Jill Sobule

Jill Susan Sobule ( SOH-byool; January 16, 1959 – May 1, 2025) was an American singer-songwriter best known for the 1995 single "I Kissed a Girl", and "Supermodel" from the soundtrack of the 1995 film Clueless. Her folk-inflected compositions alternate between ironic, story-driven character studies and emotive ballads, a duality reminiscent of such 1970s American songwriters as Warren Zevon, Harry Nilsson, Loudon Wainwright III, Harry Chapin, and Randy Newman. Autobiographical elements, including Sobule's Jewish heritage and her adolescent battles with anorexia and depression, frequently occur in Sobule's writing.

In 2009, Sobule released California Years, an album funded entirely by fan donations, making her an early pioneer of crowdfunding.

Early life

Sobule was born into a secular Jewish family in Denver, Colorado on January 16, 1959. Her father, Marvin Lee, was a veterinarian, and her mother, Elaine, was a musician. She had a brother, James.

Sobule attended St. Mary's Academy, while she was the only Jew there, she played the guitar during mass. She enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder to study political science and spent her junior year in Seville, Spain, where she first performed her public gigs. Sobule later returned to the U.S. and dropped out from CU-Boulder to pursue a music career.

Career

Sobule released eight studio albums of original songs, four EPs, and a greatest hits compilation album. Sobule's output also included original songs available only via the Internet, a cover of Robert Earl Keen's country holiday favorite "Merry Christmas from the Family," and a version of her late friend Warren Zevon's "Don't Let Us Get Sick", included on both Sobule's acoustic album The Folk Years 2003-2003 and on a posthumous Zevon tribute record, both released in 2004.

1990s

Sobule's debut album, Things Here Are Different, was released by MCA Records in 1990. Produced by pop legend Todd Rundgren, the album failed to sell. She made a followup record produced by British New Wave rocker Joe Jackson (for whom she opened in 1991), but Sobule was dropped from her label and the second album was never released. She recorded another album's worth of songs, with Wendy & Lisa producing, in 1992; this was also shelved by MCA. Three of the songs from those sessions – "Trains," "Karen By Night" and "Margaret" – would be re-recorded when Sobule signed with Lava/Atlantic for her eponymous second album, released five years after her debut.

Her 1995 album Jill Sobule established Sobule as part of a fruitful mid-90s movement of female singer-songwriters that included such artists as Lisa Loeb, Juliana Hatfield, and Alanis Morissette. The album contains Sobule's best-known composition and biggest hit, "I Kissed a Girl", a story-song about a lesbian flirtation between two suburban girlfriends which became an unlikely radio success thanks in part to a comedic music video featuring beefcake model Fabio Lanzoni. "Supermodel" (sample lyric: "I didn't eat yesterday ... and I'm not gonna eat today ... and I'm not gonna eat tomorrow ... 'Cause I'm gonna be a supermodel") managed to both send up and celebrate American teenage lifestyles, and became well known after its inclusion in 1995's hit teen comedy film Clueless.

The Jill Sobule album seemed to establish Sobule's commercial prospects, but her third album slowed that momentum while setting what was the musical and production patterns for the rest of her career. In 1997 Happy Town featured Sobule's most elaborate pop productions and contains songs about an eclectic range of topics including reactionary Christianity ("Soldiers of Christ"), the negative impact of antidepressant medication on the libido ("Happy Town"), and a track that uses Anne Frank's enforced Nazi-era hibernation as the metaphor for a love song ("Attic"). Though embraced by record reviewers from publications as diverse as The Advocate and Entertainment Weekly, Happy Town sold poorly, simultaneously solidifying Sobule's critical reputation while stalling her commercial momentum.

2000s

The 2000 record Pink Pearl may be Sobule's most characteristic set. It is anchored by three female character studies: "Lucy at the Gym", about an anorexic exercise addict; "Claire", about an aging lesbian aviator succumbing to Alzheimer's disease; and "Mary Kay", about Mary Kay Letourneau, the notorious real-life schoolteacher who became impregnated and was imprisoned as the result of the statutory rape of a 13-year-old male student, whom she married when he reached the age of consent.

Pink Pearl also contains some of Sobule's most directly confessional songwriting, especially the atheist's prayer "Somewhere in New Mexico" and the insomniac's lullaby "Rock Me To Sleep". Don Henley contributed a promotional quotation to the ad campaign for the album and selected Sobule to open for him during his solo tour that year.

In 2004, Sobule self-released an album of acoustic tracks titled The Folk Years 2003–2003. In the album, Sobule performed offbeat cover versions of such standards as the Doris Day theme song "Que Sera Sera" and "Sunrise, Sunset" from the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.

The more elaborately recorded Underdog Victorious, also released in 2004, was one of the last albums distributed by legendary personal manager and media entrepreneur Danny Goldberg's now-defunct Artemis Records. Stalling album sales led Sobule to move to Los Angeles. She continued to write and perform prolifically and to compose original music for television, including for the popular Nickelodeon series Unfabulous.

Sobule also acted and performed her songs in writer-director Eric Schaeffer's 2004 film Mind the Gap, as a street musician in Astoria, Queens with a heart condition, who aspires to play in Manhattan.

In mid-January 2008, Sobule launched a website, jillsnextrecord.com, which sought to raise $75,000 through fan donations in order to produce, manufacture, distribute, and promote an upcoming studio album. In exchange for their donations, Sobule offered her patrons an assortment of rewards with values commensurate with the amount of the donation. These ranged from a free download of the album upon its release ($10) to the opportunity to attend a recording session and sing on the record ($10,000).

On March 8, 2008, 53 days after the public launch of the site, Sobule reached her target through donations from more than 500 people in 44 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and 11 foreign countries. The subsequent album, California Years, was released on April 14, 2009 on Sobule's own label, Pinko Records.

2010s–2020s

On Sobule's next record Dottie's Charms in 2014, she put music to lyrics of her friends and favorite authors, including David Hajdu, Jonathan Lethem, Vendela Vida, and Lucy Sante, with each song relating to individual charms on an antique charm bracelet she had been given.

In 2018, Sobule again used crowdfunding to assist with the production of her final album, Nostalgia Kills. Rolling Stone listed the first single from the album, "Island of Lost Things", among the 10 best new country and Americana songs.

Sobule's semi-autobiographical musical "Fuck 7th Grade" opened at the Wild Project theater in New York in October 2022 and had several runs there. It was nominated for a 2023 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical. A New York Times review said the show was "for the nerds who grew up to be the cool people."

From 2020, Sobule acted as musician-in-residence at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, an LGBTQIA community center.

Collaborations

In the late 1990s, Sobule toured with Richard Barone as "The Richard & Jill Show". Together they wrote "Bitter" on Happy Town, "Rock Me To Sleep" on Pink Pearl and "Waiting for the Train" on Barone's Clouds Over Eden album. They also appeared together (as Mr. and Mrs. Sobule) in the underground film Next Year in Jerusalem, which featured another of their compositions, "Everybody's Queer". The pair continued to collaborate, including writing "Odd Girl Out" for Barone's 2010 album, Glow (Bar/None Records), as well as continuing to perform together. Their songs have been used on The West Wing, Dawson's Creek, Felicity, South of Nowhere, and other television shows. In 2018, Barone produced and sang backing vocals on "Island of Lost Things" on Sobule's album Nostalgia Kills.

From 1997 until 1998, Sobule was a member of Lloyd Cole's short-lived band The Negatives.

In the fall of 2003, Sobule joined Steve Earle, Billy Bragg, Tom Morello, Janeane Garofalo and others for several dates on the Tell Us the Truth Tour, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Common Cause. The tour aimed to raise awareness of issues including media consolidation and political bias during the George W. Bush administration, and to get out the vote.

In 2004, she acted in the film Mind the Gap with six of her songs featured on the soundtrack.