Background
Anne Loree would recall writing "Insensitive" in response to an unhappy tryst with a chef at a Calgary restaurant where Loree was waiting tables. "I sat down at my electric piano in the basement of a rented house I shared with four roommates, broke and broken hearted, full of pain and angst, and wrote 'Insensitive'. It took me probably less than half an hour and I walked away feeling much better for it and much hipper to Prince Charmings who aren't really into you." Jann Arden, then based in Calgary, optioned "Insensitive" for Living Under June after hearing Loree perform the song at a local club.
"Insensitive" remains by far Arden's most successful single to date outside of Canada (where it hit #1 on the RPM 100 national singles chart on January 30, 1995 and remained there for three weeks), reaching #12 on the Hot 100 in Billboard (US) also reaching the Top Ten on Billboard's Adult Contemporary charts. The song's US success was assisted by its presence in the film Bed of Roses; although Bed of Roses was not a major success the video for "Insensitive" was aired on an episode of Entertainment Tonight on which the film had been promoted. Even before its Canadian chart success, "Insensitive" had afforded Arden a hit in Italy reaching #14 in December 1994 the track's Italian success being occasioned by its use as a jingle in a TV ad campaign for a brand of jeans. "Insensitive" reached #1 on the Australian charts on August 19 1996 and also charted in New Zealand at #44 and the UK at #40. At the Juno Awards of 1996 "Insensitive" was named Single of the Year.
"Insensitive" was also included on Arden's 2001 greatest hits album, Greatest Hurts, in both the original and live versions.
Read more about this topic: Insensitive (song)
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