ALANIS MORISSETTE - IRONIC
An Old Man Turned Ninety-Eight
He Won The Lottery And Died The Next Day
It's A Back Fly In Your Chardonnay
It's A Death Row Pardon Two Minutes Too Late
And Isn't It Ironic… Don't You Think?
It's Like Rain On Your Wedding Day
It's A Free Ride When You've Already Paid
It's The Good Advice That You Just Didn't Take
Who Would've Thought… It Figures
Mr. Play It Safe Was Afraid To Fly
He Packed His Suitcase And Kissed His Kids Goodbye
He Waited His Whole Damn Life To Take That Flight
And As The Plane Crashed Down He Though
"Well Isn't This Nice…"
And Isn't It Ironic… Don't You Think?
It's Like Rain On Your Wedding Day
It's A Free Ride When You've Already Paid
It's The Good Advice That You Just Didn't Take
Who Would've Thought… It Figures
Well Life Has A Funny Way Of Sneaking Up On You
When You Think Everything's Okay And Everything's Going Right
And Life Has A Funny Way Of Helping You Out When
You Think Everything's Gone Wrong And Everything Blows Up
In Your Face
A Traffic Jam When You're Already Late
A No-Smoking Sign On Your Cigarette Break
It's Like Ten Thousand Spoons When All You Need Is A Knife
It's Meeting The Man Of My Reams
And Then Meeting His Beautiful Wife
And Isn't It Ironic… Don't You Think?
A Little Too Ironic… And Yeah, I Really Do Think…
It's Like Rain On Your Wedding Day
It's A Free Ride When You've Already Paid
It's The Good Advice That You Just Didn't Take
Who Would've Thought… It Figures
Life Has A Funny Way Of Sneaking Up On You
Life Has A Funny, Funny Way Of Helping You Out
Helping You Out
SONG FACTS
Writer(s): Alanis Morissette, Glen Ballard
Producer(s): Glen Ballard
The Events Described In The Song (Rain On Your Wedding Day, A Traffic Jam When You're Already Late, Etc.), Are Not Examples Of Irony. Irony Is The Use Of Words To Convey The Opposite Of Their Literal Meaning. The One Actual, Ironic Statement In This Song Is, "As The Plane Crashed Down He Thought 'Well, Isn't This Nice'..." Sarcasm Is An Example Of Irony, And This Thought, Clearly, Was A Sarcastic One.
At The End Of The Song, Alanis Says Life Has A Funny Funny Way Of Helping Us Out - In Spite Of All Of The Bad Stuff That We Have To Go Through. The Bad Stuff Helps Us Get To Where We Are Going, And That Is Ironic.
In America, This Was Morissette's Third Single, But Her First To Be Sold In Stores. Us Listeners First Heard Her In The Summer Of 1995 When "You Oughta Know" Garnered Substantial Airplay. A Few Months Later, Radio Stations And Mtv Started Playing "Hand In My Pocket," Which Showed A More Mellow Side Of Morissette. Neither Song Was Available For Sale, Which (Per Billboard Rules) Kept Them Off The Hot 100 Chart But Drove Sales Of The Album. "Hand In My Pocket" Peaked In Airplay In October, But Jagged Little Pill Kept Selling: In January 1996 Is Was Certified With 5 Million Us Sales.
In February, Morissette Sang A Captivating Version Of "You Oughta Know" At The Grammys And Took Home Four Awards. After The Ceremony, "Ironic" Was Released As A Single With The Grammy Performance As The B-Side, Giving The Millions Who Bought The Album A Reason To Buy It. And Jagged Little Pill Still Had Gas In The Tank: "You Learn" Was Issued As A Single In The Summer Of 1996, Again With The Grammy Performance Of "You Oughta Know" As The B-Side. It Rose To #6 In July While The Album Kept Selling About A Million Copies A Month. "Head Over Feet" Was Then Released To Radio, Peaking In Airplay In October. In July 1998, Jagged Little Pill Was Certified For Sales Of 16 Million In America. Her Next Album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie, Was Issued That November.
Morissette Wrote This Song With Glen Ballard, Who Produced The Jagged Little Pill Album. They Met In March 1994 When She Moved To Los Angeles From Canada To Boldly Become An Incisive Singer-Songwriter And Break From The Lightweight Dance-Pop She Made In Canada, Where She Released Two Albums As A Teenager.
This Was Nominated For Grammys In The Categories Record Of The Year And Best Short Form Music Video.
In 1996, This Won Mtv Video Music Awards For Best Female Video, Best Editing, And Best New Artist In A Video.
This Stands Apart From The Other Tracks On Jagged Little Pill In That It's Fictionalized, Not Autobiographical Or Based On Real People Morissette Knew.
Morissette Wasn't Crazy About The Song And Almost Didn't Include It On The Record. "But Glen Insisted It Was The Greatest Song," She Explained To Entertainment Weekly. "And I Just Thought, 'Okay, I've Been Wrong Before.'"
Saoirse Ronan Sang This In The 2007 Dramedy I Could Never Be Your Woman. It Also Opened The 2013 Comedy The Internship, With Vince Vaughn And Owen Wilson Singing Along With It.
In 2004, Morissette Re-Wrote The Lyrics To Convey Her Support Of Same-Sex Marriages And Performed The Tune At The Glaad Media Awards. The Following Year, She Performed It At The House Of Blues, Joined By Fellow Canadian Artist Avril Lavigne. Morissette Included The New Version On Her Itunes Originals Album (2004) And Jagged Little Pill Acoustic (2005).