Juliana Hatfield (born July 27, 1967) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area. She was formerly a member of the indie rock bands Blake Babies, Some Girls, and the Lemonheads. Hatfield also fronted her own band, The Juliana Hatfield Three, alongside bassist Dean Fisher and drummer Todd Philips, which was active in the mid-1990s and again in the mid-2010s. With The Juliana Hatfield Three, she achieved her best-charting work, including the critically acclaimed album Become What You Are (1993), which featured the singles "My Sister" (1993) and "Spin the Bottle".
She has performed and recorded as a solo artist and as one-half of Minor Alps with Matthew Caws of Nada Surf. In 2014, she reformed The Juliana Hatfield Three and announced the release of the album Whatever, My Love in 2015.
In 2016, she collaborated with Paul Westerberg under the moniker the I Don't Cares to release the album Wild Stab. She later released an album of original work titled Weird (2019), along with three albums of cover songs: Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John (2018), Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police (2019), and Juliana Hatfield Sings ELO (2023).
Hatfield was born in Wiscasset, Maine, to Phillip M. Hatfield, a radiologist, and Julie Hatfield, a former fashion editor for The Boston Globe. She grew up in Duxbury, Massachusetts, near Boston. Despite recording a song titled "My Sister," Hatfield has no sisters but does have two brothers.
Her father claimed that their family descended from the West Virginia Hatfields of the Hatfield–McCoy feud following the Civil War. He also served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War.
Hatfield attended Duxbury High School in Duxbury, Massachusetts. She first enrolled at Boston University before transferring to Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2012, she attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she completed a year-long post-baccalaureate certificate program in painting.
Hatfield developed a love for rock music during the 1970s after a babysitter introduced her to the Los Angeles punk rock band X, an experience she described as life-changing. She was also drawn to the music of more mainstream artists, including Olivia Newton-John and The Police.
While still attending Berklee College of Music in 1986, Hatfield formed the band Blake Babies with John Strohm and Freda Love. The band released four albums between 1987 and 1991, gaining critical recognition from Rolling Stone and The Village Voice, as well as local radio airplay and press coverage. They also received label support from Mammoth Records in North Carolina. Blake Babies disbanded in 1992 but briefly reunited in 2001 to release another album.
After Blake Babies disbanded, Hatfield joined the Lemonheads as their bassist, replacing founding member Jesse Peretz. She played on their breakthrough 1992 album, It's a Shame About Ray. After about a year, she left the band but returned in 1993 as a guest vocalist on several tracks of Come on Feel the Lemonheads.
In 1992, Hatfield released her debut solo album, Hey Babe.
Hatfield was profiled in several girls' magazines, most notably Sassy, where she addressed serious issues faced by young women in her songs and interviews. Reflecting on this period, she said, "I was never comfortable with the attention. I thought it had come too soon. I hadn't earned it yet."
Her commercial breakthrough came in 1993 when she formed the band the Juliana Hatfield Three. Along with her high-school friend Dean Fisher on bass and former Bullet LaVolta drummer Todd Philips, she handled lead vocals and lead guitar duties. The band released the album Become What You Are and two hit singles, "My Sister" and "Spin the Bottle."
"My Sister" was inspired by Hatfield's older brother's girlfriend, Maggie Rafferty, who lived with the family while Hatfield was in high school. Hatfield enjoyed Rafferty's eclectic record collection and was also introduced to live music, as Rafferty took her to see the Del Fuegos and the Violent Femmes, which inspired Hatfield to form a band.
"Spin the Bottle" was featured on the soundtrack of the film Reality Bites (1994). Hatfield also made the cover of Spin magazine.
The Juliana Hatfield Three remained together only through 1994. By 1995, Hatfield had returned to solo status and released the album Only Everything, in which she "turned up the volume and the distortion and had a lot of fun." One reviewer described it as "a fun, engaging pop album." The album produced another alternative radio hit for Hatfield with "Universal Heartbeat." In the video, Hatfield portrayed a demanding aerobics instructor. Before the tour for Only Everything, she released Phillips and hired Jason Sutter on drums, Ed Slanker on guitar, and Lisa Mednick on keyboards. However, two weeks into the tour, she canceled it due to depression.
In her memoir, Hatfield writes that she was suffering from depression severe enough to be suicidal. She disagreed with the decision to avoid talking about her depression. The drummer was replaced by Phillips, and touring resumed with Jeff Buckley as the opening act.
In 1996, Hatfield traveled to Woodstock, New York, where she recorded tracks for God's Foot, which was intended to be her fourth solo album (or third, if Become What You Are—recorded with The Juliana Hatfield Three—is not counted). The album was planned for release in 1997. After three unsuccessful attempts to satisfy Atlantic Records' requests for a single, she asked to be released from her contract. The label agreed but retained the rights to the songs recorded during these sessions. "Mountains of Love" and "Fade Away" were later released on a greatest hits collection titled Gold Stars, while "Can't Kill Myself" was made available for download on Hatfield's website. The remaining tracks surfaced on bootlegs, which she disapproved of, and she has rarely performed them live.
In 1997, Hatfield toured with Lilith Fair, an all-female rock festival co-founded by singer Sarah McLachlan.