"Strange Little Girls" is a concept album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos, released in 2001. The album features 12 tracks, each a cover of a song originally written and performed by men, reinterpreted from a female perspective. Amos created distinct female personae for each track, with photography by Kevyn Aucoin capturing her as these characters. In the United States, the album was released with four alternative covers, each depicting Amos as different characters from the songs, including "Happiness Is a Warm Gun," "Strange Little Girl," "Time," and "Raining Blood." A fifth cover featuring the "I Don't Like Mondays" character was also released in the UK and other territories. Text accompanying the photos and songs was written by author Neil Gaiman, with the full short stories included in Gaiman's 2006 collection Fragile Things.
The album, recorded at Amos's Cornwall studio, received mixed reviews. Critics praised some reinterpretations, such as Eminem's "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" and Slayer's "Raining Blood," but were less impressed with others, including The Beatles' "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and Neil Young's "Heart of Gold." The album also included covers of songs by Tom Waits, the Velvet Underground, Depeche Mode, and the Stranglers.
The cover of Eminem's "'97 Bonnie & Clyde" received significant attention, while "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" prompted discussions on the right to bear arms, featuring soundbites from both George W. Bush and George H. W. Bush, as well as from Amos's minister father. The album debuted at US No. 4, selling 111,000 copies, marking Amos's third album to debut in the US Top 10 and her second-highest debut in terms of sales, achieving her best position in the US in nearly six years.
The song "Strange Little Girl" was featured in Season 4 of The West Wing in the episode "20 Hours in America Part 2."
A planned commercial EP for "Strange Little Girl" (originally by the Stranglers), including "After All" (originally by David Bowie) and "Only Women Bleed" (originally by Alice Cooper), was withdrawn shortly after being shipped to European stores. Despite this, limited copies of the single were sold, and a promotional video was made.
Amos later revealed that she had attempted to reinterpret four other songs—"Fear of a Black Planet" by Public Enemy, "Hoover Factory" by Elvis Costello, "I'm Sick of You" by Iggy Pop, and "Marlene Dietrich's Favorite Poem" by Peter Murphy—but struggled to find the right approach, and these tracks were not released. Additionally, she mentioned recording "Growin' Up" by Bruce Springsteen with drummer Matt Chamberlain for the album, though it was not included on the release, despite being performed live.
For her work on the album, Amos received two Grammy nominations in 2002: Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Strange Little Girl" and Alternative Music Performance for the album.
