me

Jewel

Writer(s): Jewel Kilcher, Steve Poltz (see lyrics here)

Released: October 15, 1996

First Charted: November 1, 1996

Peak: 2 BB, 1⁹ BA, 2 GR, 1⁵ RR, 1¹ AC, 1⁶ A40, 6 AA, 26 MR, 32 UK, 2 CN, 3 AU, 13 DF (Click for codes to charts.)

Sales (in millions): 1.3 US, -- UK, 1.37 world (includes US + UK)

Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 55.5 video, 128.98 streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

Jewel finally broke through in mid-1996 with “Who Will Save Your Soul?”, the first single from Pieces of You, her debut album which had been released more than a year before. Once Jewel arrived, however, she left her mark. The album climbed to #4 and sold fifteen million copies worldwide and the strength of that single and its next two.

The second single, “You Were Meant for Me,” was arguably the album’s signature song. On the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated September 6, 1997, the song sat at #25, slowly decling from a #2 peak in May. It had already logged an impressive 41 weeks on the chart and achieved platinum status. However, the next week “Foolish Games” was officially released as a single. Since it had originally been a B-side for “You Were Meant for Me” the songs were listed together and climbed back into the top 10. By the time all was said and done, “You Were Meant for Me” had racked up a then-record 65 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and ended up the most played song of 1997. ^RC At the time it was also the biggest-selling single in the history of Atlantic Records. ^SF

The song was written by Jewel with Steve Poltz; they were a couple at the time. He explained that they wrote the song while in Mexico but they almost lost the song when the lyrics flew out of the car window while they were driving. ^SF

Like “Who Will Save Your Soul?,” “You Were Meant for Me” was re-recorded for single release. In fact, it was recorded three times. There was also more than one video for the song. Sean Penn directed the original and then Lawrence Carroll shot a video for the radio version of the song. Carroll’s version won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video.