Songoftheday 1/19/19 - I've got a bad disease but from my brain is where I bleed, insanity it seems...

"Soul To Squeeze" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
from the album Coneheads (Original Soundtrack) (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's song of the day comes from the alternative funk-rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, who had landed a top ten hit on their first foray into the pop top-40 with the epic "Under The Bridge" in the summer of 1992. However, the band found themselves at a loss on follow-ing that momentum with mainstream radio, with a series of releases falling quite short, though doing well at rock radio stations. Also guitarist John Frusciante, who wasn't comfortable with that level of success, fell into drugs and ended up quitting the band. They revolved around new axemen for quite a while, and it wouldn't be until 1995 that they returned with a new album. But in that meantime, a "B-side" (kids, ask your parents) track from the CD single of "Under The Bridge" was included in the soundtrack to the Saturday Night Live-affiliated movie Coneheads. The film starred Dan Akyroyd and Jane Curtin as the titular aliens trying to assimilate into Earth to collect information. The song was "Soul To Squeeze", written by the band (lead singer Anthony Kiedes, Frusciante, bass player Flea and Chad Smith), and produced by Rick Smith during the Sex Blood Sugar Magik sessions. With a circus-themed music video that featured Kiedes, Smith, and Flea, the song proved not to be just a toss-off, but as worthy as anything else on their album, and with the mix again of light and dark, powerful and delicate, they finally they got back on pop radio. And the effect of the "snake-wig" on Kiedis is nothing short of glorious, and the late great Chris Farley actually looks pretty hunky...

"Soul To Squeeze" became the Chili Peppers' second top-40 pop hit in October of 1993. The song spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart, while climbing to #7 on their Mainstream Rock format tally. Internationally, the single was an even bigger hit in spots, reaching the top ten in New Zealand (#6) and Australia (#9), and stopped at #11 in Canada.

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Here's an acoustic take from a radio spot in 1998..