John Hiatt: Information from Answers.com

John Hiatt's sales have never quite matched his reputation. Hiatt's songs were covered successfully by everyone from , , and Dr. Feelgood to , , and the Neville Brothers, yet it took him 13 years to reach the charts himself.

Of course, it nearly took him that long to find his own style. Hiatt began his solo career in 1974, and over the next decade he ran through a number of different styles from rock roll to new wave pop before he finally settled on a rootsy fusion of rock roll, country, blues, and folk with his 1987 album Bring the Family. Though the album didn't set the charts on fire, it became his first album to reach the charts, and several of the songs on the record became hits for other artists, including and .

Following its success, Hiatt became a reliable hit songwriter for other artists, and he developed a strong cult following that continued to gain strength into the mid-'90s.

While he was growing up in his hometown of Indianapolis, IN, John Hiatt played in a number of garage bands. Initially, he was inspired by the Rolling Stones and , and the music of those two artists would echo strongly throughout his work.

Out of all the bar bands he played with in the late '60s, a group called the White Ducks was the one that received the most attention. Following his high-school graduation, he moved to Nashville at the age of 18, where he landed a job as a songwriter for Tree Publishing. For the next several years, he wrote and performed at local clubs and hotels.

Within a few years, his songs were being recorded by several different artists, including , , and , who took Hiatt's "Sure as I'm Sittin' Here" to number 16 in the summer of 1974. Eventually, his manager secured him an audition at Epic Records, and the label signed him in 1974, releasing his debut album, Hangin' Around the Observatory, later that year. Despite their critical acclaim, neither Hangin' Around the Observatory nor its 1975 follow-up sold many copies, and he was dropped by the label.

By the end of the year, Tree Publishing had let him go as well.

Following his failure in Nashville, Hiatt moved out to California. By the summer of 1978 he had settled in Los Angeles, where began playing in clubs, opening for folk musicians including .

With 's assistance, Hiatt hired a new manager, , who helped him secure a record contract with MCA Records. , his first record for MCA, was released in the summer of 1979. Where his first two records were straight-ahead rock roll and folk-rock, was in the new wave vein of angry English singer/songwriters like , , and , as if Hiatt was vying for the role of the American angry young man.

The new approach earned some strong reviews, yet it failed to generate any sales. , his second MCA album, faced the same situation. Although it was well-received critically upon its 1980 release, it made no impression on the charts, and the label dropped him.

Apart from working on , Hiatt spent most of 1980 as a member of Ry Cooder's backing band, playing rhythm guitar on the album and touring with the guitarist. Hiatt stayed with throughout 1981, signing a new contract with Geffen Records by the end of the year. Produced by ( , T.

Rex), his Geffen debut All of A Sudden was released in 1982, followed by the / Ron Nagel-produced Riding With the King in 1983. As with his previous records for Epic and MCA, neither of his first two Geffen releases sold well. By this time, Hiatt's personal life was beginning to spin out of control as he was sinking deep into alcoholism.

Around the time he completed 1985's Warming Up to the Ice Age, his second wife committed suicide. Following the release of Warming Up to the Ice Age, Hiatt was dropped by Geffen. By the end of 1985, he had entered a rehabilitation program.

During 1986, he remarried and signed a new deal with A M Records.

For his A M debut, Hiatt assembled a small band comprised of his former associates Ry Cooder (guitar), (bass), and Jim Keltner (drums). Recorded over the course of a handful of days, the resulting album, Bring the Family, had a direct, stripped-down rootsy sound that differed greatly from his earlier albums.

Upon its summer 1987 release, Bring the Family received the best reviews of his career and, for once, the reviews began to pay off, as the album turned into a cult hit, peaking at 107 on the U.S. charts; it was his first charting album.

Hiatt attempted to record a follow-up with , , and Keltner, but the musicians failed to agree on the financial terms for the sessions. Undaunted, he recorded an album with , , and , but he scrapped the completed project, deciding that the result was too forced. Hiatt's final attempt at recording the follow-up to Bring the Family was orchestrated by veteran producer , who had him record with his touring band, the Goners.

Despite all of the behind-the-scenes troubles behind its recording, the follow-up album, , actually appeared rather quickly, appearing in the summer of 1988.

, like Bring the Family before it, received nearly unanimous positive reviews and it was fairly well-received commercially, spending 31 weeks on the U.S.

charts and peaking at 98. Within the next year, Hiatt successfully toured throughout America and Europe, strengthening his fan base along the way. Inspired by the success of Hiatt's two A M albums, Geffen released the compilation in 1989.

That same year, other artists began digging through Hiatt's catalog of songs, most notably , who covered "Thing Called Love" for her multi-platinum comeback album, Nick of Time.

