88 Facts About Aimee Mann

Aimee Mann is noted for her sardonic and literate lyrics about dark subjects, often describing underdog characters.

Aimee Mann achieved wider recognition for her contributions to the soundtrack for the Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia.

Aimee Mann's song "Save Me" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal.

In 2014, Aimee Mann released an album with Ted Leo as the Both.

Aimee Mann's awards include two Grammy Awards, including Best Folk Album for Mental Illness.

Aimee Mann was named one of the greatest living songwriters by NPR and Paste.

Aimee Mann was born at the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, on September 8,1960.

Aimee Mann was kidnapped by her mother and her new boyfriend and taken to Europe, where they traveled.

Aimee Mann said her father seemed "like a stranger" when they were reunited.

Aimee Mann did not see her mother again until she was 14.

Aimee Mann forgave her decades later, saying her mother had been "trapped on every side".

Aimee Mann grew up in Bon Air, Virginia, and attended Midlothian High School in Chesterfield County.

Aimee Mann was withdrawn and would not talk, and her father and stepmother sent her to a psychiatrist.

Aimee Mann learned to play her brother's guitar when she was confined to bed with glandular fever at the age of 12.

In 1978, feeling she did not fit in the "normal world", Aimee Mann enrolled in Berklee College of Music in Boston to study bass guitar.

Aimee Mann had wanted to learn the bass as a child, but her family ridiculed her, saying it was unladylike.

Aimee Mann was unhappy in the band, saying the other members objected to her writing love songs or music they considered too melodic.

Aimee Mann joined the band Ministry, which she said helped her learn to write songs efficiently.

Aimee Mann sang vocals with Geddy Lee on the 1987 single "Time Stand Still" by Rush, and appeared in the music video.

Everything's Different Now was a commercial failure; Aimee Mann said it had been abandoned by Epic following a change of staff.

Aimee Mann said later that her musical interests had changed, and that she was more interested in "acoustic guitar music" than the new wave pop of 'Til Tuesday.

Aimee Mann recorded her first solo albums with the producer Jon Brion, who had been a member of the 'Til Tuesday touring band.

Aimee Mann found working with Brion exciting and felt her songwriting improved with him.

Aimee Mann toured as part of the British band Squeeze, playing her own songs and songs by Squeeze.

Aimee Mann said disappointment and bad luck had made her distrustful of record labels.

Aimee Mann recorded a cover of the 1968 song "One" by Harry Nillson for the 1995 tribute album For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson.

Aimee Mann wrote "Wise Up" for the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, but the director, Cameron Crowe, felt it did not fit.

In 1997, Aimee Mann recorded a cover of "Nobody Does It Better", the theme song of the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, for the album Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project.

Aimee Mann contributed her song "Amateur" to the film Sliding Doors and made a cameo in the film The Big Lebowski as a German nihilist, both released in 1998.

Later in the decade, Aimee Mann became a regular act at Largo, a Los Angeles nightclub that hosted performances from alternative songwriters including Brion, Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple and Rufus Wainwright.

Aimee Mann received wider recognition after she contributed songs to the 1999 film Magnolia, including "One", "Wise Up" and songs she was writing for her third album.

Aimee Mann took more control over the production of her third album, Bachelor No 2.

Aimee Mann accepted an offer from Geffen to leave her contract, deciding to be "in charge of her own destiny".

Aimee Mann sold 25,000 copies of the album via mail order from her website, a large amount for an independent artist.

In 2001, Aimee Mann sued Universal Music over the release of a greatest-hits compilation, The Ultimate Collection, which she had not authorized and considered "substandard and misleading".

That year, Aimee Mann was a judge at the inaugural Annual Independent Music Awards, an award for promoting independent musicians.

Aimee Mann had intrusive thoughts resulting from an accident when the car of a drunk driver flipped her tour bus.

Aimee Mann referenced her health problems obliquely in her fourth album, Lost in Space, released in August 2002.

In November 2004, Aimee Mann released Live at St Ann's Warehouse, a live album recorded in Brooklyn, New York City.

Aimee Mann sang on "That's Me Trying", cowritten and produced by Ben Folds, from William Shatner's 2004 album Has Been.

In May 2005, Aimee Mann released The Forgotten Arm, a concept album set in the 1970s about two lovers who go on the run.

In October 2006, Aimee Mann released One More Drifter in the Snow, a Christmas album featuring covers and new songs.

Aimee Mann said she did not enjoy Christmas songs that use modern genres, and instead drew inspiration from classic Christmas records by Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

That year, Aimee Mann began an annual tradition of playing Christmas shows combining music and comedy.

Aimee Mann described it as a "Christmas show for people who don't really like Christmas".

In 2007, Aimee Mann contributed two original songs, "The Great Beyond" and "At the Edge of the World", to the soundtrack to the film Arctic Tale.

