"Pieces of Me" is a Top 40 song by Ashlee Simpson that hit airwaves in the United States in mid-2004. It was the first single off Simpson's debut album, Autobiography. An upbeat blend of pop and rock, it is a love song that was written about Simpson's relationship with Ryan Cabrera, her boyfriend at the time. It reached a peak of number five on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart.
The liner notes to Autobiography credit "Pieces of Me" to Ashlee Simpson, Kara DioGuardi, and John Shanks. Jeff Rothschild played drums on the track, Shanks played guitars and bass, and Simpson and DioGuardi did background vocals.
The recording of "Pieces of Me" features in the fourth episode of Simpson's reality show, The Ashlee Simpson Show; the same episode focuses on Simpson's relationship with Cabrera, so the song's recording ties into the episode's general theme. The episode concludes with "Pieces of Me" playing over a variety of clips of Simpson and Cabrera together. She also sings it in concert during episode seven of the show (and is introduced by her sister Jessica), but she is not happy with this performance. She performs the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno at the beginning of episode eight, and also during an acoustic performance at Target House, a place for children with suppressed immune systems, later in episode eight.
The music video for the song, directed by Stefan Smith, features Simpson singing in the studio (wearing a white shirt emblazoned with the word "punk" and a pink dress, but no shoes—she sometimes performs barefoot), surrounded by her band members playing their instruments. Clips from The Ashlee Simpson Show (which debuted on TV in June, not long after the song hit radio) are interspersed throughout the video. The video is fairly simplistic, and when Simpson is going to film the more elaborate video for her second single, "Shadow", in episode seven of the show, she refers to the latter as her first "real" video.
Simpson has frequently performed "Pieces of Me" live, including a number of notable television performances. The Tonight Show episode in which Simpson sang "Pieces of Me" (followed by a brief interview with Jay Leno) aired on May 24, 2004, and she also sang it on The Late Show with David Letterman on July 16. She sang the song (after a brief interview with Charles Gibson) on Good Morning America on July 19, the day before her album was released in the U.S. On July 27, she sang it (after an interview) on Ryan Seacrest's talk show, On Air With Ryan Seacrest. On October 24, 2004, she performed the song on Saturday Night Live as the first of two scheduled for that night, but when she began her second performance (of "Autobiography", the title track from the album), a recording of "Pieces of Me" could be heard playing before Simpson raised her microphone. Simpson was criticized by some for what was seen as lip synching or singing over a backing track. The next day, she explained on MTV's Total Request Live that she couldn't sing well that night because of her acid reflux, a medical problem which was also featured prominently on her reality show, so she was forced to perform with a backing track. Unfortunately, she said, at the beginning of her second performance the track for "Pieces of Me" was accidentally played again.
Chart positions
2004 Pieces of Me The Billboard Hot 100 No. 5 2004 Pieces of Me Billboard Top 40 Tracks No. 1 2004 Pieces of Me Billboard Adult Top 40 No. 4