Joan Osborne

Joan Osborne set the world on fire for a few minutes back in the '90s with her reading of Eric Bazilian's "One of Us," a single that dominated the charts for the better part of a year and continues to get radio play. The album, Relish, sold into the millions, making everybody and her brother (especially the folks at her label Interscope) think she was going to be a superstar. It didn't work out that way. Despite being one of the greatest R&B and soul singers around (before she played in the big leagues she issued a few independent recordings on her own Womanly Hips label that offer stellar proof of this), she got her rep as a pop singer; worse yet, as part of the '90s wave of female acts who dominated the charts for a little while and was a part of the first Lilith Fair, while singing pop songs at half power no less.

Echoes proudly presents the entire original KROQ-FM broadcast of Joan Osborne live from The Troubadour, West Hollywood on 7th September 1995.

Joan Osborne's "One of Us" was her one and only hit back in 1995, and it gave her near-mythical status though it misrepresented her talent as a singer. Osborne is a soul singer and a blues singer. She has performed with everyone from the Funk Brothers to the Grateful Dead. She's also released very few recordings. And seeing her name on anything gets the listener's hopes up. In this case, they are dashed, as One of Us is a compilation of tracks from her debut album, Relish, and 2002's fine How Sweet It Is. While "One of Us" will be the best-known cut here, it's the soul tracks, such as "Why Can't We Live Together," Barrett Strong's "Smiling Faces Sometimes," Sly Stone's "Everybody Is a Star," Thom Bell's "I'll Be Around," and Stevie Wonder's "Love's in Need of Love Today," that take the cake.