Lisa Loeb was born on March 11, 1968, in Bethesda, Maryland, but was raised in a quiet, suburban neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. She and her older brother Ben (who became a classical musician), grew up with huge musical influences; both self-proclaimed Kiss fans, Lisa and Ben would pretend they were part of the band. Lisa shared her love for Olivia Newton-John with her sister and they would belt out songs from the musical Annie.

Young Lisa's future career as a musician was highly influenced by the music that she surrounded herself by. She attended an Elton John concert at the age of 10. Singer Anastacia is also a huge Elton fan and oddly enough, both Lisa and Anastacia have similar trademarks: their funky eyewear. As one can tell, Lisa was mostly influenced by the music of the 70's; the music she grew up listening to. Even during her high school days at Hockaday, a prestigious all-girls school, Lisa found the time to exercise her love of music and the arts by being highly active in extracurricular activities. A deejay at the school radio station and an active student (she led a protest against school uniforms), Lisa also made time for her ballet, tap, piano, music theory, and ice skating lessons.

Lisa's brother was taking piano lessons simultaneously and was therefore always using the piano (when her father wasn't), so Lisa decided to take up the guitar. In addition to pretending to be part of Kiss, Lisa and her two best friends pretended to be members of the Police -- she was Andy Summers because she played the guitar. Her pretending came in handy for when she performed in school musical productions.

Once she graduated from high school, Lisa attended Brown University, where she majored in comparative literature. There, her and her friend Liz teamed up, performing songs together on campus and making demo tapes, under the name Liz and Lisa. Lisa moved to New York City after graduation and performed at local clubs. Her exposure at clubs and music festivals led to business meetings at record company offices and demo tapes. It was during this early stage of her career that Lisa recorded The Purple Tape at Juan Patino's (her boyfriend at the time) apartment.