"32 Flavors" is a song written and performed by Ani DiFranco. This song appears on her sixth studio album ''

Not a Pretty Girl ''Not a Pretty Girl'' is the sixth studio album released by singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco on her own record label, Righteous Babe Records. It was released July 18, 1995. The album extended the folk singer's early formula of acoustic guitar an ...

'', released in 1995. A variation of the song is featured on the movie soundtrack of the 1999

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

Better Than Chocolate ''Better Than Chocolate'' is a 1999 Canadian romantic comedy film shot in Vancouver and directed by Anne Wheeler. Plot Maggie ( Karyn Dwyer) has moved out on her own and has started a relationship with Kim (Christina Cox). Maggie's mother Lila ...

''. The song was later

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

Alana Davis Alana Schofield Davis (born May 6, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter. Her father, Walter Davis Jr., was an African-American pianist who played alongside such jazz greats as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. A record deal with Elektra R ...

as her 1997 debut single. The song was used in an ad campaign by the National Football League in 1999. The ad featured a number of players who have worn the number "32" on their jerseys. The title of the song is a play on Canton, Massachusetts-based ice cream store

Baskin-Robbins Baskin-Robbins is an American multinational chain of ice cream and cake speciality shops owned by Inspire Brands. Based in Canton, Massachusetts, Baskin-Robbins was founded in 1945 by Burt Baskin (1913–1967) and Irv Robbins (1917–2008) in ...

and its well-known "31 flavors" slogan.

Alana Davis version

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of "32 Flavors" was released as the first single by

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

-based singer

. The song appears on her debut album '' Blame It on Me''. The CD single also included Davis' song "Lullaby". It received a 3 out of 5 star rating on

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

. "32 Flavors" rose as high as #37 on the Hot 100 chart in '' Billboard'' magazine, Davis' sole Hot 100 charting. When Davis submitted her first album, completed as she intended it, to Elektra Records she recalls the reaction as being: "Uh - great album, Alana: where's the single?" It was Elektra A&R representative Josh Deutsch who suggested Davis record "32 Flavors" to serve as the album's first single. Davis, although was pleased with the finished result, was uncomfortable with covering the song as she felt she could not connect with all of the personal emotions expressed in DiFranco's lyrics: Davis told MTV News, "Ani DiFranco is very much her own song writer .... I think of her songs as being very specific to her ideals and stuff. At first I wasn't sure about taking her ideas and trying to make them my own and reinterpreting them. But I started to play around with

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.... I took out the parts that I wasn't comfortable with ... and I put in ideas of my own and sent her a copy of it and she said she loved it ...." DiFranco has stated that she initially found Davis' lyrical adjustments "hard to swallow" but does not fault Davis, adding she feels "pretty unprotective" about her compositions: "The 'songs as children' analogy works for me, in that you have to learn to let them go." In 2005 Davis stated: "I wrote parts of that song s Davis recorded itI never took credit for .... The chorus, for example ... did not exist in the original recording. Though that song is technically a cover, I put myself and my lyrics and my musical sensibility in it as I do with any cover. I wrote the bassline and programmed the drums. And so, when I perform that song, or when you listen to the album version, you are listening to a hybrid of the original. I don’t think you can hear my version and feel like you are listening to Ani's song anymore. You have to listen to her recording to get her vibe. Mine is a different animal".

Track listing

# "32 Flavors" # "Lullaby"

Charts

Other versions

British acid-jazz band

D'Influence D'Influence (also D-Influence and D*Influence) is a British production team and acid jazz band. Formerly of The Echo Label, they founded their own label, Freakstreet Records. Original members include Kwame Kwaten, Sarah-Ann Webb, Ed Baden-Powell ...

remade the song for their 2002 album ''D'Influence Presents D-Vas'': the track "32 Flavours" (reflecting British preferred spelling) featured as guest vocalist Louise Rose. "32 Flavors" has since been remade by

Elle Varner Gabrielle Serene Varner (born February 12, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Born into a musical family in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Los Angeles, Varner studied at New York University's Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. In ...

for her 2012 mixtape ''Conversational Lush'' and

Dianne Reeves Dianne Elizabeth Reeves (born October 23, 1956) is an American jazz singer. Biography Dianne Reeves was born in Detroit, Michigan, into a musical family. Her father sang, her mother played trumpet, her uncle is bassist Charles Burrell, and h ...

for her 2014 album ''Beautiful Life''. Reeves describes "32 Flavors" as being "about people doing amazing things that nobody sees. It speaks to how we should be more conscious about those around us — those who populate and contribute to our lives": Before recording the song Reeves had been performing "32 Flavors" live for some time - (quote) "I always improvised a melody around it

hen Hen commonly refers to a female animal: a female chicken, other gallinaceous bird, any type of bird in general, or a lobster. It is also a slang term for a woman. Hen or Hens may also refer to: Places Norway *Hen, Buskerud, a village in Ringer ...

I did it ...on stage...My band never knew how I was going to call it. We would create something on stage and do it. And it was the power of the lyric, you know, that allowed me to do that and to make it something different every night. And then I said, I want to record this."

In popular culture

In the song "You're my flavor" by Lenny Kravitz on his Album "'' 5''" at minute 3:08 a reference to Ani DiFranco's song is audible. Lenny says "All 32 baby".

References

External links

Lyrics
from Ani DiFranco's website * "32 Flavors" by Alana Davisat

The Progressive
video and short piece about Ani. {{authority control 1995 songs 1997 debut singles Alana Davis songs Music videos directed by Liz Friedlander Elektra Records singles