When Tori was 14, she began singing and playing piano at bars. Her father came with her to make sure she was safe. She won a singing contest by singing a song she wrote called "More Than Just a Friend". When she was 18, Tori recorded her first song. It was called "Baltimore." The song was entered into a contest being held by the Baltimore Orioles, a baseball team. Tori won the contest. The song was released on a 7" vinyl record. The song on the other side of the record was called "Walking With You". This record was Tori's very first music release, and 500 copies were made. Today it is considered a valuable item, and costs a large amount of money.
When Tori was 21, she changed her name from Myra Ellen to Tori. She moved to Los Angeles, California to try and become a professional singer and musician. She put together a rock band which was called Y Kant Tori Read. The name of the band was a joke about when she went to piano school and did not want to read sheet music, instead making up her own music. The band included guitarist Steve Caton, drummer Matt Sorum, bass guitarist Brad Cobb and keyboard player Jim Tauber. The band was signed to a recording contract with Atlantic Records. In 1988 they released their first and only album, also called "Y Kant Tori Read". It was released on 12" vinyl records, cassette tapes and compact discs. The album's style was rock and roll. It was a very different type of music from what Tori would become famous for later in her life.
The album did not sell many copies. It was considered a failure. The band broke up. Matt Sorum then joined the band Guns N' Roses, where he became well known. Brad Cobb became a successful musician also, playing in many different bands. Steve Caton later went on to perform with Tori on other projects until the year 1999.
Tori was disappointed with the failure of her album. She had to continue recording more albums for Atlantic Records because of an agreement to record up to six albums if they asked her to. Tori put together an album by herself, but when she played the music for the people at the record label, they did not like it. She spent more time on the music, changing some of the songs until the record company was pleased.
In 1991, Tori released "Little Earthquakes", her second album (after "Y Kant Tori Read".) This album was a success. The lyrics on the album were about personal memories and emotions Tori had. They were about topics like religion, sex and growing up. One song, called "Me and a Gun," was personal because it was about a time when Tori was raped.
In 1993, Tori released "Under the Pink", her third album. This album was even more successful than the last. The lyrics were still about topics from "Little Earthquakes". It included a song called "Icicle" which was about childhood masturbation.
Tori released "Boys For Pele", her fourth album, in 1996.. This was a much longer album, having 18 songs. The music was more complex and included different styles of music and types of musical instruments. Critics had different opinions about the album. Some reviews said the lyrics were hard to make sense of and that the music was not easy to listen to. Other reviews said the songs were very interesting and unique. Despite the mixed opinions, "Boys For Pele" was successful world-wide.
In 1998, Tori released "From the Choirgirl Hotel", her fifth album. Instead of focusing mostly on piano and many different instruments, this album included a style of music called "electronica". This type of music often uses computers to create musical sounds and rhythms. Tori also included a full band on most of the songs, including guitar, drums and bass guitar. The lyrics of the album were still very personal. Some topics included Tori's own miscarriages of several babies, and her marriage. Most of the reviews of this album were very positive. In the first week, the album sold more copies than any of her other albums did in their first week. However, the album's total sales were not as high as any of her previous ones.
Tori released her sixth album, "To Venus and Back" in 1999. This was a double album. Many times, a double album means that there are two discs, cassettes or records included and has more tracks than a normal album. But "To Venus and Back", had two albums packaged together under one concept. The first album in the set was called "Orbiting", and was a full new album of 11 recorded songs. The second album in the set was called "Live: Still Orbiting", and was a collection of live concert songs recorded at Tori's performances across the world. "Orbiting" was also an electronica theme like "From the Choirgirl Hotel". Lyrics were about things like growing up, losing her babies in her miscarriages and homosexuality. The album received mostly positive reviews. A single from the album called "Bliss" was the first song from a major record label to be sold on the internet as a digital song.
Tori now felt that her record label was not doing enough to promote her music and albums. She had only one album left to record and release for them according to their agreement. In 2001, she released her seventh album "Strange Little Girls". This album included songs that other singers and bands had written and recorded, but they were sung by Tori with a new idea of what they mean. Tori did not want to give her own songs to the record label if they were not going to properly promote them. The album featured Tori's versions of songs by performers like Neil Young, the band Slayer and the rapper Eminem. The album was a "concept album," which means that all of the songs were about one idea. The concept was to take songs that had been sung by men and sing them from a woman's point of view. The album received both good and bad reviews, but it did not sell nearly as many copies as her other albums.
In late 2001, Tori got a new contract with the record label Epic. In 2002, she released her eighth album, called "Scarlet's Walk", another concept album. In this concept, Tori created a story about a woman named Scarlet. Scarlet took a journey across America after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 that happened in New York City. Scarlet meets a lot of different characters, mostly men. She has romances, friendships and gets involved in many situations. Each song is about one of the people she meets or one of the things that happens to her. The album was more successful than "Strange Little Girls", but did not meet the success of her other albums. However, the single "A Sorta Fairytale" was her most successful American radio single. The music video for this song featured Academy Award winning actor Adrien Brody.
In 2003, Tori released a greatest hits album called "Tales of a Librarian". The album was the final part of her agreement with Atlantic Records. She took many of her older songs and changed them in a recording studio, giving them new sounds. She also included two brand new songs. Also that year, Tori's new label, Epic joined together with another label called BMG. Tori has said in interviews that this was not what she wanted to happen, and that the new people in charge were more interested in making money than in making good music. She also had a part in a movie called "Mona Lisa Smile". Tori played a singer at a wedding reception.