Songoftheday 10/14/16 - Never had the good things only money can buy, I drive my car but I haven't got a car to drive...

"Don't Look Back" - Fine Young Cannibals
from the album The Raw & The Cooked (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's song of the day comes from the British new-wave trio Fine Young Cannibals, who landed back-to-back #1 pop hits in the U.S. with their first two singles from their second album, "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Good Thing". The third single from the record was the uptempo track "Don't Look Back". Written by lead singer Roland Gift and David Steele, the song drew from the post-punk pop of bands like the Jam and Squeeze, with a wall of guitars anchoring the mix....

"Don't Look Back" became the Cannibals' third and what would be their last top-40 pop hit in America in October of 1989. The song also climbed to #9 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and crossed over to #38 on their Mainstream Rock radio list. The 12" version went to #26 on their Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the record peaked at #10 in Canada and Ireland, and reached the top-40 in Australia (#38), Belgium (#38), New Zealand (#23), Germany (#29), and their native Britain (#34).

Their follow-up single, "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be", was a more subdued affair, and while it was a success in England (#20), Ireland (#8), Canada (#35), and on the American dance chart (#8), the single stopped near the halfway mark on the pop Hot 100. A fifth single from the album, "I'm Not Satisfied", was a great dancefloor jam, but by 1990 it had missed the top-40 in both the U.S. (#90) and the UK (#46), though it climbed to #19 in Ireland. In Germany, a sixth offering, the Motown-esque "It's OK (It's Alright)", went to #44.

The band wouldn't last another studio album, with the trio splitting in the early 90s. In 1996, a one-off reunion song from their Greatest Hits album, "The Flame", went to #17 in Britain, and a year later, a rework of "She Drives Me Crazy" re-entered the UK top-40 at #36.

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...and here's the band performing live in Seattle in 1989...

Up tomorrow: Southern accented rocker is pursuing some R.E.M.s?