Aimee Mann contributed vocals to "Unforgiven" on John Doe's album A Year in the Wilderness.

In May 2011, Aimee Mann performed for President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama at a poetry seminar at the White House.

Aimee Mann appeared in a sketch for the Independent Film Channel series Portlandia.

Aimee Mann played herself as a cleaner, explaining that she needs the second job to support herself.

In 2012, Aimee Mann released her eighth solo album, Charmer, comprising songs based on the theme that personal charm should not always be trusted.

In February 2014, Aimee Mann appeared in an episode of the animated series Steven Universe as the voice of a female warrior, Opal.

Aimee Mann reprised her role for Steven Universe: The Movie, performing the song "Independent Together" with Leo.

Aimee Mann contributed a version of Styx's "Come Sail Away" to the 2014 Community episode "Geothermal Escapism".

Aimee Mann covered the 1973 Carpenters single "Yesterday Once More" for a 2016 episode of the HBO drama Vinyl.

In October 2016, Aimee Mann released a new song, "Can't You Tell", as part of the 30 Days 30 Songs campaign protesting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.

In March 2017, Aimee Mann released her ninth solo album, Mental Illness, a collection of sparse acoustic songs featuring collaborations with the songwriters Jonathan Coulton and John Roderick.

The title was suggested by a friend, which Aimee Mann found a "bald, accurate and funny" description of her songwriting themes.

In January 2018, Aimee Mann appeared in an episode of the FX series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story as a bar singer, performing the 1984 Cars song "Drive".

Aimee Mann appeared in the sitcom Corporate in the episode "The Pain of Being Alive".

In 2019, Aimee Mann released an expanded 20th-anniversary reissue of Bachelor No 2 for Record Store Day.

Aimee Mann hosted a podcast with Leo, The Art of Process, interviewing celebrities including Wyatt Cenac and Rebecca Sugar.

In 2020, Aimee Mann wrote a song, "Big Deal", for the animated series Central Park, performed by Stanley Tucci.

On November 5,2021, Aimee Mann released her tenth album, Queens of the Summer Hotel.

Aimee Mann had developed the songs for a musical based on the memoir with the producers Barbara Broccoli and Frederick Zollo, which was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January 2022, Aimee Mann began posting autobiographical comics on Instagram.

In 2023, Aimee Mann mentioned plans to create a graphic memoir.

Aimee Mann created them after promising her friend, the politician Antony Blinken, a painting for his White House office.

Aimee Mann said that Blinken "declined to have a portrait of Millard Fillmore on his wall, and I can't say I blame him".

Aimee Mann was dropped from a supporting slot on Steely Dan's 2022 tour.

Donald Fagen, the co-founder of Steely Dan, denied rumors that he felt a female singer-songwriter would not suit their audience, and instead said Aimee Mann was not a good musical fit.

Aimee Mann apologized, saying he respected Mann and did not realize any commitment had been made.

Aimee Mann accepted the apology and said it was plausible that Fagen did not know she had been announced for the tour.

Aimee Mann covered the Steely Dan song "Brooklyn " on tour that year.

In January 2023, Aimee Mann launched an Audible podcast, Straw into Gold, in which she interviewed artists about the connection between art and trauma.

Aimee Mann is due to reunite with 'Til Tuesday for their first show in 33 years at the Cruel World Festival in Pasadena in May 2025.

Aimee Mann played the bass guitar with the Young Snakes, 'Til Tuesday and the Both.

Aimee Mann said she admires precision in lyrics and that she liked rhymes that are "perfect and interesting".

Aimee Mann combines sad music and themes with humorous or sarcastic lyrics to create the sense of a narrator trying to hide their feelings.

Aimee Mann felt this was sadder than simply stating the feelings directly.

Aimee Mann said she was mainly influenced by "classic" 1970s chord progressions and melodies.

Aimee Mann said that American Songbook standards and ragtime had "resonance" for her.

Aimee Mann had a two-year relationship with the singer-songwriter Jules Shear, and their breakup influenced the final 'Til Tuesday album, Everything's Different Now.

Aimee Mann dated the 'Til Tuesday drummer Michael Hausman; after they separated, they remained friends and Hausman became her manager.

The actor and comedian Dave Foley said Aimee Mann wrote "Save Me" about him while they were in a relationship.

In 1993, while Aimee Mann was recording Whatever, she met the songwriter Michael Penn, the brother of the actors Sean Penn and Chris Penn.

In 2008, Aimee Mann said she had attended Al-Anon, a support group for the families and friends of alcoholics, to deal with the exhaustion she felt from trying to help addicts she knew.

Aimee Mann believed the disorder was triggered by a combination of childhood trauma and the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.