Songoftheday 4/19/15 - There is freedom within there is freedom without, try to catch the deluge in a paper cup...

"Don't Dream It's Over" - Crowded House
from the album Crowded House (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's song of the day comes from the Antipodean modern rock trio Crowded House, who came together after the dissolution of the New Wave band Split Enz ("I Got You"). New Zealander singer Neil Finn and Aussie drummer Paul Hester hooked up with fellow countryman Nick Seymour to form the classic lineup of the group, which released their self-titled debut album in 1986. The first single from the record, "Mean To Me", was a moderate success in their homeland, reaching #23 on the Aussie chart, but it was single #4 that broke the band worldwide. "Don't Dream It's Over", a somber, reflective, mantra with a touch of British wit written by Finn that was easy to remember and "hey now, hey now" was soon flooding the radio stations in America...

'Don't Dream It's Over" climbed all the way to the runner-up spot on the American pop chart in April of 1987. The song also climbed to #9 on the Adult Contemporary and #11 on the Mainstream Rock radio charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, while the record was their first top-ten in Australia, reaching #8, and topping the list in Finn's native New Zealand (as well as Canada), it made the top-10 in the Netherlands, #13 in Germany, and surprisingly down at #27 in England (though ten years later it re-entered the top-40 there at #25).

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Here's the band performing the song live in 1987...

 Speaking of Britain, the highest-charting version of the song came in 1991 when Paul Young and Paul Carrack went to #20 with a remake that also did top-40 business in France and Ireland...

Future Freemasons vocalist Katherine (Ellis) Wood sung on Less Stress' Soul II Soul-ish version of the track in 1990...

In 1991, Italian singer got a very young Angelina Jolie to appear in his video for his remake as "Alta Marea (Don't Dream It's Over)"...

Irish R&B act Dove had a top-40 hit in the UK with a interpolation of the record in "Don't Dream" in 1998...

Alternative pop-rock band Sixpence None The Richer went to #9 on the American Adult Top-40 chart and #78 on the Hot 100 with their revamp of the tune...

In 2005 Sydney-based indie-pop singer Sarah Blasko did a pretty and delicate performance of the song that eventually landed her a singing spot at the Commonwealth Games the following year...

Susan Boyle included "Don't Dream It's Over" in her #1 album The Gift in 2010...

Glee took on the song in their season-four episode Swan Song in 2012...

and finally, from their farewell concert in 1996 in Sydney..

Up tomorrow: An alphabetical girl is like Lego.