Robbed hit of the week 11/30/20 - Sublime's "Wrong Way"...

 

 

"Wrong Way" - Sublime

from the album Sublime (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #47

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the punk-reggae fusion rock band Sublime, who had landed in the radio top-40 in the fall of 1996 with "What I Got", followed by the song "Santeria", both tragically after lead singer Brad Nowell died from an overdose. The third song promoted to radio from their self-titled set was "Wrong Way". Written by Nowell with bandmates Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson, it's the tale of a girl forced into the oldest profession, to be saved by the song's protagonist, only to be abused again. All set to a frenetic beat like a punk distillation of British ska-rockers Madness, and all in just over two minutes...

Since "Wrong Way" wasn't released as a single (like the two songs before it), it wasn't able to place on Billboard magazine's official pop Hot 100 chart. But despite being a big rock radio hit, spending a week at #3 on the Alternative Rock format chart with a half a year (26 weeks) on the list, the song crested just under the pop top-40 radio list in August of 1997.

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Here's a clip of Sublime (with Nowell) performing the song live in 1996...

and lastly, Wilson and new singer Rome for a Guitar Center gig in 2012...