Sheryl Crow's Best-Charting Single Was A Last-Minute Addition That Saved A Flopping Album

It's the song that made Sheryl Crow's career, and she'd never release another that did as well on the charts, and yet "All I Wanna Do" was nearly left off of the musician's first album, which it saved from obscurity. After three official singles were issued from Crow's 1993 LP "Tuesday Night Music Club" — "Run Baby Run," "Leaving Las Vegas," and "What I Can Do for You" — failed to make much of an impression on the pop chart, label A&M Records gave publicizing the LP one more shot, and in 1994, released "All I Wanna Do" to radio and record stores.

"All I Wanna Do" isn't a traditional pop song, or even a country-rock song like so many of the tracks on "Tuesday Night Music Club," but since the more normal songs didn't hit, an odd song just might work — and it did. Crow, who'd been trying to launch a career for years and weathered a botched and shelved first album, was on her way to fame thanks in large part to "All I Wanna Do," which sold half a million copies and was nearly a No. 1 hit. And to think — she didn't even want to include it on the album and only did so as a hasty decision.

Partially spoken, partially sung, and propelled by a steel guitar, "All I Wanna Do" didn't sound like other mid-1990s rock songs. It was also based on poet Wyn Cooper's 1987 piece "Fun," which Crow found in a book. Crow unsuccessfully attempted to rework the lyrics several times before she decided to use mostly Cooper's material, paired with some previously recorded music. 

"It was a strange coming-together of a song," Crow told the Independent. "Aren't all the best songs the ones you go: 'Nah, this one will never ...'?" Mostly because she hadn't composed the words, Crow didn't plan to put "All I Wanna Do" on "Tuesday Night Music Club" until her brother Steve insisted.

Sheryl Crow is worth a fortune now, and that's because "All I Wanna Do" set things in motion. A former backup singer lost to a mega-successful solo career, Crow took the song to No. 2 on the American pop chart, plus No. 4 on the alternative rock list, and No. 1 at adult contemporary. It went on to win the Grammy Award for record of the year and helped Crow to the best new artist prize, setting off a career immortalized in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. All for a song that was almost excised from "Tuesday Night Music Club," which itself went on to sell 7 million copies.