Caillat, who was working in a tanning salon last year, rose to quick fame when she posted some of her songs at her MySpace page. Her album's would-be lead single, "Bubbly," got a huge reaction from MySpace surfers, making the blond beauty the No. 1 unsigned artist on the site for four successive months, according to her bio.

Of course, she didn't stay unsigned for long. Record labels came calling and Caillat released "CoCo" on Universal Republic because the company offered her total creative freedom.

"The great thing about MySpace is that you can build up an army of fans and then when you go to a record company, there's no point in them trying to change what you do because it's already been tried and tested," Caillat explained in her bio.

If the singer sounds wise beyond her short career, it's because she benefits from the advice of her father, Ken Caillat, who co-produced Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" and "Tusk" albums, and later ran his own label. He stressed that performers who command real respect in the music business are songwriters.

"I thought about that for a long time," the young Caillat said.

It was only two years ago that she took up the acoustic guitar and wrote her first song. Now, Caillat's had a Top 5 album on The Billboard 200 and is riding high on a buzz that includes being named as one of VH1's "You Oughta Know" artists.