Pennies in a Jar is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Nikki Jean. It was released on July 12, 2011, by indie label S-Curve Records. The album contains twelve soul and pop songs reminiscent of 1970s and 1980s music.
Jean, who was best known for her feature appearances with rapper Lupe Fiasco, contacted producer Sam Hollander in 2008 to discuss a solo career. Jean had a passion for songwriting, and Hollander came up with the concept for the album: she would travel the United States and co-write each song with one iconic songwriter, including Carole King, Burt Bacharach and Bob Dylan. Pennies in a Jar was produced by Hollander and Dave Katz.
Jean spent two years writing the songs. The album was originally to be released by Columbia Records, but they dropped the project in October 2011 after finding the music was more mature than they anticipated, and S-Curve later picked it up. Despite receiving positive reviews, the songs failed to chart except in Japan, where the single "My Love" reached No. 8. In his autobiography, Hollander wrote that he had "under-thought the greatest idea ever and hung [Jean] out to dry in the process. [...] This was easily the biggest miss of my career".
Background
American singer-songwriter Nikki Jean was best known as a featuring artist on the 2007 album Lupe Fiasco's The Cool and its single "Hip Hop Saved My Life". However, despite her success, Jean did not want to be a hip-hop artist and wanted to make a "conceptually unified" singer-songwriter album in the vein of Carole King's Tapestry (1971). She had harbored an interest in songwriting since she was five, when she watched Irving Berlin's 100th birthday.
In 2008, Jean visited producer Sam Hollander to discuss her ambitions for a solo career. She sought him out for his work on Carole King's 2001 album Love Makes the World, which surprised Hollander, who assumed that she wanted to make a hip-hop album due to his previous work. He contacted her again and proposed an idea for her debut album: Jean would travel the United States and co-write each song with an iconic pop songwriter. She described herself to journalist Jim Fusilli as an "unlikely candidate" to carry out the concept but believed that her lack of success allowed her to approach each writer as a fan who wanted to learn from them.
Recording
For over two years, Jean embarked on a journey to collaborate with songwriters all across the United States, visiting them at their homes and studios. Production was helmed by Hollander and Dave Katz. Hollander contacted Paul Williams and Carole King, while Jody Gerson reached out to songwriters such as Burt Bacharach and Lamont Dozier. However, when he received the demos, Hollander felt that some of their co-writers were attempting to emulate "current rhythmic shit without having much, if any, understanding of the Black Eyed Peas and T Pain ruling radio at the time." He and Katz had to "do a lot of doctoring to make it cohesive".
Columbia Records originally agreed to market the album in 2008 and funded the project with a budget of $200,000 but dropped it in October 2010. Hollander wrote that Columbia found the music "a bit 'more mature'" than they anticipated, while Jean said she was told that "nobody cares about these writers". She sold homemade cookies online to pay for her rent.
Hollander had introduced Bob Dylan to Jean's work. After she was dropped from Columbia, his manager Jeff Rosen explained that while Dylan did not write with others directly, he did occasionally allow them to complete unfinished songs. Dylan sent her two songs which already had melodies and lyrics and suggested that she complete them by writing a verse and a bridge. This resulted in "Steel and Feathers (Don't Ever)"the song was originally written for Shot of Love (1981) but had been left unfinished until Jean worked on it, quickly earning Dylan's approval.
In January 2011, the album was picked up by S-Curve Records. Jean signed with the label in March. The album, titled Pennies in a Jar, was released on July 12, 2011.
Composition
Pennies in a Jar contains twelve songs. The music was described by journalists as Jean's original take on the style of pop music of the '60s, '70s and '80s. Each of the songs were co-written by a well-known songwriter who flourished during this period.