32 Flavors


"32 Flavors" is a song written and performed by Ani DiFranco. The song was later covered by Alana Davis as her 1998 debut single. The title of the song is a pun on Canton, Massachusetts-based ice cream store Baskin-Robbins and its well-known "31 flavors" slogan.

Ani DiFranco version

This song appears on her sixth studio album Not a Pretty Girl, released in 1995. A variation of the song, performed by Ani DiFranco, is featured on the movie soundtrack of the 1999 Canadian romantic comedy Better Than Chocolate.
The song was used in an ad campaign by the National Football League in 1999. The ad featured a number of players who have worn the number "32" on their jerseys.

Alana Davis version

A cover version of "32 Flavors" was released as the first single by Manhattan-based singer Alana Davis. The song appears on her debut album Blame It on Me. The CD single also included Davis' song "Lullaby". It received a 3 out of 5 star rating on Allmusic. "32 Flavors" rose as high as #37 on the Hot 100 chart in Billboard magazine, Davis' sole Hot 100 charting.
When Davis submitted her first album, completed as she intended it, to Elektra Records she recalls the reaction as being: "Uh - great album, Alana: where's the single?" It was Elektra A&R representative Josh Deutsch who suggested Davis record "32 Flavors" to serve as the album's first single. Davis, although was pleased with the finished result, was uncomfortable with covering the song as she felt she could not connect with all of the personal emotions expressed in DiFranco's lyrics:

Track listing

  1. "32 Flavors"
  2. "Lullaby"

    Charts

Other versions

British acid-jazz band D'Influence remade the song for their 2002 album D'Influence Presents D-Vas: the track "32 Flavours" featured as guest vocalist Louise Rose. "32 Flavors" has since been remade by Elle Varner for her 2012 mixtape Conversational Lush and Dianne Reeves for her 2014 album Beautiful Life. Reeves describes "32 Flavors" as being "about people doing amazing things that nobody sees. It speaks to how we should be more conscious about those around us — those who populate and contribute to our lives": Before recording the song Reeves had been performing "32 Flavors" live for some time - "I always improvised a melody around it I did it ...on stage...My band never knew how I was going to call it. We would create something on stage and do it. And it was the power of the lyric, you know, that allowed me to do that and to make it something different every night. And then I said, I want to record this."

In popular culture

In the song "You're my flavor" by Lenny Kravitz on his Album "5" at minute 3:08 a reference to Ani DiFranco's song is audible. Lenny says "All 32 baby".