Tori Amos discography: History and Key Facts

Tori Amos is an American singer-songwriter and pianist whose musical career began in 1980, at the age of 17, when she and her brother co-wrote the song "Baltimore". The song was selected as the winning song in a contest for the Baltimore Orioles and was recorded and pressed locally as a 7" single. From 1984 to 1989, Amos fronted the synth-pop band Y Kant Tori Read, which released one eponymous studio album with Atlantic Records in 1988 before breaking up. Shortly thereafter, Amos began writing and recording material that would serve as the debut of her solo career. Still signed with Atlantic, and its UK counterpart East West, Amos' initial solo material was rejected by the label in 1990. Under the guidance of co-producers Eric Rosse, Davitt Sigerson and Ian Stanley, a second version of the album was created and accepted by the label the following year.

Amos' solo career began in October 1991 with the UK release of the Me and a Gun extended play (EP). The following month, after the first track on the EP was receiving more airplay than the title track, the label reissued the EP with the same artwork, but changed the title to Silent All These Years. Although the second version of the EP reached only No. 51 on the UK chart, BBC Radio 1 picked it as "Record of the Week", which helped Amos get her initial exposure. Her debut solo studio album, Little Earthquakes, was released two months later in January 1992. The album peaked at No. 14 on the Australian and UK Albums Chart and at No. 54 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Upon its release, the album received mostly positive reviews and was labeled an important album that kick-started the female singer-songwriter movement of the 1990s. Despite reaching only No. 54 on the Billboard 200, Little Earthquakes was a mainstay on the chart for 38 weeks and remains Amos' highest-selling album in the United States.

Subsequent albums with Atlantic were released at approximately two-year intervals. Amos' sophomore effort, Under the Pink, co-produced with Eric Rosse, debuted in February 1994 at number 12 on the Billboard 200 and number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. Boys for Pele, Amos' third solo album and the first album that was self-produced, debuted in January 1996 at number 2 on both the US and UK charts, making it her highest simultaneous trans-Atlantic debut. From the Choirgirl Hotel, Amos' first album written and recorded with bandmates Matt Chamberlain on drums, Jon Evans on bass and Steve Caton on guitar, and her first album recorded at her in-home recording studio, Martian Engineering, debuted in May 1998 at number 5 on the Billboard 200 and at number 6 on the UK Albums Chart. The following year, To Venus and Back, a double album of studio and live material recorded with Chamberlain, Evans and Caton, debuted in September 1999 at number 12 in the US and at number 22 in the UK. In September 2001, Strange Little Girls, a covers album recorded with Chamberlin on drums, Evans and Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass and Adrian Belew on guitar, debuted at number 4 on the Billboard 200 and at number 16 on the UK Albums Chart.

Due to professional conflicts, after working with Atlantic for the first 15 years of her career, Amos decided to seek another label. She joined Epic Records and released three albums over the next five years: Scarlet's Walk in October 2002, The Beekeeper in February 2005 and American Doll Posse in May 2007. On all three albums, Amos performed with Chamberlin on drums, Evans on bass and Mac Aladdin on guitar. Each album debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, placing Amos in an elite group of women who have secured five or more Top 10 album debuts.

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