June 12: Meredith Brooks - "Bitch" (the song not her!) - is 55-years-old today.

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Meredith Ann Brooks was born in Corvallis, Oregon. She began learning to play guitar at age eleven.

In the early 1980s, Brooks performed at a number of clubs in the Willamette Valley of Oregon and in Washington. She recorded Meredith Brooks and The Angels of Mercy: Recorded Live at the Starry Night, a one-hour TV show.

She then moved to Los Angeles to further her music career. Soon after, she recorded the songs that later appeared on See It Through My Eyes. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she was a member of The Graces, who recorded one album, Perfect View, in 1989.

In 1995, Brooks landed a major label contract with Capitol Records. Her first hit single, "Bitch," garnered her nominations for the 1998 Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song. The song was Brooks' only major hit on the charts.

Her album Blurring the Edges achieved platinum sales and peaked at 22 on the Billboard 200 and 5 on the UK Albums Chart. In March of that year in Argentina, whilst opening for the Rolling Stones, the crowd demanded to see the Stones during her set and threw bottles and other objects at the stage. Brooks abandoned her set after 2 songs as the crowd yelled "come on Stones."

The next day Brooks showed reporters bruises to her eye and ankle and stated: "They have taken away my greatest moment. I was playing with the Stones, something I never imagined I would do... and now I think I'll cancel the rest of my shows in Latin America. I have no intention of continuing to expose myself to this kind of barbaric behavior... not me, not my band, not my crew."

Brooks recorded her second major album Deconstruction in 1999. It was a stylistic and thematic shift away from Blurring the Edges. She only toured in Europe and the album sold poorly. She originally wrote the song "Sin City," which appears on this album, for the movie Snake Eyes. She toured with Sarah McLachlan's successful Lilith Fair.

In 2002, Brooks worked on her third solo album Bad Bad One on Gold Circle Records, an independent label. Immediately after releasing the album, the label folded and prevented the record from getting promoted or achieving significant sales. Track 11 - "Shine" - was released as the lead single.

Also in 2002, Brooks produced Jennifer Love Hewitt's album, BareNaked, and appeared on the VH1 Divas Las Vegas program as a guest guitar soloist with Celine Dion and Anastacia.

In 2003, Brooks signed a new record deal with the SLG Records label and released the material of Bad Bad One as Shine. Television psychologist Dr. Phil chose the song "Shine" as the theme for his show.

Most recently, Brooks has completed a new children's album titled If I Could Be... and continuing to develop new artists as a producer and songwriter. In particular, she is producing Sony Music Entertainment artist Becca, a pop/rock singer/songwriter from Portland, Oregon.

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For more about Meredith, visit her Website at -

http://www.meredithbrooks.com/news.php####