Sass Jordan

Sass Jordan (c. 1962) is a British-born Canadian rock singer from Montreal, Quebec.

Sass Jordan was born in 1962, in Birmingham, England to French-born literary professor Albert Jordan and former ballerina Jean Lanceman.

When Jordan was three years old, her dad moved them from France to Montreal for a position as a professor at Concordia University.

Jordan was first inspired to pursue music after hearing The Band's 1969 track "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" on the radio.

Jordan's parents only had classical music in the house, and she has described hearing The Band on the radio as a "revelation."

She has cited Rod Stewart, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie, Tears For Fears, Anthrax and American soul singer Al Green as among her musical influences.

In her early teens, Jordan regularly sang and played guitar with a group of friends in Westmount Park.

By the age of 16, Sass Jordan began performing with bands at clubs in downtown Montreal, eventually becoming a vocalist/bassist for high-profile local band The Pinups.

In 1986, Jordan made her recording debut on the Bündock album Mauve as co-lead vocalist on the song "Come On (Baby Tonight)".

She soon began working as a session vocalist for other Montreal-based acts, notably for The Box.

Jordan appeared as a vocalist in the music video for The Box song "Closer Together", although the vocals were recorded by Martine St. Clair.

Local acts began recording songs written by Jordan, including the Canadian hit single "Rain" by Michael Breen, which was featured on his 1987 self-titled album.

Jordan's debut album, Tell Somebody, was released in 1988 on Atlantic Records, featuring the Canadian chart hit singles "Tell Somebody", "Double Trouble", "Stranger Than Paradise", and "So Hard".

"They played the "Tell Somebody" video on Much Music a lot," said Jordan.

"I remember going in two weeks from relative obscurity to being recognized as the girl in the video."

During the 1988–89 chart run of "So Hard", Jordan was also represented on the Canadian charts with her remake of the 1965 R&B classic "Rescue Me", which had been recorded for the soundtrack of the film American Boyfriends.

Her first single, "Tell Somebody," from her debut album of the same title won the Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1989.

Since then, she has been nominated three more times for Juno Awards.

Her album Rebel Moon Blues hit #5 on the Billboard Blues chart.

Released April 28, 2023, her latest is a live album from 1994 when she toured with Taylor Hawkins on drums called Live in New York Ninety-Four.

As a result of her quick rise to fame, Jordan relocated from Montreal to Los Angeles in January 1990 to try breaking into the American music market.

Jordan's second album, Racine, was released in 1992 on MCA Records.

Recorded in Los Angeles, Racine is Jordan's highest-selling album, with global sales estimated at 450,000 copies, and yielded the Canadian hit singles "Make You a Believer", "I Want to Believe", "You Don't Have to Remind Me" and "Goin’ Back Again".

"Make You a Believer" and "I Want to Believe" were ranked on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock chart.

Racine has sold 100,000 copies in Canada.

In 1992, Jordan recorded the duet "Trust in Me" with Joe Cocker for the motion picture The Bodyguard, after star Kevin Costner heard Jordan on his car radio.

The soundtrack album for The Bodyguard would sell in excess of 45 million copies worldwide.

In 1994, Sass Jordan released Rats which she has cited as her favorite album.

Rats yielded Jordan's first song on the Billboard Hot 100 with the single "Sun's Gonna Rise".

However, Rats failed to build on the momentum of Racine, and Jordan subsequently was dropped from the MCA Records roster.

Jordan then began recording for Aquarius Records, acquiescing to the label's request for a more mainstream sound for the albums Present (1997) and Hot Gossip (2000).

"Those are probably my least favourite records," says Jordan.

"I think there are some great songs, I just don't like the production at all."

Sass Jordan's success as a judge on Canadian Idol encouraged her to return to recording in 2006, with the release of her album Get What You Give, recorded at the Nashville studio of Colin Linden, who served as producer.

Guest artists on the album included bassist Garry Tallent (of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band), drummers Ken Coomer (Uncle Tupelo, Wilco) and Bryan Owings (Shelby Lynne), guitarist Audley Freed (The Black Crowes) and keyboardist Richard Bell (The Band, Janis Joplin).

In 2009, Jordan entrusted her husband Derek Sharp with producing her album From Dusk 'til Dawn.

The album was recorded in only three weeks and was mixed in Los Angeles.

In discussing the songwriting for From Dusk ‘til Dawn, Jordan explained, "I was thinking about how human beings seem to be more sensitive and worried about things from sunset to sunrise. When you're alone is when the fear of death really hits you, and I was trying to write songs that were related to the fears of the middle of the night."

In 2011, Jordan recorded the studio project album S.U.N.: Something Unto Nothing featuring Brian Tichy and Michael Devin of Whitesnake, and Tommy Stewart.

The album began when Jordan reunited with Tichy at his Santa Clarita home studio to write songs.