Beginning tomorrow, July 14, Sheryl Crow is appearing in Dell television commercials nationwide featuring her anthemic upcoming single "Good is Good" (extended clip here).
The first-ever Dell celebrity spokesperson, Crow will headline television commercials highlighting how consumers can tap into the power of technologies such as Dell's Media Center PCs and plasma TVs for home entertainment. A print and online campaign will follow later in the month.
Singer, songwriter, musician, producer and girlish 43-year-old sex symbol, Crow, originally from Missouri, is arguably the biggest female rock star today. She dates cyling legend Lance Armstrong and has been influenced enough by him to have announced the name of her forthcoming album, Wildflower (out September 27), in an interview with Cyling News!
A former backup singer for Michael Jackson (“Bad” tour of '87-'88, tabloid rumors of their romantic involvement were greatly exaggerated, as in completely fabricated) Crow's voice is youthful but lived-in, and her eclectic but immediately identifiable style draws together rootsy rock ‘n’ roll, bright pop-rock, alt-rock, and country into an extremely appealing blend very well represented in her '03 smash collection The Very Best of Sheryl Crow.
After kicking around L.A. for several years in the late-'80s and early-'90s, fighting depression, doing studio backing vocals (Sting, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Sinead O’Connor, Stevie Wonder, Foreigner, Don Henley), and avoiding being forced into the dance-pop mold as a solo artist, Crow fell in with a loose group of musicians and songwriters (including producer Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald and David Ricketts of “David and David”) who called themselves the Tuesday Night Music Club. Out of beery sessions with this group came her brilliant debut album of the same name in late 1993. She won Grammys for Best New Artist, and Record of the Year and Pop Female Vocal for her breakthrough single “All I Wanna Do,” which also leads off the best-of collection.
“All I Wanna Do” is a classic L.A. brew of sunny country-rock, Latin-esque rhythms, fabulist humor (“I love a good beer buzz early in the morning”), a hint of surf guitar and a shadow of desperation as the world passes before the bloodshot eyes of the Crow character and her “plain ugly” drinking companion William. Also on the collection from Crow’s debut is the sublime “Leaving Las Vegas,” a sad but hopeful farewell set to a hip-hop beat, the sweet beat ballad “Strong Enough” (“lie to me, I promise I’ll believe”) and the similarly themed “I Shall Believe.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Lisa McKay
Ah, reason enough to buy a Mac, if you ask me...
2 - Eric Olsen
Lisa, are you sneering the in the direction of our dear Sheryl?!?
3 - Lisa McKay
Yeah, that would be me...
4 - Lisa McKay
Not to mention that she was responsible for one of the worst Bond themes ever.
5 - Eric Olsen
I am chopfallen
6 - Dave Nalle
I'll sell my stock in the morning.
dave
7 - Eric Olsen
vile naysayers
8 - Lisa McKay
Are those anything like vile canards?
9 - Natalie Davis
Someone here is a bigtime Sheryl Crow fan... ;)
I like her -- any woman my age out there rockin' and making it on her music has to be a hero on some level to another 43-year-old female guitar player and singer. But the whole celebrity product-endorsement thing gives me the heebie jeebies; it just does. Her music, her right, but ewww.
10 - Eric Olsen
she has shifted in the that direction over the last few years - no argument about that. I just think it's funny that they started marketing her as a sex symbol at 40
11 - Lisa McKay
Women are their sexiest over 40, Eric. Maybe the world is finally catching on to the fact.
12 - Eric Olsen
whoa, testy
I have no doubt that is true, but how many women are suddenly sold as sex symbols for the first time at 40?
Not many, yet.
Her first album is still by far my favorite, but she is virtually unique today as a multi-platinum woman singer-musician-songwriter-producer-rocker and deserves respect as such
13 - Lisa McKay
I do give her respect for her accomplishments, really, and I think it kicks ass that they're selling her as a sex symbol. Her voice just isn't my cup of tea is what it boils down to. There actually aren't that many female vocalists I do like, come to think of it, although I ordered a Kim Richey CD from Amazon today on the strength of Shark's best 100 list, so we'll see how that works out.
14 - Dawn
but how many women are suddenly sold as sex symbols for the first time at 40?
Well, I have four more years to get ready then!
15 - Temple Stark
If she deserves respect as a musician why are why posting about her new pitch for Dell?
Yes, I know, not mutually exclusive etc.etc.
And why are we offering a free picture and link (which I think would be considered a free ad? No biggie, I don't need an answer - it just seems odd. Free ads happen all the time.
16 - Bryan McKay
I saw Sheryl Crow perform an acoustic set at the John Kerry rally in Copley Square last November. I wasn't particularly impressed - not that I've ever been particularly impressed with her - but I like her politics, so I guess she's got something going for her in my book.
17 - Eric Olsen
mirror image
18 - Aaman
Now at least we'll have good music on the interminable wait times on Dell Call Center lines. Then the inevitable 'thank you please come again':)
19 - Natalie Davis
There is that. But it's like listening to Clapton these days: I can't get past his old beer ads and the use of "It's in the Way that You Use It" in that Tom Cruise pool flick. When an artist whores a song for filthy lucre, IMO, it depletes the tune of any artistic value. Doesn't mean it isn't diverting to hear 30 seconds of "Bargain" between scenes of a teevee show, but I find it distressing all the same. Oh well, anything is better than sitting on interminable hold and being forced to endure some Muzak treatment of "I Just Called to Say I Love You" or a Celine Dion tune.
20 - Eric Olsen
I hadn't thought of that angle, having never Delled
21 - georgiaboy
That Sheryl somehow, someway finagled her way into performing at Johnny Cash's memorial service was enough to forever brand her as a crass, over-hyped, mediocre creation of the music industry's publicity machine. Nothing more. And while I admire Lance tremendously, every time I see him, I wonder what the heck he's thinking.
22 - Eric Olsen
why shouldn't she have played at Johnny's service? Just wondering
23 - oakridgedoc
Somehow, someway? AFAIK she was a friend of Johnny and June. By the way, she was also invited to sing at June's funeral by Cash/Carter family in may 2003.
24 - Eric Olsen
thanks oakridgedoc, that sort of answers that one
25 - Greg Gottsacker
People work to make money. This is a capitalist society. If Ms. Crow makes a buck for playing her plagerized riffs, who are we to care? Didn't you go to work last Friday and make a corporate whore out of yourself to pay for the roof over your head and your daily bread? Grow up! Its her job. She gets paid. Get over it.