website years_active label article_title background birth_date genre origin name occupation
-lsb- http://www.alanadavis.com www.alanadavis.com -rsb- 1997 -- present elektra , sme records , tigress alana davis
 solo_singer 6 may 1974 pop new york city , united states alana davis singer-songwriter
alana davis

alana summer davis -lrb- born may 6 , 1974 in new york city -rrb- 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 records produced davis ' first two albums ; `` blame it on me '' , which was chosen as one of `` time '' 's five best albums of 1997 , and 2001 's `` fortune cookies '' , which featured production by the neptunes and ed tuton .
she released videos of the songs `` 32 flavors '' and `` crazy . ''
davis achieved a radio hit with the single `` 32 flavors '' from her debut album .
the song is a cover version of a track written and previously recorded by ani difranco .
`` blame it on me '' stayed on the billboard top 200 for seven weeks , peaking at # 157 in february 1998 and reaching sales of over 240,000 in the united states .
`` murder '' , also from `` blame it on me '' , was sampled on jay-z 's `` vol .
3 ... life and times of s. carter '' .
after a guest appearance on the 1999 soundtrack to `` the mod squad '' , davis left elektra and signed a single deal with sme records .
she released the single `` carry on '' on this label , and the song was featured in a super bowl commercial for sony electronics .
tired of major record labels , davis went independent in 2005 and formed her own , label tigress records .
she released a third album , `` surrender dorothy '' , on this label , which featured the single `` wide open . ''
in 2006 , davis toured with thievery corporation for a couple of dates as a guest vocalist .
