Songoftheday 2/4/18 - If I have my time again I would do it all the same, ain't change a single thing even when I was the blind...
from the album The Globe (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4
Today's song of the day comes from the modern rock outfit Big Audio Dynamite II, which was formed by guitarist Mick Jones of the Clash, who had disintegrated not long after their big American pop success with "Rock The Casbah" in the beginning of 1983. The following year, Jones put together the first incarnation of Big Audio Dynamite, assuming lead singer/guitarist position and recruiting Greg Roberts, Leo Williams, Dan Donovan, and filmmaker Don Letts. The sound was a mix of modern rock guitar picking and hip-hop style samples. Their first album, This Is Big Audio Dynamite, came out in 1985, and the first single from the record, "The Bottom Line", which slipped on to the British singles chart at #97, but in America, climbed Billboard's Dance Club Play chart (paired with B-side "BAD") to #33. The second release from the album, "E=MC2", finally got them into the British top-40 up at #11, and also hit the American dance chart at #37. The following year, the act's next record, No. 10 Upping St, became their highest-charting album at #11, and sent three singles to the UK pop list, with "V. Thirteen" missing the top-40 at #49 (it did reach a new high on the American dance chart at #15, Jones' highest rank with any of the versions of the band).
In 1988, after touring with U2, Big Audio Dynamite came back with their third album, Tighten Up, Vol. 88. From the set the dance-rock track "Just Play Music!" stalled dow at #51 in Britain, but in the States, despite missing the pop chart, went to go to #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio tally.Next up came the first line-ups fourth record, Megatop Phoenix, which had two top ten Modern Rock hits: "James Brown", which spent two weeks at #2, and "Contact", which peaked at #6. But despite the success in the U.S., the former only stopped short of the top half of the singles chart. After a one-off single for the Keifer Sutherland movie Flashback, "Free", which made it to #47 on the U.S. Dance chart, all of the band except Jones went their separate ways.
Mick started the new decade by gathering up a new version of the act with guitarist Nick Hawkins, bass player Gary Stonadge, and drummer Chris Kavanagh for Kool-Aid, which was a UK-only record and climbed to #55 on the singles chart with the title track. It was put out under the moniker "Big Audio Dynamite II", and they reworked some of the songs including "Kool-Aid" for their international release The Globe, in 1991. The first true radio single from the record with "Rush", which was a punchy guitar-led rock song that sampled the Who's "Baba O'Reilly" keyboard hook. The song would become their biggest success in America...
"Rush" would become Big Audio Dynamite II's first and only top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in November of 1991. The song spent four weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart, and crossed over to #40 on their Mainstream Rock list as well. The remixes of the track also helped it rise to #36 on their Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the record topped the singles chart in Australia (two weeks) and New Zealand (two weeks). In the UK and Ireland, "Rush" was combined with the Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" on the CD, cassette, and vinyl singles, and listed together went to #1 in Britain and #2 in Ireland.
The title track "The Globe" (which sampled "Should I Stay Or Should I Go") was released as the second single, and spent two weeks at #3 on the American Modern Rock radio chart, #28 on the Dance chart, and #72 on the pop Hot 100 (it reached the top ten in Australia and New Zealand). In the UK, it reached #63. Lastly, the most somber song "Innocent Child" became a minor hit Down Under in Australia at #67. After a second tour with U2, the band added two more members (without losing anybody), and shortened their name to Big Audio for their next album Higher Power. The lead single from the set, the rave-influenced "Looking For A Song", got to #24 on the American Modern Rock chart and #68 in the UK. Reverting back to the original Big Audio Dynamite moniker, they released two more albums, F-Punk in 1995 and Entering a New Ride (which featured English Beat/General Public singer Ranking Roger) in 1997, but neither made either the singles or albums charts in the UK or US. The latter album made them pioneers in distributing music on the internet, however. Jones and the band called it a day by the end of the 1990s, but the original Big Audio Dynamite lineup from 1985 reunited for a tour in 2011.
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Here's Big Audio Dynamite II in concert in London in 1992 behind the Globe album...
And lastly, Mick Jones and the original BAD (the ones who didn't record "Rush") in 2011...
Up tomorrow: Heavy metal titans reach Mount Olympus, perhaps.
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