Аланис Мориссеттің "Thank U" әні: Алғыс пен рухани ояну туралы

1998 single by Alanis Morissette

In September of the same year, "Thank U" was released on radio and Alanis talked with MTV about the break between LPs and the first single: "Basically, I had never stopped in my whole life, hadn't taken a long breath, and I took a year and a half off and basically learned how to do that. When I did stop and I was silent and I breathed I was just left with an immense amount of gratitude, and inspiration, and love, and bliss, and that's where the song came from, you know." The song uses a simple chord progression alternating between a tonic C major chord, dominant G major chord, and the subdominant F major chord. The music is simple, mid tempo rock, with the drum track being a loop of the oft sampled break in Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song". A delicate electric piano intro underscores Morissette's vocals, which begin by asking, "How bout getting off these antibiotics?" The rest of the song continues with Morissette posing similar provocative questions "How bout remembering your divinity? "—and her thanking the circumstances—terror, disillusionment, and consequence, among others—that helped her achieve personal growth. The lyrics document Morissette's spiritual awakenings following her trip to India, as well as other physical and internal journeys. In "Thank U", Alanis expresses the heartfelt gratitude, inspiration, and compassion that she felt at the time she wrote it. According to Jon Pareles of The New York Times, the song has "verses of self help," such as, "How 'bout no longer being masochistic?, how 'bout remembering your divinity?, how 'bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out?." Liana Jones of Allmusic noticed that "There aren't many artists, let alone everyday people, who acknowledge and pay tribute to life's lessons." Liana Jones also of Allmusic wrote that the song's lyrics are "a real boon for contemporary rock music, which tends to be simplistic and hackneyed in its themes." Daily Record noted that Morissette "returns to angst ridden form". Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the song's structure "creates an immediate catchiness, underpinned and emphasized by Gary Novak's hypnotic drum pattern." Tucker also called 'Thank U,' "a terrific single, with its positive sentiments tucked inside a crystalline melody like a message in a bottle." NME praised the "pleasant, lilting Liz Cocteau on a broomstick style frame." Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone wrote that the song "could've been a pretentious disaster, but instead it's a pretentious stroke of brilliance – she finds something shockingly smart to say about her spiritual crises, riding an indelible Eighties AOR synth hook and wailing like Robert Plant stealing 'Kashmir' back from Jimmy Page and 'Puffy'. Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine called the "soft rock synth hook" and "the bundle of Morissette's signature list y lyrics," "anything but ordinary."

"Thank U" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart at number 42. A week later, it debuted on the Modern Rock Tracks at number 19. The same week, the song climbed to number 11 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, On the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "Thank U" peaked at number 17, on the issue date December 5, 1998. In Canada, "Thank U" topped the RPM Top Singles chart for three consecutive weeks (six weeks if counting the holiday period in which no charts were published), becoming her fifth number one single there.

"Thank U" was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammy Awards, but lost to Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You". ReDigi website also listed the "Top 10 Alanis Morissette Songs", picking "Thank U" as her third best song, writing that, "Most of the attention might have been focused on its revealing video, but the angst ridden melancholy of 'Thank You' works just as well without images of Alanis wandering the streets in her birthday suit."

The music video for the song was directed by French director Stéphane Sednaoui (who previously directed "Ironic" for Morissette) and premiered on October 12, 1998, on MTV's Total Request Live. It features Morissette walking around and being embraced by strangers in a variety of public locations, such as in the street, at a supermarket, and on a subway car. Throughout the video, Morissette is completely nude with her long hair shrouding her breasts and her pubic region blurred out. Slight modifications to the video were made before broadcasting by MTV in India and certain other Asian countries. Subsequent replays, however, aired the video in its original format. In May 2001, the video was voted number 66 on VH1's 100 Greatest Videos.

+Release dates and formats for "Thank U"RegionDateFormat(s)Label(s)Ref. (Reference)EuropeOctober 12, 1998CDMaverick Records, Maverick, Reprise Records, RepriseUnited KingdomOctober 19, 1998CD, cassetteJapanNovember 2, 1998CD

"Thank U" was covered by English progressive rock musician Steven Wilson (who jokingly changed the line "How about them transparent dangling carrots" to "How about changing a line 'cause it don't make sense"). Blackfield, one of Wilson's bands, has regularly played the song on tour. On an episode of Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Fallon appeared on the "Weekend Update" segment in which he sang various parody songs about Halloween. One such song was a parody of "Thank U", in which he thanks all of the candy that he had received Trick or Treating. On MadTV, there was a parody, "Wash Me", starring Mo Collins which takes place in a laundromat. On French & Saunders, Jennifer Saunders parodied Morissette with a song called "Bless U", a tribute to thesauri, dictionaries, spell check and other word referencing methods. The clip showed Saunders as a singer called Aimless Morris Minor, dressed in a flesh coloured body suit to make it appear as if she were naked. At the end of the sketch, Dawn French stuck the pubic hair of the suit onto Saunders's face. This clip was shown as a sketch on French and Saunders 1999 Bank Holiday Special. "Weird Al" Yankovic debuted an unreleased spoof of "Thank U" titled "Fast Food" on his 1999 Running with Scissors tour. Tori Amos covered the song on several occasions during her concert tours, most notably in 2014, during her Unrepentant Geraldines Tour.