This song came out when I was 14 years old, and for one brief moment, Sheryl Crow broke through as a real guitar rock artist. I mean, check out the blues riff in this song and the great guitar work throughout The Globe Sessions. So what if she returned to generic country pop after that album? This one stands on its own.

In retrospect, I'm not quite sure why I loved this video quite as much as I did back then, but there was definitely a moment of "Omg. It's a woman. Holding a guitar. On TV. Awesome."

Think back to 1998. At a time when most of my peers were obsessing over boybands or really really dark rock, the retro-blues flavor of the both the song and the video really struck me. We hadn't quite reached the era of the Britney Spears pop princess yet, but all the females on the radio were soft, folky Lilith fair types singing about angels and cowboys. Or Celine Dion. Oh lord, the Celine.

So "My Favorite Mistake" was a breath of fresh air. The song's just a little bit dirty, and she looks damn cool. So for this 14 year old, that did it for me. I had to get a guitar.

For the record, I'm aware she's playing a bass, though I can't figure out which one. Beautiful pickup, though.

Tags: Pop