Songoftheday 9/8/19 - I could do anything right I could dance with the devil on a Saturday night...

"If I Wanted To" / "Like The Way I Do" - Melissa Etheridge
from the albums Yes I Am (1993) and Melissa Etheridge (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's song(s) of the day come from rock singer/songwriter Melissa Etheridge, whose first album after "coming out of the closet" in 1993, Yes I Am, had proven that her star would still be rising, scoring Melissa her first top-40 pop hit with the Grammy-winning "Come To My Window", then landing in the top ten in the beginning of 1995 with "I'm The Only One". Also, the album track "All American Girl" (not to be confused with the Tom Petty classic) reached the Mainstream Rock airplay chart in 1994 hitting #24. The third single released from the album would be the mid-tempo burner "If I Wanted To". Written by Etheridge who produced the track with Hugh Padgham, "If I Only Wanted To" flows like a Mellencamp jam as she runs down all the things she could do instead of obsessing over her love...

"If I Wanted To" became the third top-40 pop hit from the Yes I Am album in March of 1995. The song also climbed to #17 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally, the single climbed to #19 in Canada, and was a minor hit in Australia at #47.

Now the cassette single and CD single both included as a "B-Side" her older favorite "Like The Way I Do", which made the Mainstream rock radio chart at #28, while being a top-40 hit in the Netherlands (#16), Australia (#16), and New Zealand (#17). But since it wasn't released commercially as a single, at the time in 1988, it was ineligible to reach the pop Hot 100. But due to Billboard's kooky chart rules at that point in time, not only was significant B-side airplay counted towards the total "points" for the single on the Hot 100, but also didn't discriminate which version was played, whether it be the studio version (on the cassingle) or a live version (which appeared on the CD single along with live takes of "Come To My Window" and "Bring Me Some Water", which weren't counted as they were former Hot 100 hits). So as stations had been playing "Like The Way I Do" (always one of my favorites of hers), the airplay was enough to have it listed on the chart run for "If I Wanted To"...

"Like The Way I Do" reached #42 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and lasted the entire 20-week run of "If I Wanted To".

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Here's Melissa in concert in 2004 with "If I Wanted To"...