In 1990, Hiatt returned with , which was nearly as successful as , both critically and commercially. "Bring Back Your Love to Me," an album track from that was also recorded by , won BMI's 1991 Country Music Award.

By the time "Bring Back Your Love to Me" won that award, it had become a standard practice for artists to cover Hiatt's songs, as artists as diverse as , , , and all covered his songs in the early '90s. In 1993, Rhino Records released Love Gets Strange: The Songs of John Hiatt, which collected many of the cover versions that were recorded during the '80s and '90s.

During 1991, the group that recorded Bring the Family -- Hiatt, , , and Keltner -- re-formed as a band called , releasing their eponymous debut in early 1992.

Based on the success of Bring the Family and Hiatt's A M albums, expectations for were quite high, yet the record and its supporting tour were considered a major disappointment. Later, the individual members would agree that the band was a failure, mainly due to conflicting egos.

Hiatt decided to back away from the superstar nature of for his next album, 1993's .

Recorded in just two weeks with a backing band comprised of members of alternative rock bands School of Fish and , the album was looser than any record since Bring the Family, but it didn't quite have the staying power of its two predecessors, spending only 11 weeks on the charts and peaking at number 47. The following year, he released his first live album, Hiatt Comes Alive at Budokan? Hiatt left A M Records after the release of the record, signing with Capitol Records the following year.

, Hiatt's first Capitol album, was recorded during his supporting tour for and featured guest appearances by the Jayhawks and . entered the charts at 48, but slipped off the charts in nine weeks, indicating that his audience had settled into a dedicated cult following. Fittingly, after 1997's quickly came and went in the marketplace, Hiatt parted ways with Capitol, and his next album, 2000's was released on the established independent imprint Vanguard Records.

After a second album with Vanguard, , Hiatt alligned himself with another independent label, New West, for the release of his 2003 set . Master of Disaster, along with CD and DVD versions of Live from Austin, TX followed in 2005. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide and .

He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including been awarded a variety of other distinctions in the music industry.
. The song became a top forty hit, earning Hiatt a recording contract His songs have been covered by a variety of notable artists in multiple genres, including , , , John Hiatt started his musical career in , as a teenager.

He played in a variety of local clubs, most notably the Hummingbird. Hiatt played with a variety of bands, one of which was The Four Fifths.
got a job as a songwriter for the Tree-Music Publishing Company.

Hiatt, who was unable to read or write scores, had to record all 250 songs he wrote for the company. Hiatt wrote the song "Sure As I'm Sitting Here," which was recorded by and went to number 16 on the Billboard chart.
Hiatt meanwhile began playing with a band, White Ducks, which recorded an album, In Season, in .

Hiatt performed with both the White Ducks, and solo in a variety of clubs around Nashville.
, and received a record deal, releasing his first single, "We Make Spirt," later that year. In commercial failure.

A year later, Overcoats was released, and when it failed to sell, released Hiatt from his contract. Hiatt would suffer a similar fate with his next two labels, While working with Geffen, Hiatt received some praise by being called "the American " by some. Hiatt even recorded a duet with , a cover of ' song, "Living A Little, Laughing A Little," which appeared on Warming Up to the Ice Age.

Shortly after its release, covered Hiatt's song "The Usual," which had appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Hearts of Fire.
Hiatt finally came into success in , when he released his first big hit, Bring the Family. For the album, Hiatt had a backing band consisting of , , and .

One of the cuts from the album, "Have a Little Faith in Me," would be covered by a number of artists, including , moderate radio hit, but nothing that would garner Hiatt national attention.
Following Bring the Family, Hiatt would have varied success on his following albums, though he did have a string of In , Hiatt returned to the studio to record , which would be his first album to hit the upper half of the Billboard 200. It also featured his only successful single, the title track, which hit #8 on the chart.

Also in , covered Hiatt's song "Angel In , Cooder, Keltner, and Lowe again backed up Hiatt, but this time they gave themselves a band name, Little Village, a reference to a project. Expectations for the Little Village album were high, but the album failed to even chart as high as Hiatt's last solo album, and the group disbanded after an equally unsuccessful tour.
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It was Hiatt's highest peaking album at #47, but again high expectations would not be met. The next year, Hiatt released , his first live album and his last album with .
Hiatt's next few albums never gained any momentum on the charts, and he saw little change in his fanbase in the late , indicating a dedicated (but not growing) following.

In , Hiatt released his first independent album (on ), , which saw a strong mixture of in his music. Later that year, he was named songwriter/artist of the year at the A compilation of Hiatt's songs that have been covered was also released on Vanguard. A CD and DVD of John Hiatt's performance Hiatt's most recent album, , was released on , .

The album was produced by , and Hiatt was backed up by notable studio bassist and several members of the . The album achieved modest sales, become a top ten independent album, but eluded significant commercial success in the same manner that his previous albums did.

#66 US

, , 2005.