Lisa Loeb Hot American Singer

Lisa Loeb was born on March 11, 1968, in Bethesda, Maryland, but was raised in a quiet, suburban neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. She and her older brother Ben (who became a classical musician), grew up with huge musical influences; both self-proclaimed Kiss fans, Lisa and Ben would pretend they were part of the band. Lisa shared her love for Olivia Newton-John with her sister and they would belt out songs from the musical Annie.

Young Lisa's future career as a musician was highly influenced by the music that she surrounded herself by. She attended an Elton John concert at the age of 10. Singer Anastacia is also a huge Elton fan and oddly enough, both Lisa and Anastacia have similar trademarks: their funky eyewear.

As one can tell, Lisa was mostly influenced by the music of the 70's; the music she grew up listening to. Even during her high school days at Hockaday, a prestigious all-girls school, Lisa found the time to exercise her love of music and the arts by being highly active in extracurricular activities. A deejay at the school radio station and an active student (she led a protest against school uniforms), Lisa also made time for her ballet, tap, piano, music theory, and ice skating lessons.

Lisa's brother was taking piano lessons simultaneously and was therefore always using the piano (when her father wasn't), so Lisa decided to take up the guitar. In addition to pretending to be part of Kiss, Lisa and her two best friends pretended to be members of the Police -- she was Andy Summers because she played the guitar. Her "pretending" came in handy for when she performed in school musical productions.

Once she graduated from high school, Lisa attended Brown University, where she majored in comparative literature. There, her and her friend Liz teamed up, performing songs together on campus and making demo tapes, under the name Liz and Lisa.

Lisa moved to New York City after graduation and performed at local clubs. Her exposure at clubs and music festivals led to business meetings at record company offices and demo tapes. It was during this early stage of her career that Lisa recorded The Purple Tape at Juan Patino's (her boyfriend at the time) apartment.

With many recording companies calling Lisa, she was busy recording demos, one of which featured the hit song "Stay" (I Missed You). The song was chosen to appear on the soundtrack of the Gen-X film Reality Bites, after director Ben Stiller heard the track. Ethan Hawke, the star of the film, directed the video for the song, which was literally done in one take.

Stay -- did just that -- it remained at the top of the music charts for several weeks, and was the launching pad of Lisa's career. She started touring intensively with her band Nine Stories, playing on shows such as The Late Show with David Letterman, and working on all the necessary promotions for the single. "Stay" received a Grammy nomination and a Brit Award, and record company executives were running after the talented brunette. Lisa is one of the only artists to have a Billboard Number One hit without being signed onto a record label.

After all the hype over the song died down, Lisa was back in the recording studio, working on her first album, Tails. Her debut album was released worldwide in 1995 and contains the hits "Stay" and "Taffy".

Before going back to the recording studio to work on her second album, Firecracker, Lisa toured with the all-female tour, Lillith Fair, with fellow folksy musicians Sarah McLachlan and Jewel. She also toured with the Counting Crows and Lyle Lovett. Firecracker was released in 1997 and spawned the hit "I Do". The spectacled singer is known for her retro-inspired style and look, her folksy music, as well as her soft melodic voice. She was last heard on the soundtrack for One Fine Day, starring Michelle Pfeiffer.