Talk about the human condition. When Melissa Etheridge released Lucky in early 2004, it was in celebration of a new romance and her status as a veteran singer/songwriter. Sadly, just a few months later, she announced she had breast cancer. But then, almost exactly a year after Lucky's release, Etheridge was on-stage at the Grammys singing a powerful version of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart." Her bold, and bald, performance proved that cancer wasn't Melissa Etheridge's goodbye. But it also gave hope to anyone experiencing the same ordeal. Etheridge celebrates her career again with 2005's Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled, which joins highlights and singles from her albums to unreleased material and a rousing studio version of "Piece of My Heart." The cover shot's great, an update of 1992's Never Enough depicting a short-haired Etheridge and her trusty Ovation, and so is her cover of the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers classic "Refugee," which builds from a raw acoustic track to a full-blown rock band/backup singer belter. From there the set continues chronologically. The breathy keyboards of "Similar Features" date it to 1988, but "Like the Way I Do" and "Bring Me Some Water," its fellow singles from Etheridge's self-titled debut, are shots of bluesy, brassy rock & roll that renew amazement in Etheridge's unchecked passion as a vocalist. (Actually, this collection could consist of "Bring Me Some Water" 17 times in a row and still be awesome.) Brave and Crazy's gently evocative "You Can Sleep While I Drive" plays out like a little movie, while the 1993 hit Yes I Am is represented by three slicker yet still strong tracks. Later albums like Breakdown and Your Little Secret get one song each. While she's always been brave, it's clear as Road Less Traveled plays out that Etheridge became less crazy as the 1990s unfolded. She adjusted the swagger of her earlier records with turns toward conventional album-oriented rock and lighter, more tasteful singles ("Come to My Window," for example). But her songwriting always endured, as the previously unreleased "This Is Not Goodbye" and "I Run for Life" show. Both inspired by her cancer, the former is an elegiac meditation on mortality while the latter celebrates recovery, endurance, and belief. Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled is a comprehensive, entertaining, and ultimately redemptive collection from a woman who truly deserves it.Talk about the human condition. When Melissa Etheridge released Lucky in early 2004, it was in celebration of a new romance and her status as a veteran singer/songwriter. Sadly, just a few months later, she announced she had breast cancer. But then, almost exactly a year after Lucky's release, Etheridge was on-stage at the Grammys singing a powerful version of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart." Her bold, and bald, performance proved that cancer wasn't Melissa Etheridge's goodbye. But it also gave hope to anyone experiencing the same ordeal. Etheridge celebrates her career again with 2005's Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled, which joins highlights and singles from her albums to unreleased material and a rousing studio version of "Piece of My Heart." The cover shot's great, an update of 1992's Never Enough depicting a short-haired Etheridge and her trusty Ovation, and so is her cover of the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers classic "Refugee," which builds from a raw acoustic track to a full-blown rock band/backup singer belter. From there the set continues chronologically. The breathy keyboards of "Similar Features" date it to 1988, but "Like the Way I Do" and "Bring Me Some Water," its fellow singles from Etheridge's self-titled debut, are shots of bluesy, brassy rock & roll that renew amazement in Etheridge's unchecked passion as a vocalist. (Actually, this collection could consist of "Bring Me Some Water" 17 times in a row and still be awesome.) Brave and Crazy's gently evocative "You Can Sleep While I Drive" plays out like a little movie, while the 1993 hit Yes I Am is represented by three slicker yet still strong tracks. Later albums like Breakdown and Your Little Secret get one song each. While she's always been brave, it's clear as Road Less Traveled plays out that Etheridge became less crazy as the 1990s unfolded. She adjusted the swagger of her earlier records with turns toward conventional album-oriented rock and lighter, more tasteful singles ("Come to My Window," for example). But her songwriting always endured, as the previously unreleased "This Is Not Goodbye" and "I Run for Life" show. Both inspired by her cancer, the former is an elegiac meditation on mortality while the latter celebrates recovery, endurance, and belief. Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled is a comprehensive, entertaining, and ultimately redemptive collection from a woman who truly deserves it.false2025-11-07 17:58:04Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled20052005-10-042005-10-0473Pop RockRockSoft Rock113760216062124068775-c8b8-4ca4-8842-d09fec9b65acb3ae82c2-e60b-4551-a76d-6620f1b456aa26446385-1a87-321a-bc06-180e26f9a8d2/media/data/media7/Music/Melissa Etheridge/Greatest Hits_ The Road Less Traveled/folder.jpgMelissa EtheridgeMelissa EtheridgeMelissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist. Her self-titled debut album Melissa Etheridge was released in 1988 and became an underground success. The album peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. In 1993, Etheridge won her first Grammy award for her single "Ain't It Heavy" from her third album, Never Enough. Later that year, she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough album, Yes I Am. Its tracks "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window" both reached the top 30 in the United States, and the latter earned Etheridge her second Grammy award. Yes I Am peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and spent 138 weeks on the chart, earning an RIAA certification of 6× Platinum, her largest selling album to date.
In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent surgery and chemotherapy. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she made a return to the stage, performing a tribute to Janis Joplin with Joss Stone. Stone began the performance with "Cry Baby" and Etheridge, bald from chemotherapy, joined her to perform the song "Piece of My Heart". Their performance was widely acclaimed and India.Arie wrote "I Am Not My Hair" about Etheridge. Later that year, Etheridge released her first compilation album, Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled. The album was a success, peaking at No. 14 on the Billboard 200, and going Gold almost immediately. Her latest studio album is One Way Out (2021).
Etheridge is known for music with a mixture of "confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals." She has been a gay and lesbian activist since her public coming out in January 1993. She has received fifteen Grammy Award nominations throughout her career, winning two, in 1993 and 1995. In 2007, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I Need to Wake Up" from the film An Inconvenient Truth. In September 2011, Etheridge received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.