Songoftheday 10/19/17 (#2000) - I like my job and I don't mind the work, but eleven out of twelve is bound to hurt...
from the album Hard At Play (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9
Ed. Note: This is my 2000th "song of the day" installment since I started this feature in 2012, which has really become the basis for my little corner of the internet. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to check it out, and I'll keep on going as long as I can.
Today's song of the day comes from the pop/rock band Huey Lewis & The News, who after two massive albums in the mid-80s, Sports and Fore!, had diversified their material for their fifth record Small World, and while it generated the top ten hit "Perfect World" and a top-40 single in the title track, it sold a lot less than the two previous that scored five top-40 hits apiece. The group left their longtime label Chrysalis, and after a two-year break re-emerged under EMI with a back-to-basics pub-rock album, Hard At Play. The first single, "Couple Days Off", was written by Lewis with band guitarist Chris Hayes and Charles Palmer. The record was a workingman's sing-a-long that tried to recapture to frantic energy of their earlier classic "Workin' For A Livin'"...
While "Couple Days Off" returned the News to the pop chart, it was their first lead single since 1982 to miss the top ten, doing so by just a notch in June of 1991. The song, dominated by loud guitars (for them), didn't reach Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, but did really well on rock radio, climbed to #3 for a week on their Mainstream Rock radio list. Internationally, the record reached the top-40 in the Netherlands (#17), New Zealand (#24), Australia (#40), and Germany (#40).
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band performing the song live before it was even released back on their Small World tour in 1989...
...and again in concert in Japan in 1992...
Up tomorrow: Cheerleader turned dance-pop star goes fast with Keanu.
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