Biography of Rickie Lee Jones

A singer/songwriter who emerged in 1979 with a million-selling album and the Top Ten hit "Chuck E's in Love." Born in Chicago, Jones grew up in Arizona and Washington state and was taught music by her father. Moving to Los Angeles in 1973, she started as a performer by doing rhythmic "beat" monologs. She began to gain notice after hooking up with singer/songwriter Tom Waits in 1977, and in 1979 Little Feat leader Lowell George recorded her "Easy Money" on his debut solo album. Signed to Warner Brothers, Jones recorded her own debut, Rickie Lee Jones (a combination of folk, jazz, and rock styles), its lyrical songs populated by bohemian characters and sung in Jones's slightly slurred voice. It hit, and Jones won the Best New Artist Grammy for 1979.She returned in 1981 with the even more ambitious Pirates, which hit and went gold. Girl at Her Volcano was a 1983 EP made up mostly of cover songs. Jones's next full-length album was The Magazine, which hit the Top 50 in 1984. In the second half of the '80s, Jones married and gave birth to a daughter. She returned to recording with the Top 40 Flying Cowboys in 1989, and in 1991 she released another record of covers, Pop Pop. Her fifth album of original songs, Traffic From Paradise, arrived in 1993, followed by an "unplugged"-style live album, Naked Songs, in 1995. ~ William Ruhlmann