Cornflake Girl

A limited edition picture CD version of "Cornflake Girl" became one of the most collectible items in Tori Amos' catalog. Released in the UK on January 17, 1994, a week after the standard single, it housed cover versions of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You", Jimi Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9" and Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". Those three recordings have never appeared on any other title, and they remain unavailable through digital retailers.

The single itself came out on January 10, 1994, through Atlantic and East West as the first release from Amos' second album, Under the Pink, in the United Kingdom, while in the United States it followed "God" as the album's second single. Amos wrote the song and produced it with Eric Rosse, and singer Merry Clayton supplied backing vocals, including the "man with the golden gun" bridge. Commercially it was her biggest international hit at the time, reaching number four on the UK singles chart, number two in Iceland and number nine in Ireland, with top 40 placings in Australia, Belgium, Canada and the Netherlands.

Amos drew the title from her own childhood vocabulary. She explained that girls who would hurt a person despite a close friendship were called "cornflake girls" when she was growing up. Alice Walker's 1992 novel Possessing the Secret of Joy, about female genital mutilation and the betrayal of victims by close female family members, gave her the deeper inspiration.