Who Will Save Your Soul?

Who Will Save Your Soul? by Jewel

Gosh, this is old. Since I doubt Jewel's going to come up again, might as well just get it all out now. I first heard of Jewel years before she actually made it. My dad had heard her on NPR in 1995 or so, liked her story and music, and bought the CD. If he was ever driving us any where, we would some times listen to the album. I was pretty much indifferent, it wasn't bad and her songs didn't bother me (note: I was 13). Eventually it was replaced by other albums and I sort of forgot about Jewel. Then in the summer of '96 this song broke and Jewel became a sensation. Remembering that I had heard this song a good year earlier, I was shocked. Something like this had never happened to me - this was the first time I knew of something popular before it became popular. I thought this was cool.

The summer of '96 was good summer looking back. I was going to a different high school that the kids I went to middle school with, so in a way it was my swan song (though I didn't understand or really know this at the time). I played a lot of tennis that summer... seems like I played tennis for most of that summer in fact. There was always a boombox while we were playing, and I remember hearing this song one day during a break and being totally shocked and telling everyone around that I knew this song. No one was that impressed, but whatever.

I love the vocals on this song, Jewel's got a hell of a voice (and is pretty cute). It's a shame she became so successful so early on. Not that the rest of her career has been a waste, but I think she'd be a lot more relevant if she didn't sell 10 million copies of that first CD. If nothing else we wouldn't have to suffer though her poetry.

Listen: