Early years: 1975–1982 At the age of 21, Jones began singing traditional jazz and original compositions in bars and coffee houses in
Venice, California. There she met Alfred Johnson, a piano player and songwriter, with whom she wrote "Weasel and the White Boys Cool", and "Company", which would later appear on Jones's debut album. In 1977, Jones met
Tom Waits at
The Troubadour. They dated for about two years, before splitting in 1979. The album, which included guest appearances by
Dr. John,
Randy Newman, and
Michael McDonald, reached No. 3 on the
Billboard 200, went Platinum, Jones was covered by
Time magazine on her very first professional show, in Boston, and they dubbed her "The Duchess of Coolsville". Touring after the album's release, she played
Carnegie Hall on July 22, 1979. Members of her group included native New York guitarist
Buzz Feiten, who was featured on the album and would appear in her recorded works for over a decade. Following her first-ever performances in the spring/summer of 1979, Jones appeared on the cover of
Rolling Stone magazine. Photographed by
Annie Leibovitz, the cover image showed Jones posing in a crouched stance, wearing a black bra and a white beret. Jones secured four nominations at the
22nd Annual Grammy Awards:
Song of the Year and
Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female for "Chuck E.'s in Love";
Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for "The Last Chance Texaco"; and
Best New Artist, which she won. The album also earned a nomination for
Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical, credited to Tom Knox. In 1980,
Francis Ford Coppola asked Jones to collaborate with Waits on his upcoming film
One from the Heart, but she balked, citing their recent breakup in late 1979. In 1981, Jones released her second album,
Pirates, which received high marks from critics and was a commercial success. The album reached No. 5 on the
Billboard 200, and soon achieved Gold certification. the magazine also included a glowing five-star review of
Pirates. The single "A Lucky Guy" became the only
Billboard Hot 100 hit from the album, peaking at No. 64, but "Pirates (So Long Lonely Avenue)" and "Woody and Dutch on the Slow Train to Peking" became minor Top 40 hits on the
Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. The lead single, "The Real End", reached No. 82 on the
Billboard Hot 100 in 1984. During this period, she replaced
Shirley Jones for the role of the Fairy Godmother in
Filmation's 1987 film,
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, including a performance of the original song "Love is the Light Inside Your Heart". After a successful tour of Norway and Sweden, and then opening for
Ray Charles in Israel with
Michael Lang managing her, she returned to the US, signed to
Geffen Records by
Gary Gersh, who teamed her with
Steely Dan's
Walter Becker for her long-awaited fourth album. In September 1988, the two of them began work on
Flying Cowboys. The album was released in September 1989, and produced two hits: "Satellites", which hit No. 1 on the new Adult radio format; and "
The Horses", co-written with Becker. The latter song was covered by
Kenny Loggins, and also featured in the movie
Jerry Maguire (1996). "The Horses" also became an Australian No. 1 hit single for
Daryl Braithwaite when he covered it in 1991.
Flying Cowboys made the US Top 40, reaching No. 39 on the
Billboard 200, with the college radio hit "Satellites" making it to No. 23 on the
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Jones sang a duet with
Lyle Lovett on "North Dakota" for his 1992 album
Joshua Judges Ruth and has also sung on albums by
John Mellencamp,
Leo Kottke and
Arlo Guthrie. Jones' first solo shows in 1994 paved the way for her acoustic album
Naked Songs, released in September 1995 through a one-off deal with
Reprise Records. The album, which reached No. 121 on the
Billboard 200, featured acoustic re-workings of Jones classics and album material, but no new songs. The same year, Jones produced
Leo Kottke's
Peculiaroso album. Emphasizing her experimentation and change, Jones embraced electronic music for
Ghostyhead, released on Reprise Records in June 1997. The album, a collaboration with
Rick Boston (both are credited with production and with twenty-one instruments in common), found Jones employing beats, loops, and electronic rhythms, and also showcased Jones' connection with the
trip hop movement of the mid-to-late 1990s. Despite critical acclaim, it did not meet with commercial success, peaking at No. 159 on the
Billboard 200. Released on the independent label
V2 in October 2003,
The Evening of My Best Day featured influences from jazz,
Celtic folk, blues, R&B, rock, and
gospel, and spawned a successful and lengthy spurt of touring. The album peaked at No. 189 on the
Billboard 200. Renewed interest in Jones led to the three-disc anthology
Duchess of Coolsville: An Anthology, released through reissue specialists
Rhino in June 2005. A lavish package designed by Lee Cantelon, the alphabetically arranged release featured album songs, live material, covers, and demos, and featured essays by Jones as well as various collaborators, as well as tributes from artists including
Randy Newman,
Walter Becker,
Quincy Jones, and
Tori Amos. Also in 2005, Jones was invited to take part in her boyfriend and collaborator Lee Cantelon's music version of his book
The Words, a book of the words of Christ, set into simple chapters and themes. Cantelon's idea was to have various artists recite the text over primal rock music, but Jones elected to try something that had never been done, to improvise her own impression of the texts, melody and lyric, in stream of consciousness sessions, rather than read Jesus' words. The sessions were recorded at an artist's loft on Exposition Boulevard in Culver City. When Cantelon could no longer finish the project, Jones picked it up as her own record and hired Rob Schnaf to finish the production at
Sunset Sound in 2007, and the result was
The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, released on the independent
New West Records in February 2007. It included "Circle in the Sand", recorded for the soundtrack to the film
Friends with Money (2006), for which Jones also cut "Hillbilly Song". For her next project,
Balm in Gilead (2009), Jones opted to finish half-written songs dating back as far as 1986 ("Wild Girl") as well as include new ones (the 2008-penned "The Gospel of Carlos, Norman and Smith", "Bonfires"). The album also included a new recording of "The Moon Is Made of Gold", a song written by her father Richard Loris Jones in 1954.
Ben Harper,
Victoria Williams,
Jon Brion,
Alison Krauss and the late
Vic Chesnutt all made contributions to the album. Jones also served as the narrator of
Cam Archer's 2010 film
Shit Year. On September 18, 2012, Jones released
The Devil You Know on Fantasy/Concord Records.
The Devil You Know includes a collection of covers produced by Ben Harper, including a solo version of "
Sympathy for the Devil". Shortly afterward she left Los Angeles and moved to New Orleans. In 2015, Jones released her album
The Other Side of Desire, and the single "Jimmy Choos" which references the
shoe brand. A documentary film,
Rickie Lee Jones: The Other Side of Desire, on the making of the album, was also released. It was her first album of all new original material since
Balm in Gilead six years earlier. In 2019, Jones released a single of the Paul Rodgers/Simon Kirke song, "
Bad Company", followed by her album
Kicks which included "Bad Company" and cover versions of many other songs. In June of that year, she played at the
Glastonbury Festival. In 2021, Jones's memoir
Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour was released by Grove Press. Simon and Schuster bought the audio book rights. ==Activism==