Songoftheday 5/4/13 - Hear the screams of Center 42 loud enough to bust your brains out...

The Rolling Stones - "Undercover Of The Night"
from the album Undercover (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's Song of the Day is by the British rock gods the Rolling Stones, who had a hugely successful tour in 1981 that was documented on the live album Still Life with a top-40 cover of the Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' classic "Going To A Go-Go" in 1982. After that, the group went back into the studio to record their nineteenth studio album, Undercover. As a lead-off single, they recorded a song riddled with political imagery and sound effects that was helmed by Mick Jagger without much input from partner Keith Richards (but with rare assistance from outside producer Chris Kimsey). It would be their most experimental pop record, and came with an equally epic video, which members of the band re-enacting a Central American kidnapping...

"Undercover Of The Night", despite it's radical nature, racked up another top-10 single for the band (most likely from name value alone), while reaching #2 on the US rock radio chart, while its dance-friendly nature brought it to #9 on the club chart in the States. In their native England, the single stalled right below the top-10 at #11.

I admit I detested the song on its release (mostly from local rock stations over-playing it), but over time I truly can appreciate the risks they took with this song, which after its relative moderate success pushed them further back into "safe territory".

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Because the violence in the original video (directed by Julien Temple) caused MTV to blacklist the clip, the band shot an alternate version for kid-friendly audiences..

Up tomorrow: New York new-waver can't be stopped.