Robbed hit of the week 2/13/17 - Midnight Oil's "Blue Sky Mine"...

"Blue Sky Mine" - Midnight Oil
from the album Blue Sky Mining (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #47

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the Australian rock band Midnight Oil, who arrived on American shores with a hit in their summer of 1988 single "Beds Are Burning". That song, which detailed the plight of the aboriginal population in the country, was able to catch the ear of people in the States who never had considered that issue before. Two years later, they released Blue Sky Mining, with the title track (shortened to "Blue Sky Mine") advocating for the asbestos miners that became seriously and terminally ill from their work, as well as the people living in the town. The company who owned the mine, the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (referenced in the song) lied about the levels of exposure, and were eventually taken to court, and some of them received monetary compensation in the 80s. Written by lead singer Peter Garrett and the rest of the group, the fire in their passion for these causes again stoked up rock radio around the world...

While "Blue Sky Mine" became Midnight Oil's first #1 rock hit on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock charts in Billboard, the single stopped short of the top-40 on the American pop Hot 100 in March of 1990. Internationally, the song reached the top 10 in Canada (#7), New Zealand (#2), Norway (#8), and their native Australia (#8).

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Here's the band reuniting for a charity concert in 2009...