Lisa was an artist I found rather annoying for the wrong reasons. I foolishly judged a book by its cover.
Back in the Nineties, many people my age would wear retro items that looked rather lame. With Lisa, it was the granny glasses which became her trademark. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a picture of her without them. She does have a sense of humor about it because Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a dig about it on VH-1’s I Love the 90s. Despite being the first and only performer to have a number one hit in America without being signed to a label, “Stay” was cute yet disposable, especially the video. I knew I wrote her off; figured she’d be a footnote with Joan Osborne, Jewel and Meredith Brooks.
Years later I got hooked on her single “I Do” from the second album and I remember taking a chance on Cake & Pie at Cheapo (this has since been renamed Hello Lisa). Definitely much better than her rather rushed debut Tails plus it was amusing to hear Dweezil Zappa, her boyfriend at the time, play guitar on it.
I do applaud Lisa for taking chances on other endeavors which is why I think she’ll be remembered unlike the other singers I maligned two paragraphs ago. She does voice acting (Spider-Man cartoon, Rugrats) and has taken a shot at hosting a couple TV shows; the best one was for Food Network when she lived with Dweezil in LA.
Most people who haven’t had a hit single in 14 years would’ve thrown in the towel by now. I do hope Lisa keeps making new records because if she could get a rather jaded music fan like me to reconsider her work, she is pretty talented.