She arrived as a “Bitch” and a lover, but “What Would Happen” to Meredith Brooks next?

Meredith Brooks (b.1958) had been playing music since 1976, but had to wait twenty years before she got a hit! She joined the band Sapphire as an 18 year old and after six years of performing, they split in 1982. Meredith wanted to develop a solo career and released her self-titled debut album in 1986, which was given no attention at all. She hooked up with former Go-Go Charlotte Caffrey and Gia Ciambotti in 1987 to form The Graces and reached No.56 Stateside with their single “Lay Down Your Arms”, covered by fellow Go-Go Belinda Carlisle in 1993. Subsequent albums and singles failed to find the same audience and The Graces were dropped by their record company in 1991.

Meredith went solo again and in 1995, landed a contract with Capitol Records. She began writing her second album soon after and in May 1997, released the first single, “Bitch”. Perhaps the lyrical content and ‘honesty’ of the song is what brought it out into the open as Meredith took the global charts by storm, reaching the top ten in twenty countries and making No.2 in America, where it has sold over a million copies.

The album, “Blurring The Edges”, came soon after reaching No.22 in her home country and No.5 in the UK, eventually selling over three million copies worldwide. The album featured three more singles, “I Need”, “What Would Happen?” and “Stop”, although these failed to replicate the success of the lead single. Brooks, now aged 41, returned in 1999 with the album “Deconstruction”, which included the minor German hit “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”.

The single and the album dropped out of sight before anyone had realised elsewhere. The same, sadly, can be said of her 2004 album, “Bad Bad One” and the lead single “Shine” and her last and most recent work, “If I Could Be…” in 2007. Meredith has found a new calling, however, as a songwriter. Her first ‘commission’ being Jennifer Love Hewitt’s 2002 album, “BareNaked”, while she achieved greater success as recent as 2018 as co-writer of Bebe Rexha’s 2018 smash, “I’m A Mess”, which has sold over two million copies worldwide. Whether Meredith herself ever record again remains to be seen, but she can join that list of artists who are best known and only remembered for one song, and as she proudly boasts herself, “I do not feel ashamed”!

Stay in touch with Meredith through her official FACEBOOK page

Take a look at our other Where Are They Now? posts or find out more here.