Born Alannah Byles on Christmas Day in 1958, the Canadian singer and songwriter started writing songs by the age of 15. She later changed her surname to “Myles” and started performing in Ontario by the time she was 18.
Videos by American Songwriter
Myles also jumped into some acting, appearing in the earliest iteration of the Degrassi Junior High series (The Kids of Degrassi Street)—the show that would make Drake a household name decades later —in 1984.
By the end of the 1980s, the raven-haired Canadian singer and songwriter Alannah Myles topped the charts with her sultry country-blues hit “Black Velvet.”
Elvis
The song was co-written for Myles’ debut by producer David Tyson, and Myles’ then-boyfriend Christopher War, who was inspired to write “Black Velvet” after taking a bus ride full of Presley fans to Memphis for the annual 10th anniversary vigil at Graceland in 1987.
The title was also an homage to Elvis Presley, who was known to use a hair dye called black velvet.
“It is a country blues song with a chorus, ushering in a time when country music won the hearts of the masses away from disco, punk, and grunge music,” said Myles in a 2021 interview. “If it was a crappy song no one would remember it.” She added, “‘Black Velvet’ was written for my debut album, tailored for my voice by it having been whispered to me upon first listen. There was never a demo of it presented to me. What we did, and the time we took with it in the recording studio, was the magic that brought it to life.”
In 1989, Myles shot to stardom with her eponymous debut album, and from the success of “Black Velvet” as well other hit singles “Love Is” and “Still Got This Thing.”
“Black Velvet” earned Myles a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance as well as a Juno Award in Canada for Single of the Year.
Unwanted Cover
Much to Myles’ dismay, Atlantic Records also gave “Black Velvet” to country artist Robin Lee to record. Her version was released in 1989 and promoted on rock and pop radio, while Lee’s was sent to country radio. The artist also filmed a video similar to Myles’ for the song.
The 1990s: Rockinghorse Through A Rival
Following the success of Alannah Myles, Myles was nominated for a second Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1992 for her sophomore release, Rockinghorse, which birthed hits “Song Instead of a Kiss” and “Our World Our Times,” and was followed by her third album, A-lan-nah, in 1995 and singles “Blow Wind, Blow” and “Family Secret.”
By 1997, Myles cut ties with Atlantic and released her fourth album A Rival, and two Best Of compilations before taking a nearly 10-year hiatus from recording music, while continuing to perform in Canada and Europe during this time.
Black Velvet: 2008
After parting ways with Atlantic, Myles was told she could not rerecord her first album for another 12 years. “So, in about 12 years and 13 minutes,” she said in 2023, “I recut the song.”
Under the Canadian label Linus, Myles released her new version of “Black Velvet” on her 2008 album Black Velvet. For the album, Myles also won the U.S.A. Songwriting Competition for Best Rock/Alternative Song for her track “Give Me Love.”
After terminating her contract with her Canadian label, Myles rereleased the album Black Velvet in 2014 as 85bpm, along with a previously unreleased track “Can’t Stand the Rain,” featuring the late Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey, a song made famous by Tina Turner during her Private Dancer era in 1984.
25th Anniversary
The release of 85bpm also marked the 25th anniversary of the original release of her first album and “Back Velvet.”
“Here we go again,” Myles posted in 2015 of her newly recorded version of the hit. “Though blockage from Atlantic Records WMG was anticipated, they hold no legal right to my newly recorded track on which I hired the same producer, David Tyson, and the same musicians, David Wipper, Kurt Schefter, Dave on keyboard bass and drums sampled to match the original.”
Myles’ lawyers served the label a termination notice for the U.S. rights to her debut, according to a report, in 2024, which would mark 35 years after the release of the Alannah Myles album. The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 allows artists to terminate copyright transfers 35 years after a copyright deal was originally signed.
Health Issues
Following the release of 85bpm, Myles suffered a leg injury in 2017, which kept her mostly homebound for several years.
Myles was also diagnosed with the auto-immune disease ankylosing spondylitis, an inflammatory disease that can cause the spinal vertebrae to fuse together over time, a condition she said was indirectly brought on by chiropractic injury she suffered while in her 40s. The spondylitis affected Myles’ ability to do normal everyday things, even sitting and standing.
“Now I have issues with being able to sit,” shared Myles in a 2023 interview. “That’s why when you see me in concert, you see me on a chair. I’m sitting upright. It’s painful for me to sit down, so I can’t really go anywhere.”
Myles continued, “I can’t sit in a wheelchair. I can’t go to a concert, party, or even medical visits without a padded stretcher. I have no life now as a result of not being able to get myself up independently, which makes it only worse. I can get up to walk, but I need help doing it.”
“Black Velvet”: 2023
In 2021, more than three decades since it was first released, “Black Velvet” was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
“To this day it still gives me mysterious shivers if I happen to hear it on YouTube,” said Myles in 2021. “I don’t understand the popularity of the song as opposed to any other, but I do understand the breadth of emotion conjured from listening to it.”
New Myles
Today, Myles is working on new music, what she calls a “very spiritual record,” touching on her life and childhood. Inspired by Carole King’s Tapestry and Johnny Cash’s 2006 posthumous album American V: A Hundred Highways, Myles is working with Tony Duggan-Smith, Nancy Simons, and poet Robert Priest, and said that the album is based on songs off “really bad, bad, bad cassette tapes.”
She added, “It’s like, little funny, little songs that have hooks to them anybody can sing. And they’re fun. They’re only going to be two-and-a-half to three minutes long—all bluesy. I’m thinking the way I did while recording my first record,” she added, “I wanted my music not to sound like everybody else and still get noticed.”
Photo by Paul Natkin/WireImage
