32 Flavors
"32 Flavors" is a song written and performed by Ani DiFranco. The song was later covered by Alana Davis as her 1998 debut single. [1] The title of the song is a pun on Canton, Massachusetts-based ice cream store Baskin-Robbins and its well-known "31 flavors" slogan.
Ani DiFranco version
| "32 Flavors" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Ani DiFranco from the album Not a Pretty Girl | |
| Released | 1995 |
| Genre | Pop |
| Length | 6:07 |
| Writer(s) | Ani DiFranco |
| Producer(s) | Ani DiFranco |
This song appears on her sixth studio album Not a Pretty Girl, released in 1995. A variation of the song, performed by Ani DiFranco, is featured on the movie soundtrack of the 1999 Canadian romantic comedy Better Than Chocolate.[2]
The song was used in an ad campaign by the National Football League in 1999. The ad featured a number of players who have worn the number "32" on their jerseys.[3]
Alana Davis version
| "32 Flavors" | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||
| Single by Alana Davis | ||||||||||
| from the album Blame It on Me | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Lullaby" | |||||||||
| Released | January 31, 1998 | |||||||||
| Format | CD | |||||||||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||||||||
| Genre | Pop | |||||||||
| Length | 3:45 | |||||||||
| Label | Elektra | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Ani DiFranco | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Alana Davis | |||||||||
| Alana Davis singles chronology | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
A cover version of "32 Flavors" was released as the first single by Manhattan-based singer Alana Davis. The song appears on her debut album Blame It on Me. The CD single also included Davis' song "Lullaby". It received a 3 out of 5 star rating on Allmusic. "32 Flavors" rose as high as #37 on the Hot 100 chart in Billboard magazine, Davis' sole Hot 100 charting.
Davis' record label A&R representative Josh Deutsch suggested she record "32 Flavors" to serve as the first single released from her new album. Davis was pleased with the finished result but was uncomfortable with covering the song as she felt she could not connect with all of the personal emotions that DiFranco wrote into the song. [4] Davis told MTV News, "Ani DiFranco is very much her own song writer, you know and I think of her songs as being very specific to her ideals and stuff. At first I wasn't sure about taking her ideas and trying to make them my own and reinterpreting them. But I started to play around with it I don't know, I took out the parts that I wasn't comfortable with, you know, and I put in ideas of my own and sent her a copy of it and she said she loved it, so..." [1]
In 2005 Davis stated: "I wrote parts of that song [as Davis recorded it] I never took credit for...The chorus, for example...did not exist in the original recording. Though that song is technically a cover, I put myself and my lyrics and my musical sensibility in it as I do with any cover. I wrote the bassline and programmed the drums. And so, when I perform that song, or when you listen to the album version, you are listening to a hybrid of the original. I don’t think you can hear my version and feel like you are listening to Ani's song anymore. You have to listen to her recording to get her vibe. Mine is a different animal". [5]
Track listing
- "32 Flavors"
- "Lullaby"
Charts
| Charts | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 37 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 | 17 |
| U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream | 34 |
Other versions
British acid-jazz band D'Influence remade the song for their 2002 album D'Influence Presents D-Vas: the track "32 Flavours" (reflecting British preferred spelling) featured as guest vocalist Louise Rose. "32 Flavors" has since been remade by Elle Varner for her 2012 mixtape Conversational Lush and Dianne Reeves for her 2014 album Beautiful Life. Reeves describes "32 Flavors" as being "about people doing amazing things that nobody sees. It speaks to how we should be more conscious about those around us—those who populate and contribute to our lives": [6] before recording the song Reeves had been performing "32 Flavors" live for some time - (quote) "I always improvised a melody around it [when] I did it ...on stage...My band never knew how I was going to call it. We would create something on stage and do it. And it was the power of the lyric, you know, that allowed me to do that and to make it something different every night. And then I said, I want to record this." [7]
References
- 1 2 "Alana Davis Gets Down With Ani DiFranco's "32 Flavors"". MTV.com. 1998-02-13. Retrieved 2012-05-19.
- ↑ Better Than Chocolate (1999) IMDb.com
- ↑ "THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; The National Football League's latest campaign stacks its legends against today's stars. - New York Times". Nytimes.com. 1999-09-24. Retrieved 2011-08-23.
- ↑ Essex, Andrew. "Alana Davis". Rolling Stone. 784 (1998)
- ↑ http://www.popentertainment.com/alanadavis.htm
- ↑ "Beautiful Life/ Dianne Reeves (media kit)". MediaKits.ConcordMusicGroup.com. Retrieved 8 July 2016.
- ↑ "Acclaimed jazz singer Diane [sic] Reeves takes on a soulful sound". National Public Radio (NPR.com). Retrieved 8 July 2016.
External links
- Lyrics from Ani DiFranco's website
- "32 Flavors" by Alana Davis at Allmusic
- The Progressive video and short piece about Ani.
- Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics