About This Quiz
Alanis Morissette kind of had two careers in music that not a lot of fans know about. In the early 1990s Morissette, then going just by the name Alanis, was very much into the world of bubblegum pop music and could have easily traded places with Paula Abdul or Debbie Gibson. It was only years later when she released the album "Jagged Little Pill" that fans got a look at the raw and unfiltered Alanis Morissette that would make her a world-renowned talent with 33 million albums sold.
"You Oughta Know" was the song that exploded with catchy yet angry lyrics and an aggressive sound that people fell in love with. She switched up her style and sound in songs like "Ironic" and "Hand in My Pocket" covering a range from hard rock to more catchy pop songs. The mix was something fans loved and the album charted all around the world. Every single seemed to be one of those unforgettable songs of the era. Who can hear "You Learn" today and not want to sing along?
Morissette has released nine studio albums to date and is still a musical icon, being the first female artist in Canada to ever top the Billboard charts. If you're a diehard fan, then you oughta know how to finish these lyrics. Take the quiz and show your stuff!
The song that rocketed Alanis to international fame was "You Oughta Know" and the next line is "It's not fair to deny me." This was the lead single off of the album and was a top 40 hit as far away as New Zealand and Iceland.
"Hand in my Pocket" features the line "I'm poor but I'm kind." The song was actually chosen as the theme song for the show "Dawson's Creek" and was used in the unaired pilot. After the show was picked up for series, Morrisette didn't want it used.
No one wants a black fly in their Chardonnay, and Alanis was all over that on the album "Jagged Little Pill." And the most ironic thing was, of course, that nothing in the song met the literary definition of irony.
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The next line from the song "Head Over Feet" is, "And don't be alarmed if I fall head over feet." The song is the story of a pair of best friends who are also in love with one another, and the relationship that they have.
The word missing in this lyric is "Alleluia." If you've ever wondered what the difference between alleluia and hallelujah is, wonder no more! Both are translations of a Hebrew phrase that means "praise the name of God" but the alleluia version was translated through Greek first.
The line is "Did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity?" and it's just one of the many biting lines in the song. For many years now it's been generally understood that Alanis was singing about her ex Dave Coulier, who played Uncle Joey on "Full House."
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There's a lot of stuff to learn in this song, and the next line is, "You lose you learn." Here's something you may not have known but can learn right now: Alanis is named after her father, whose name is Alan.
Someone mispronounced Alanis' name in this lyric that opens the song "Right Through You." Alanis has said that the fame she found after "Jagged Little Pill" resulted in post-traumatic stress as she had people breaking into her hotel rooms, pulling her hair and generally not respecting any boundaries with her.
Life has a funny way of sneaking up on you in the song "Ironic" from the album "Jagged Little Pill." When she was a kid, Alanis was on the show "You Can't Do That on Television" that aired on Nickelodeon.
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Alanis says she's flattered by someone's fascination with her in the lyrics to "Uninvited." The song comes from the soundtrack to the movie "City of Angels." The song was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 1999.
The blank in this lyric is "bandage" from the song "Not the Doctor" off "Jagged Little Pill." That album hit number one on Billboard's 200, making Alanis the first woman from Canada to achieve that feat.
Alanis has some busy hands in the song "Hand in My Pocket" so while one hand is forever in her pocket, the other gets to give a high five, play the piano, hail a cab, flick a cigarette and flash a peace sign at some point in the song.
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Alanis recommends getting your heart trampled on to anyone in "You Learn." This was one of the biggest singles from "Jagged Little Pill" and Alanis didn't even have a US record deal when she recorded it. She waited until it was done before signing a deal so no studio could make changes to it.
According to the lyrics of the song "One" the singer is the biggest hypocrite. Though not one of the biggest releases off of the album "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie" it did lend its name to "The One Tour" that followed.
Obviously a contract is getting breached and that's the missing lyric here. The song "So-Called Chaos" was also the name of the album on which the song was found. Actor Ryan Reynolds, to whom she was engaged at the time, inspired a lot of the songs on the album.
