Everyday Is A Winding Road

This bit of fortune cookie wisdom was written by Sheryl Crow along with her collaborators Jeff Trott and Brian MacLeod. The trio wasn't thrilled with it when they wrote the song, so they were happy to give it up for the 1996 film Phenomenon, starring John Travolta. Once they started stripping it down at the request of the movie's music supervisor, something great began to emerge. Trott told Songfacts: "We realized by pulling back all that stuff that, wow there actually is a really good song in there, and it's just being covered with layer, upon layer, of instruments." The song debuted in the movie, but didn't appear on the soundtrack. The film was released in July 1996 and the song was included on Crow's self-titled sophomore album, which was issued in September. Released as the second single, it made a slow climb up the charts, peaking in the US at #11 in April 1997.

Crowded House lead singer Neil Finn provided backing vocals. The Australian band's former drummer, Paul Hester, was the inspiration for the song. Crow explained before a Top of the Pops performance in 2003: "He inspired the song because he was so... he was such a character and so full of life, and it's basically about the search for the meaning of life." Crow opened for Crowded House while promoting her first album and witnessed Hester's sudden departure from the band. He told his bandmate Finn: "Every day is a winding road, mate, it's time for me to veer off..." The lyrics, "He's got a daughter he calls Easter, she was born on a Tuesday Night," reference Hester's daughter, Sunday, and Crow's debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club. Hester battled depression, and in 2005 he died by suicide at 46.

Jeff Trott had the idea to swap out the original guitar bass for a fuzzy bass sound from a Moog Synthesizer. "I was just trying to get a sound on the Moog, and I started playing along with the song, but I wasn't playing the right bass line, like the original bass line. I was playing just something to get the sound. And [Sheryl's] like, 'Oh my, God. Jeffrey what are you playing? The groove's so hard. Wow. That is amazing.' I ended up just playing this Moog bass line like any dummy could play it, but it just worked so great in the track."