«Pieces of Me» Эшли Симпсон: История песни и успех сингла

2004 single by Ashlee Simpson
the Ashlee Simpson song

"Pieces of Me" is the debut single of American pop/rock singer Ashlee Simpson and the first single from her debut album, Autobiography (2004). The song, which was jointly written and composed by Simpson, Kara DioGuardi and John Shanks and produced by Shanks, is a blend of pop and rock with lyrics about finding comfort and happiness in a relationship with a new boyfriend. "Pieces of Me" was released as the first single from Autobiography on May 17, 2004. It peaked at number five on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Outside of the U. S., the song reached the top 10 in several countries, including Australia, Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Billboard ranked the song at number 97 in their 2017 list of "The 100 Greatest Choruses of the 21st Century" and number 26 in their 2020 list of "The 50 Greatest Minivan Rock Songs". As of , it remains Simpson's most successful song as well as her only song to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 or the UK Singles Chart.

The recording of "Pieces of Me" features in "Valentine's Bummer", the fourth episode of the first season of Ashlee Simpson's reality show, The Ashlee Simpson Show, and was inspired by Simpson's relationship with the musician Ryan Cabrera, a friend with whom she became romantically involved. As she said, "It was just really nice to be with somebody who's just real and who's nice — just a good person. So I wrote that about him, and when I finished it, I was so excited and so was he." The two were reported to have broken up in August 2004. In another interview, Simpson said, "It's a feel good song, it's easy to listen to and every time I perform it or listen to it or whatever, it just feels good." Jeff Rothschild played drums on the track, John Shanks played guitars and bass, and Simpson and Kara DioGuardi performed background vocals. Another review said that the "stringy" guitar riffs in "Pieces of Me" were "simple, yet effective", with the "catchy chorus bringing the song to life." According to one review of the album, Simpson's singing on the track goes from "impassioned wail to innocent cooing ably." A UK review of the single called it "palatable" "as guitar led lipstick confessionals go". It has also been described as a "perfect choice" for the album's first single, having "a tempo between fast and slow, with hints of both throughout the song."

"Pieces of Me" was released as the lead single from Autobiography on June 29, 2004. The music video for the song, directed by Stefan Smith, features Simpson (wearing a white shirt emblazoned with the word "punk" and a pink dress, as well as using Fostex T20RP headphones) and her band in the studio interspersed with clips of reality TV footage. The video is fairly simplistic, and Simpson refers to the more elaborate video for her second single, "Shadow", as her first "real" video. Simpson appeared on MTV's Total Request Live on May 17, 2004, and the "Pieces of Me" video was premiered on the show on this date. On June 2, she also appeared on the show and performed the song. The video did not debut on the countdown's top 10 until July 19; however, it reached number one for the first time on August 4 and remained on the countdown through September 13. The "Shadow" video premiered on the following day and took the place of "Pieces of Me" on the countdown. Simpson has frequently performed "Pieces of Me" live, including a number of notable television performances. She sang the song at Summer Music Mania on May 20, and it aired on FOX on June 1. Simpson sang "Pieces of Me" (followed by a brief interview with Jay Leno) on the May 24, 2004, episode of The Tonight Show, and she also sang the song on the Late Show with David Letterman on July 16. She performed "Pieces of Me" (after a brief interview with Charles Gibson) on Good Morning America on July 19, the day before her album was released in the U. S., and on July 27, she sang it (after an interview) on Ryan Seacrest's talk show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest. On August 8 she performed "Pieces of Me" on the Teen Choice Awards, and the song also received the "Song of the Summer" award. On August 29, Simpson performed the song during the pre show for the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards. The song made its debut somewhat later in the United Kingdom, where the album was also released several months after it was in the U. S. In September 2004, Simpson made several notable television appearances in the UK in which she performed the song, including on Top of the Pops (September 17), Top of the Pops Saturday (September 25), CD:UK and Popworld. Later in 2004, on the October 23 episode of Saturday Night Live, Simpson performed "Pieces of Me" as her first of two songs that night; when she started to perform her second song (which was supposed to be "Autobiography"), a recording of "Pieces of Me" was mistakenly played instead, indicating that Simpson was using some sort of vocal aid. She began to do an impromptu jig (which she later named as a hoedown) when she realized she had been caught lip syncing, and then left the stage. (She later explained it as being due to her acid reflux condition.) For her next performance, at the Radio Music Awards on October 25, Simpson poked fun at the SNL incident by having some of "Pieces of Me" play at the beginning of her performance, to suggest that she was caught in the same situation as before, only to then smile and exclaim that she was "just kidding" and begin performing "Autobiography." The incident was also parodied in Good Charlotte's "I Just Wanna Live" music video and later on Family Guy. Simpson subsequently performed "Pieces of Me" (in addition to a performance of "La La") on Jingle Ball Rock, a television special on FOX featuring performances by a number of popular artists; it was taped on December 3 and aired on the evening of December 17. She also sang the song as part of a concert broadcast live over the Internet on December 6, and during the performance she pulled a member of the audience up on stage with her. Simpson later performed the song on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2005, in which she also hosted the West Coast portion of the show. The video for "Pieces of Me" was nominated for "Best Pop Video" for the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, The video was also nominated for the same category for the 2005 MTV Australia Video Music Awards, but lost to Guy Sebastian's "Out with My Baby." As part of the promotion for her third album, Bittersweet World, Simpson performed "Pieces of Me", together with her newer single "Little Miss Obsessive", on The TODAY Show on April 18, 2008.

+ Release dates and formats for "Pieces of Me" Region Date Format Label Ref. (Reference) United States May 17, 2004 Contemporary hit radio Geffen June 29, 2004 CD Australia August 2, 2004 Universal United States Hot AC radio Geffen Japan August 4, 2004 CD Universal Germany September 13, 2004 United Kingdom September 27, 2004 Polydor