Alanis Morissette Songs - Perfect Lyrics

Alanis Morissette - Perfect

Alanis Morissette - Perfect Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Jagged Little Pill
Released: 1995

Perfect Lyrics

Sometimes is never quite enough
If you're flawless, then you'll win my love
Don't forget to win first place
Don't forget to keep that smile on your face

Be a good boy
Try a little harder
You've got to measure up
And make me prouder

How long before you screw it up
How many times do I have to tell you to hurry up
With everything I do for you
The least you can do is keep quiet

Be a good girl
You've gotta try a little harder
That simply wasn't good enough
To make us proud

I'll live through you
I'll make you what I never was
If you're the best, then maybe so am I
Compared to him compared to her
I'm doing this for your own damn good
You'll make up for what I blew
What's the problem, why are you crying

Be a good boy
Push a little farther now
That wasn't fast enough
To make us happy
We'll love you just the way you are
If you're Perfect

Writer/s: MORISSETTE, ALANIS NADINE / BALLARD, GLEN
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group, THE BICYCLE MUSIC COMPANY
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Perfect

The lyrics are about a parent who gently, and then more forcefully, pushes his/her child to excel. Alanis was a child in show business, appearing on the Nickelodeon show You Can't Do That On Television when she was just 10 years old, so she had lot of early experience with expectations. She has explained that the song is not about her relationship with her parents, but the pressures of society, which will love you as long as you're perfect.

This was the breakthrough song on the Jagged Little Pill album, which Alanis wrote with the producer Glen Ballard. They spent a lot of time trying to make Morissette's analytical lyrics work in the context of songs, and it was in the middle of work on another song that something clicked. They abandoned that song and cranked out "Perfect" in about 20 minutes. They recorded a demo of the song that night, and it was this original demo that ended up on the album. Alanis, who is an investigative, logical type, had a hard time understanding how this song could appear so quickly. She said she was "scared," since she had no explanation for it. Once the song was completed, she and Ballard found their groove and were able to complete the album.