Released 1994 Recorded 1994 Length 4:04 | Format CD, cassette Genre Alternative rock Label Reprise | |
"Jane" is a song by Barenaked Ladies from their 1994 album Maybe You Should Drive. The single release included the album version of "Jane", a live version of "What a Good Boy", and the Buck Naked version of "Great Provider". The song later appeared on their 2001 compilation Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits. The song was written by Stephen Duffy and Steven Page.
The title character is "Jane St. Clair", and is named after the intersection of Jane Street and St. Clair Avenue in Toronto. Steven Page recalls that co-writer Stephen Duffy saw the intersection on a map and remarked that it sounded like the most beautiful intersection in the world; Page "didn't wanna break his heart to tell him it wasn't." Page was also noted to have said, "the next song I'm gonna write is gonna be called Markham Ellesmere;" the major suburban intersection of Markham Road and Ellesmere Road is close to where Page grew up in the Scarborough section of Toronto.
Page admits that the line "No Juliana next to my Evan" "dates [the song] a bit, [but] it still sounds pretty to me today."