Sheryl Crow's appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1994 should have been a dream come true. She had spent years grinding out a career as a musician, playing the beer soaked bandstands of the American midwest night after night, even after a collision with a waitress knocked out her two front teeth. She had been a back up singer for Michael Jackson, dealt with crippling depression and had several demos rejected by record labels.
But Crow had found her place in an odd band of misfit musicians that would meet with each week to write songs and jam, and she named her debut hit album after them: The Tuesday Night Music Club.
Now she was on national television being validated for her hard work. She had made it.
The elation wouldn't last. Crow offhandedly agreed with the host when she was asked if the song she had performed was autobiographical, even though it was primarily written by her friend and Tuesday Music Club collaborator David Baerwald.
The rest of the group went berserk, accusing her of stealing their credit and pushing her from the group. She left both the club and the studio, striking out on her own. She was alone, angry and still incredibly talented. So she began work on her next album, this time titled after the only person who deserved credit, herself.
Sheryl Crow's self titled second album was released on September 24, 1996 and has since sold 3 million copies. It would win Best Rock Album at the Grammys and has been widely seen as Sheryl Crow's magnum opus.
But as luck would have it, Sheryl Crow wasn't the only person to release an album that day. She wasn't even the only person to release her second self titled solo album. Susannah Hoffs of The Bangles also released her self titled second studio album, which sold practically no copies, has very few if any reviews and for all intents and purposes has been scrubbed completely off most of the internet.
They're probably both really good right? Lets find out, Welcome to When Albums Collide.