#1,570
Jewel
“Who Will Save Your Soul”
Chart Debut: May 4, 1996
Chart Peak: 14
Artist Appearance: 1 of 2
#1,569
Jewel
“You Were Meant For Me”
Chart Debut: March 15, 1997
Chart Peak: 26
Artist Appearance: 2 of 2
Of the 1,638 songs that made the Modern Rock chart in the 90s, the only one that went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 was Lisa Loeb’s “Stay (I Missed You),” a freak hit that was discovered by Loeb’s neighbor Ethan Hawke, who offered it to Ben Stiller to use on the Reality Bites soundtrack.
“Stay” (in part) made the Modern Rock chart safe for lightweight, folk-adjacent love songs, and while Loeb’s librarian-chic look and chorus-free, lattecore hit fit snugly into the world of 90s alternative rock, Jewel very much did not. The PR campaign around her – She’s from Alaska! She lived in her van! Her teeth are crooked! She can yodel! – did its best to paint Jewel as an off-center singer/songwriter, but couldn’t hide the fact that she was classically trained, conventionally and somewhat absurdly attractive, and wrote songs that were rather dull. As for who will save Jewel’s soul, take it away Wikipedia…
On January 20, 2025, Jewel made a surprise performance, singing “Over the Rainbow” for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cheryl Hines at the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Inauguration Ball held during the second inauguration of Donald Trump, father of her close friend Ivanka Trump. She later apologized and expressed her support for the LGBTQIA+ community.
