Sometimes it’s helpful when your spouse advocates for your work. It’s even better if your spouse is well-connected.

Joe Henry moved around a lot as a kid in the early 60’s, but eventually settled and grew up in Michigan, obsessed with the music of Ray Charles and Bob Dylan, devouring music magazines like Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy, and learning the ins and outs of playing guitar and piano. In high school, he met and fell in love with his future wife, Melanie, and together they moved to New York in the mid-80’s where he scored a deal with A&M Records. All pretty straightforward so far.

Henry started off his musical career with folk-inspired songs, and then gradually incorporated alt-country aspects before stretching his wings and getting more experimental and jazzy in the late 90’s. By this time he and his family lived in Los Angeles, where he had the admiration and respect of fellow musicians and songwriters, oodles of critical acclaim, and a small but adoring audience. What he didn’t have was hits. And that’s okay — that’s just not what Joe Henry did.

Which brings us to somewhere near the turn of the millennium, when Henry began recording demos of new songs for his 8th album, Scar. One of these was a slinky, smoky tango featuring lyrics about crows and graves and other non-hit material, titled “Stop.” He wrote the song in about half an hour, just to have something to test out his new home studio, and considered it a throwaway. Joe’s wife, Melanie (remember her?), decided to send a copy of the demo to her sister, and 99.9% of the time it wouldn’t really matter if your sister-in-law heard your new song — but … what if that 0.1% of the time your song was heard by the biggest pop star in the world?

Oh, did I not mention? Joe Henry’s sister-in-law is Madonna.

Madonna was also working on her 8th album, Music, and loved the sensual melody and defiant lyrics of “Stop.” She and producer Mirwais Ahmadzaï added some stuttering acoustic riffs, a synth string arrangement, and a little electronica dance beat, then made a small tweak to the title and the track was ready to roll. Released as a single in 2000, “Don’t Tell Me” proved a massive smash across the world and provided Henry with his one appearance in the Top 40 (as a songwriter). 

Henry’s own version came out in 2001 — it wasn’t a hit. And that’s okay. Joe got the best of both worlds — a hit in someone else’s universe, and staying true to his artistic self in his own.

So tell the sun not to shine. Let it fall by the way … with Joe Henry.

And here’s his sister-in-law: