Obviously there’s no ‘good’ way to die but to lose your life in a house fire, as Jill Sobule has done, must rank among the most unfortunate and unpleasant of all.

Like most of us, I think, I only really remember Jill Sobule for her 1995 hit single I Kissed A Girl. Especially its grungey, scuzzy, seconds-long guitar solo.

But there was also Supermodel, a kind of punked-up, fuzzed-up take on Motown. Especially its even grungier, scuzzier, and slightly longer guitar solo.

Like its predecessor, its lyrics were wickedly satirical, replacing the (male) media’s obsession with lesbian chic with a more general feminist message about the (male) media’s obsession with beauty and glamour.

Fittingly, it featured prominently on the soundtrack of Amy Heckerling’s classic comedy Clueless.

Sobule came from Denver and was already in her mid-30s when she found fame in 1995 with I Kissed A Girl, having battled with depression and anorexia after her first album – produced by Todd Rundgren – was a flop five years earlier.

Disheartened, destitute and dropped by her label, she moved to Los Angeles in 1990 and took a job as an assistant to a wedding photographer. But her fortunes turned when her lawyer played her demo tape for an Atlantic Records executive.

He was so impressed by the contrast her winsome, folk-flavored pop, at a time when the charts were dominated by grunge, that he quickly signed her to a contract and second time around the timing was perfect.

However, her moment in the spotlight was brief and she was dropped again; by 1999 she was working as a guitarist in Lloyd Cole’s backing band The Negatives, and launched an acting career, dabbling in off-Broadway musicals and making an appearance on The West Wing, as well as composing songs for a Nickelodeon series called Unfabulous.

But she’ll always be remembered for those two early hits.