Songoftheday 8/16/16 - People say I should forget, new friend tomorrow don't get upset...

"Good Thing" - Fine Young Cannibals
from the album The Raw & The Cooked (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from the British pop band Fine Young Cannibals, who found themselves on top of the American pop charts in the spring of 1989 with "She Drives Me Crazy" from their second album The Raw & The Cooked. The follow-up to that single was the sprite doo wop redux of "Good Thing". Written by lead singer Roland Gift and bass player David Steele (formerly of the English Beat), the bouncy song was perfect to sing to in the car in the summer months, though the lyrics belied a nasty breakup that Roland is regretting. The sound predicted the rise of "Britpop" a decade later...

"Good Thing" became the trio's second (and last) #1 pop hit in July of 1989. The song also climbed to #2 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart, and crossed over to #12 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list. The 12" remix made it to #20 on the Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the single topped the chart in Canada, reached the top ten in Ireland (#4), New Zealand (#4), their native UK (#7), Australia (#7), and Germany (#8).

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The Cannibals appeared as a lounge act in the Danny Devito movie Tin Men performing the song in 1987, two years before it became a hit on the radio...

...and appearing live on Arsenio Hall to promote the single...

...again on tour in front of a crowd in Seattle in '89..

...and finally, Roland on Jools Holland's New Years Eve show in 2012...

Up tomorrow: An unusual girl takes one last road-trip into the top-40.