Sheryl Crow is a 2023 nominee for the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame, alongside Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, Iron Maiden, Joy Division/New Order, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Willie Nelson, Rage Against The Machine, Soundgarden, The Spinners, A Tribe Called Quest, The White Stripes, and Warren Zevon. The consensus appears to be that Crow is probably the least exciting or deserving nominee out of this year's batch, which I would agree with. I don't think that's necessarily a harsh judgement, though, it's a pretty strong lineup. And I actually suggested Crow when I wrote a column about women who should be nominated for the Rock Hall a few years ago.

1. Solidify

2. I Shall Believe

3. No One Said It Would Be Easy

4. Maybe Angels

5. Love Is A Good Thing

6. Redemption Day

7. It Don't Hurt

8. The Difficult Kind

9. You're An Original (with Lenny Kravitz)

10. Safe And Sound

11. Wildflower

12. Lullaby For Wyatt

13. Hello My Friend, Hello

14. Long Road Home

15. Waterproof Mascara

16. Alone In The Dark

17. Cross Creek Road (with Neil Young and Lukas Nelson)

Tracks 1, 2 and 3 from Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)

Tracks 4, 5 and 6 from Sheryl Crow (1996)

Tracks 7 and 8 from The Globe Sessions (1998)

Tracks 9 and 10 from C'Mon C'Mon (2002)

Track 11 from Wildflower (2005)

Track 12 from Detours (2008)

Track 13 from Home For Christmas (2008)

Track 14 from 100 Miles From Memphis (2010)

Track 15 from Feels Like Home (2013)

Track 16 from Be Myself (2017)

Track 17 from Threads (2019)

By the time Sheryl Crow released Tuesday Night Music Club, she was in her thirties and had been kicking around the music industry for a while, spending two years singing backup on Michael Jackson's Bad tour, and recording vocals for commercial jingles and "Cop Rock." She'd already recorded a different debut album that was shelved, with some songs eventually being recorded by Celine Dion, Tina Turner, and others. And even when she finally did release an album, it took a long time to catch on. I remember hearing the album's first moderate hit, "Leaving Las Vegas," on the radio a bit before the album started selling and feeling like I knew about her early on, but that was already the third single and the album had been out nearly a year. 

Sheryl Crow was kind of the right artist for the right moment, an unapologetic classic rock traditionalist like Lenny Kravitz or The Black Crowes as well as a female singer-songwriter at a time when alternative rock radio was especially welcoming of them -- Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, and others were also thriving, eventually banding together for the Lilith Fair tour. 

Sheryl Crow won lots of Grammys, collaborated with lots of legends, and made a self-produced follow-up album that was arguably even better than her big debut. And she survived the changing times better than a lot of her contemporaries, making more hits by pivoting towards pop ("Soak Up The Sun") and country (Kid Rock's "Picture"). But ultimately it feels like the space Sheryl Crow occupied in pop culture no longer exists and the kind of success she had is not necessarily what people think about when they remember the '90s. Even Alanis Morissette, who traveled a pretty similar arc, seems much more emblematic of the era now -- nobody's going to make a Broadway musical out of Tuesday Night Music Club. I think most of Crow's '90s singles have aged pretty well, but I didn't include any in my lists of the best pop and rock hits of the decade. 

"Love Is A Good Thing" is the song that famously provoked Walmart to not sell the Sheryl Crow album. I respected her a lot for writing that song and refusing to change it at the time, and when I wrote about that episode last year, I felt even more strongly that it took real guts to do that, when Walmart was that powerful in music retail and she was following up a huge album. And now Walmart doesn't sell guns anymore, Crow has really been vindicated in that entire thing. And I really love the whole sound of that self-titled album, Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake were involved and there's lots of cool textures like harmonium and Moog in the mix and nifty percussion sounds. 

"I Shall Believe" and "The Difficult Kind" are the only album tracks on the quadruple platinum The Very Best of Sheryl Crow, and "Wildflower" was the only album cut on Hits & Rarities. "Redemption Day" was covered by Johnny Cash. Those songs are among the most played deep cuts in her live repertoire alongside "It Don't Hurt," "Maybe Angels," and "You're An Original." Crow dated Owen Wilson, and "Safe And Sound" is allegedly the song inspired by their relationship, and wow, that's a great song and probably the best vocal performance of her career, I didn't think anything like that would be on the same album as "Soak Up The Sun." Sheryl Crow has said that Threads is probably her final album, and I mean, she's over 60 now, she's had a hell of a run and probably wasn't gonna have a big comeback at this point. But putting this together gave me a greater appreciation for her catalog, I wouldn't mind seeing her in the Rock Hall if she makes the cut this year. 

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