"Criminal" is a piano rock song written by American singer-songwriter Fiona Apple for her debut album Tidal (1996). Apple described the song as a description of "feeling bad for getting something so easily by using your sexuality." blank">"The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born: 51-100". _Blender (magazine). October 2005. Retrieved June 29, 2007. It was released as the album's third single in September 1997 (see 1997 in music) and won a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 40th Grammy Awards. The song was listed at number seventy-one on Blender magazine's 2005 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".