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The song "21 Things I Want in a Lover" was off Alanis' album "Rug Under Swept" and it was released as a single but only in Brazil. That aside, it was a critical favorite in reviews of the album and has been a standout. What did she prefer? Qualities!
"How many times do I have to tell you to hurry up" is the lyric here. The song is called "Perfect," and some people believe the most perfect song Alanis ever recorded was her low-key cover of Fergie's "My Humps."
"If I accumulate knowledge I'll be impenetrable" according to the song "Would Not Come." Knowledge seems like something Morissette would place value on, since both of her parents were teachers when she was younger.
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"Thank U" was a single off Alanis' "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie," her much-anticipated follow-up to "Jagged Little Pill." In a repeated refrain she thanks India and also terror, as well as a number of other things.
Alanis gets reduced to "cosmic tears" in "So Pure" from the album "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie." While that song seems pretty deep and thoughtful, Alanis' career has been pretty crazy. She opened for Vanilla Ice on his tour in 1990.
The song "All I Really Want" features the lyric, "My sweater is on backwards and inside out." In the song she compares herself to the main character Estella from the Charles Dickens novel "Great Expectations."
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This line from "Front Row" is a little repetitive as it hits "dungeon" again as the lyric. "Clerks" director Kevin Smith once said that this song was partially inspired by a phone call that he and Alanis once had.
The lyric in "Can't Not" is "I'd be lying if I said I was completely unscathed." Morissette may not be unscathed but she does seem happy with her husband Mario Treadway, better known by his stage name Souleye. The two have three children together.
The line is, "How long have we been sleeping." The song "Baba" was written after Alanis came back from a trip to India, as was the song "Thank U" and is in some ways autobiographical about a person on a spiritual journey.
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Alanis wants to know that you're going to rescue her at the beginning of the song "Precious Illusions." This tune was the second single from her album "Rug Under Swept." This is one of her peppier songs, even though it has a slow start.
If you never heard "Too Hot," do yourself a favor and Google it. This is from the 1991 album "Alanis" back when she released a very radio-friendly pop album in line with things like Paula Abdul of the era. The line is "never too cold," incidentally.
"You hadn't seen your father in such a long time" is the lyric from "The Couch." You may have seen Alanis on your own couch back in the day when she sang on the show "Star Search." She lost to a guy named Chad the Singing Cowboy.
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Alanis' laws are all of attraction in the lyrics to "Citizen of the Planet." This was the first track off "Flavors of Entanglement" which came out in 2008. The album sold about 600,000 copies worldwide and won a Juno, which is like the Canadian Grammy.
Alanis was hoping you could heal each other in the lyrics to the song "I Was Hoping." Not a lot of people know that Alanis has a twin brother named Wade who is also a musician and a yoga instructor.
It's "a course of a lifetime" that Alanis is singing about in the song "8 Easy Steps." The song is a bit of a parody of self-help advice, as a lot of the lines tell you how to improve your life by doing something that's a little bit awful.
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"I'm a sweet piece of work" is the line from "Orchid." Speaking of a piece of work, her 1999 tour was sponsored by MP3.com and they paid her in stock that was worth millions right up until the dotcom explosion, which killed it. Word is she sold about $1.5 million before it fell apart, though.
"That I would be good if I got and stayed sick" is the line here. There's a buzz in the background of the song that was recorded by accident because a microphone was too close to an amp. Morrissette liked it so much she kept it in the song.
The word "maturity" was the missing lyric in this line. The song "Hands Clean" comes from Alanis' fifth album "Under Rug Swept." The song was controversial when it was released as it dealt with an underage relationship Morrisette had with a much older man.
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It's carrots that are transparent and dangling in the lyric here from "Thank U." This became the fifth number-one single of Morrisette's music career. It was also nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2000 Grammys.
"If we were our defenses I'd be joining you" is the line from "Joining You" off the album "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie." There was supposed to be a video for the song, and footage was shot, but Morissette didn't like it so the video was scrapped