Tracy Bonham: Difference between revisions

{{Update|date=March 2023}}{{Short description|American alternative rock musician}}

{{Update|date=March 2023}}{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2017}}

'''Tracy Kristin Bonham''' (born March 16, 1967) is an American [[alternative rock]] musician. Born and raised in [[Eugene, Oregon]], she is a classically trained [[violin]]ist and [[pianist]], and is also a self-taught guitarist.<ref name=":4" />

Tracy Kristin Bonham was born in [[Eugene, Oregon|Eugene, Oregon]], on March 16, 1967, the only child of Donald Lewis Bonham and Lee Anne Leach.<ref name=":04">{{Cite magazine |last=White |first=Timothy |date=January 20, 1996 |title=Tracy Bonham's Feast Of 'Burdens' |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3g4EAAAAMBAJ&dq=tracy+bonham+The+burdens&pg=PA3 |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |volume=108 |issue=3 |page=3 |issn=0006-2510}}</ref> Her father was the city editor of ''[[The Eugene Register-Guard]]'', and her mother was a music teacher; the two had met whilst Leach was attending the [[University of Oregon]].<ref name=":04" /> Bonham's father died when she was two years old, and her mother remarried five years later to Edward Robert Robertson, a [[mortgage loan officer]].<ref name=":04" /> She was the youngest of the nine [[Half sibling|half]] and/or [[Stepsibling|step-siblings]] she grew up with.<ref name=":04" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Tracy Bonham - Biography |url=http://www.tracybonham.com:80/bio.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010924075617/http://www.tracybonham.com:80/bio.html |archive-date=September 24, 2001 |access-date=March 9, 2023 |website=tracybonham.com}}</ref>

Bonham was trained as a classical musician; she began singing at the age of five, and playing the [[violin]] at nine.<ref name=":04" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2005 |title=TBonham-bio.pdf |url=http://www.tracybonham.com/med/pdf/TBonham-bio.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060508043336/http://www.tracybonham.com/med/pdf/TBonham-bio.pdf |archive-date=2006-05-08 |access-date=2023-03-09 |website=tracybonham.com |type=''[[Blink the Brightest]]'' press bio}}</ref> When she was 16 years old, she enrolled at [[Interlochen Arts Camp]] in [[Michigan]], but was expelled after three weeks for smoking [[Cigarette|cigarettescigarette]]s.<ref name=":04" /><ref name=":3" /> She later graduated at [[South Eugene High School]] and received a full scholarship to the [[University of Southern California]] for violin. After becoming burnt out from composing, she transferred (and later moved) to [[Boston, Massachusetts]] in 1987, where she attended the [[Berklee College of Music]] to study voice.<ref name=":04" /> While there, she took up various jobs at places such as the Atlantic Fish Company, a cassette duplication service, and also wrote [[Jingle|jinglesjingle]]s for [[Pontiac (automobile)|Pontiac]] and [[Toyota]] car dealerships.<ref name=":04" /><ref name=":3" />

In 1994, Bonham started writing music and released her first song, "The One", which appeared on the compilation album ''Girl'', released through the Boston-based Curve of the Earth label.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Ashare |first=Matt |date=February 21, 1997 |title=Grammy Girl: Tracy Bonham's rise from Boston to the top of the charts |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_february-21-27-1997_26_8/page/n29/mode/2up?q=Tracy+Bonham |journal=[[The Boston Phoenix]] |volume=26 |issue=8 |pages=6 8 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> Thereafter, she sent a four-song [[Demo (music)|demo tape]] (featuring "The One") to [[Brett Milano]], music critic of ''[[The Boston Phoenix]]'', in June 1994; Milano praised the demo, and a major label bidding war occurred shortly thereafter.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Milano |first=Brett |author-link=Brett Milano |date=June 17, 1994 |title=Demo Derby: Tough Tunes |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_june-17-23-1994_23_24/page/n97/mode/2up?q=Tracy+Bonham |journal=[[The Boston Phoenix]] |volume=23 |issue=24 |page=22 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> In 1995, Bonham issued her debut [[Extended play|EP]], ''[[The Liverpool Sessions]]'', through the [[CherryDisc Records|CherryDisc]] label, which brought her additional local acclaim; shortly thereafter, she signed to [[Island Records]].<ref name=":004">{{Cite magazine |last=White |first=Timothy |date=January 20, 1996 |title=Tracy Bonham's Feast Of 'Burdens' |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3g4EAAAAMBAJ&dq=tracy+bonham+The+burdens&pg=PA3 |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc. |volume=108 |issue=3 |page=3 |issn=0006-2510}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

The album's first single, "Mother Mother", reached number one on the [[Modern Rock Tracks|''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks]] chart (later known as Alternative Airplay chart) in June 1996, and remained there for a month; Bonham subsequently became the first female solo artist to achieve this feat, and was the only one to do so until Lorde reached the same position with her single "[[Royals (Lorde song)|Royals]]" in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Willman |first=Chris |date=June 21, 1996 |title=Tracy Bonham's ''Mother Mother'' hits number 1 |url=https://ew.com/article/1996/06/21/tracy-bonhams-mother-mother-hits-number-1/ |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=EW.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hohnen |first=Mike |date=2013-08-13 |title=Lorde Makes History On Billboard Charts, Announces Debut Album 'Pure Heroine' |url=https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/lorde-makes-history-on-billboard-charts-announces-debut-album-pure-heroine/ |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=Music Feeds |language=en-US}}</ref> The song's music video won the award for Best Video at the 1996 Boston Music Awards, and also received nominations at the MTV Music Video Awards in 1997 for [[MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist|Best New Artist in a Video]].'''<ref name="VMA1996" />''' The second single, "The One", was a minor hit and peaked at No. 23 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart,<ref name=Charts/> and two different [[music video]] versions of the song were briefly in [[heavy rotation]] on video music channels [[MTV]] and [[VH1]]. The third and final single, "Sharks Can't Sleep" failed to chart in the US, although it became her highest charting single in the United Kingdom, where it reached number 93.

After the mild success<ref name=Leahey /> of her first album, Bonham commenced work on a second studio album in 1997 with [[Mitchell Froom]] and [[Tchad Blake]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Milano |first=Brett |author-link=Brett Milano |date=August 18, 2000 |title=Tracy: What Happened? |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_august-18-24-2000_29_33/page/n67/mode/2up?q=Tracy+Bonham |journal=[[The Boston Phoenix]] |volume=29 |issue=33 |pages=66, 68 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> Bonham hoped to make an album that would better reflect her classical influences and serve as a more mature outing''.<ref name=":3" />'' The album, then known as ''Trails of a Dust Devil'', was finished in the spring of 1998, but executives at Island were unhappy with the album as they did not feel like the album had a hit single.<ref name=":5" /> Reluctantly, Bonham returned to writing new, more commercial-sounding songs, including "Behind Every Good Woman".<ref name=":5" /> Satisfied, Island then set a release date for the album of October 1998.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Harrington |first=Richard |date=1998-09-13 |title=THE TOP RECORDS OF FALL |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1998/09/13/the-top-records-of-fall/0b9a1ce1-5d87-456a-ad98-3b9fee81dd26/ |access-date=2023-03-08 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 31, 1998 |title=Local - Year ahead |url=https://bostonphoenix.com/archive/music/98/12/31/YEAR_AHEAD_LOCAL.html |access-date=2023-03-08 |website=bostonphoenix.com}}</ref>