On This Day in Pink History… 20th November 2001, Missundaztood was released
In 2001, Pink released her second album Missundaztood. The album was different to Pink’s debut R&B Can’t Take Me Home, as it leads towards rock and pop. She recruited 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry to help her with writing a new album.
Pink worked with Perry on most of the songs of the album, who also contributed guest vocals on “Lonely Girl”. Other guest vocals are provided by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi on “Misery”. Other writers that worked on the album are Scott Storch and Dallas Austin.
Different subjects are touched upon on Missundaztood. In “Don’t Let Me Get Me” she tackles teenage angst and “Just like a Pill” she describes her drug abuse as a teenager. Pink’s father was sent to serve in the Vietnam war which made such an impression on her that she used the stories of her father in the song “My Vietnam”. Towards the end of the song is a sonic interpolation of Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner.” “Family Portrait” tackles divorce and its effects.
There are claims that say that the song “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera was first intended to be sung by Pink, as the song was also written by Perry. Pink claimed the song but Perry did not give it to her because she was waiting for someone else and she was not ready to record the song.
According to VH1’s Driven, Antonio “LA” Reid of LaFace Records wasn’t initially content with the new music Pink was making, because she had made a name for herself with her successful R&B debut.
At the 2003 Grammy Awards “Missundaztood” was nominated for “Best Pop Vocal Album” and “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance”, respectively. At the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, “Get the Party Started” won in the categories “Best Female Video” and “Best Dance Video”. Many of the songs on the album contain strong language, and the song “18 Wheeler” in particular, contained many expletives. However, the album was censored in order to avoid a Parental Advisory sticker. No uncensored studio versions of “18 Wheeler” exist, but Pink performs the song uncensored while on tour.
In the U.S., three different editions of Missundaztood were released in total: the first edition was the original version released in 2001 with an enhanced portion on the disc, which—if put in your computer—let you listen to the international song “Catch 22”, and gave you access to a photo gallery, sing-alongs, and more. The second version released was the main album reissued, but without the enhanced CD portion. A third version, which was a limited edition that included a bonus DVD (the contents of the CDs were the same) was released for a limited time in 2002 and included the two music videos and two live performances. Both the limited edition with the bonus DVD and the enhanced CD versions have since gone out of print, and the initial 2001 release is the only version of the album still in print. It was released outside the US with an extra track, “Catch 22”. Also, on current pressings of the album, the track “Misery” is slightly different. On current pressings, Steven Tyler sings an entire verse as opposed to a providing only few lines and background vocals. On initial pressings of the album, Pink sang all the verses, including the one that Tyler sings on current pressings of the album. The first version of the album that contains the version of Misery where Pink sings Tyler’s verse was not on a specific pressing run, as even some copies the first version of the album released (with the enhanced content) have the current version of the song. It is somewhat hard to find editions of the album with the original version of the song.
Wikipedia
There were four singles released from the album:
- Get The Party Started
- Don’t Let Me Get Me
- Just Like A Pill
- Family Portrait
Tracklist:
- Missundaztood
- Don’t Let Me Get Me
- Just Like A Pill
- Get The Party Started
- Respect (feat. Scratch)
- 18 Wheeler
- Family Portrait
- Misery (feat. Steven Tyler)
- Dear Diary
- Eventually
- Lonely Girl (feat. Linda Perry)
- Numb
- Gone To California
- My Vietnam
- Catch 22 (bonus track)
The album debuted at number eight on the U.S. Billboard 200, selling 220,000 copies in its first week of release, a higher chart and sales debut than that of Pink’s first album, Can’t Take Me Home (2000). In its fifth week, when it was at number ten, the album sold 323,000 copies. It sold 73,000 copies in its eighth week and rose to number six on the chart; this was its peak position. The album being the second biggest selling album by female artist in 2002, behind Avril Lavigne debut album Let Go. As of July 2014, it had sold 5,628,000 copies in the U.S.
In the UK the album peaked at #2 in the album chart and eventually manage to sell 1.8 million copies, receiving a 5× Platinum certification (however, it is eligible for 6× Platinum). The success was so huge that as of November 2006, the album was ranked ninety-fourth on the Official UK Charts Company’s all-time best-selling albums list. In 2010 it was ranked the 37th best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK.
Wikipedia
On This Day in Pink History... 