November 20, 2001: Singer Pink releases her 2nd album, Missundaztood. It's the maturing of a singer-songwriter, and -- appropriate, for a singer from the Philadelphia metropolitan area -- a declaration of independence.
Alecia Beth Moore was born on September 8, 1979 in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles north of Center City Philadelphia, and 80 miles southwest of Midtown Manhattan. Her main interests as a child were music and gymnastics. Her parents split when she was 10, and it sent her down a dark path. By the time she was 14 years old, she was running away, going down to Philadelphia, dancing in music clubs, even getting hired to sing at some, and taking drugs.
There are varying stories about how she got her stage name. The most common one is that she became a fan of the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs, and in particular of Steve Buscemi's character, codenamed Mr. Pink. So she dyed her hair pink, and started calling herself "Mistah Pink," eventually dropping the "Mistah." (She usually spells it with an exclamation point instead of an I, so the correct form is "P!nk." But that's hard to type.)
At 15, she formed a vocal group named Choice, and they specialized in copying black female vocal groups like En Vogue and TLC. An audition tape made its way to the Atlanta office of LaFace Records, where company boss and music producer L.A. Reid loved it. For 3 years, he tried to promote them, and realized that there was only one talented member of the group. In late 1998, he gave Pink an ultimatum: "Go solo, or go home." The group was broken up.
Her 1st album, Can't Take Me Home, was released on April 4, 2000. Here was a short (5-foot-3) 20-year-old white girl with pink hair singing and rapping like a veteran black performer, and people ate it up. Her production team included L.A., his occasional partner Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Kandi Burruss, so it was expected that it would be good. The album produced 2 Top 10 hits, "There You Go" and "Most Girls." "You Make Me Sick" also hit the Top 40.
She then teamed up with Christina Aguilera, Mya and rapper Lil' Kim for a cover of LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade," for the film Moulin Rouge. Like the original, it hit Number 1, and Patti LaBelle joined them for a performance at a televised awards show. It was a powerful validation for the younger singers.
But, to Pink, her 1st album felt too much like it wasn't her idea. As much as she loved the black vocal groups that were being marketed as "R&B" -- which stands for "rhythm & blues," but that form of music was pretty much phased out by disco in the mid-1970s -- she was also a rocker, and one of her favorite songs was "What's Up?" (a.k.a. "What's Going On") by 4 Non Blondes. She considered their leader, Linda Perry, to be her "childhood idol."
She got in touch with Perry, who had recently written "Beautiful," which became a big hit for Aguilera. She had also written a song titled "Get the Party Started," and admitted to an interviewer that her thought was, "I think I wrote a hit, but it's so not me." Pink recorded it, and, for a few years, it became her signature song. It hit Number 4. Together, they wrote 6 songs for the album, including the title track.
With producer Dallas Austin, she wrote 4 songs, including "Don't Let Me Get Me" and "Just Like a Pill," both of which reached Number 8. And with Scott Storch of The Roots, she wrote "Family Portrait." This was a searing memoir of her parents' divorce, and the video deepened it, showing Pink playing the mother, with a lookalike kid standing in for her, singing, "It's not easy going through World War III." It reached Number 20. At age 22, Pink was a top-flight star, who could be taken seriously as a writer as well as a singer.
Her next album, Try This, in 2003, didn't do too well. But the next one, I'm Not Dead, in 2006, included "Stupid Girls," with a hilarious video that took on, without mentioning them by name, socialites like Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, and the Kardashian sisters; and actress Lindsay Lohan. The best line: "What happened to the dream of a girl President? She standing in the video, dancing next to 50 Cent!"
She was now 27, and she knew she had girls looking up to her, so it was a message to them: "You're better than this, so act like it!" If Pink was then "the female Eminem" -- and she loves Eminem -- then she was now beyond him in terms of message.
As for her own love-life, she had dated competitive motorcycle racer Carey Hart -- not to be confused with Corey Hart, who had a hit in 1985 with "Sunglasses at Night." By 2008, they had split up, resulting in her 1st Number 1 hit, "So What," off her album Funhouse. It wasn't a "torch song," it was a torching. And yet, she invited him to stand in for himself in the video -- and he did. And it helped them reconcile. They married, and had a daughter Willow, and a son Jameson.
In 2010, she released Greatest Hits... So Far!!! (Officially, 3 exclamation points.) "Raise Your Glass" hit Number 1. The next single reached Number 2, and probably would have hit Number 1 had it not had a profanity in the title: "Fuckin' Perfect." (A censored version, titled simply "Perfect," was played on radio and TV.) It was another empowerment message for girls. Spoiler Alert: If you ever had a teddy bear, or something else you slept with as a child, make sure you have tissues handy before you watch the video.
In 2012, she released The Truth About Love, and hit Number 1 with "Just Give Me a Reason." In 2017, she released Beautiful Trauma, although its top single, "What About Us," only reached Number 13. In 2019, she released Hurts 2B Human, but no single hit the Top 40.
But her concerts sell out, all over the world. Even into her 40s, she engages in onstage acrobatics, while singing. Willow now joins her for some numbers.
Left to right: Pink, Willow, Jameson, Carey, 2022
I love that Pink has managed to grow up and still not stray far from this persona that made her a legend. She's gone from "I don't give a damn" to "I still don't, except for the things worth giving a damn about." While she has evolved, she's always kept a sincerity to her work.
I know some people who, like me, were too old to have ever been in her target audience, and yet we get her, and it feels like she gets us, too, even though we've never met.
UPDATE: In 2023, she released Trustfall. It did not produce any hit singles. At the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, she and 13-year-old Willow sang "What About Us" on national television.
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November 20, 2001 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 8 games in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks beat the Golden State Warriors, 94-70 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named The Arena in Oakland).
* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Washington Wizards, 95-88 at the MCI Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.
* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Miami Heat, 80-73 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.
* The Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors, 88-84 at the Air Canada Center (now the Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.
* The Indiana Pacers beat the Atlanta Hawks, 106-102 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.
* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Dallas Mavericks, 105-97 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 98-93 at Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. It was a home game for the Clippers.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 94-87 at the Rose Garden (now the Moda Center) in Portland.
And there were 9 games in the NHL:
* The New York Rangers beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden.
* The New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 3-3 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.
* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, 3-2 at the Ice Palace (now the Benchmark International) in Tampa.
* The Ottawa Senators beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at the Corel Centre (now the Canadian Tire Centre) in Ottawa.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Nashville Predators, 6-3 at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Minnesota Wild, 2-1 at the America West Arena (now the Footprint Center) in Phoenix. Claude Lemieux scored the winning goal, with 24 seconds left in overtime.
* The Los Angeles Kings and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 5-5 at the Saddledome in Calgary.
* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-0 at the Skyreach Centre (as the Northlands Coliseum was then known) in Edmonton.
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