Songoftheday 2/5/18 - Hey baby I know you believe in me that's all I ever need, nothin's gonna stop it nothin' will discourage me...
from the album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5
Today's song of the day comes from the hard rock group Van Halen, whose second album with Sammy Hagar singing lead, OU812, had scored four top-40 pop hits with "Black and Blue", "Finish What You Started", "Feels So Good", and the top ten single "When It's Love". In 1991, three years after their last album, the band released their ninth studio album (and third with Hagar), For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. The first single from the record would be the hard-rocking "Poundcake", which showcased Eddie Van Halen's lead guitar like the group's earlier days. It was a bit rough for pop radio, missing the Hot 100 chart altogether, but the track spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard's Mainsream Rock radio chart. That was followed by "Runaround", which also skipped the pop chart, but topped that rock radio chart for four more weeks. After those two giant hits on that format re-established their cred with fans, the band released the more radio-friendly "Top Of The World" as the third single. Written by the band's Eddie and Alex Van Halen, Hagar, and bass player Michael Anthony, they brought a killer rhythm guitar hook (almost referencing their 1984 singel "Jump" at one moment, and with it pop radio airplay, with a similar vibe of their earlier single "Dreams"...
"Top Of The World" became Van Halen's first pop top-40 hit of the 1990s in November of 1991. The single also topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart for yet another four weeks. Internationally the record went to #23 in Canada, and was a minor hit in the UK (#63). Their next release to radio, "The Dream Is Over", climbed to #7 on the rock radio chart, before their now-iconic song "Right Now" spent a month at #2 there and made it to #55 on the pop chart. Finally, "Man On A Mission" went to #21 n the Mainstream Rock list. The FUCK album won the Grammy award in 1992 for Hard Rock Performance.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band live in 1991 as the album was released in Dallas...
...and again in concert in 1992...
And lastly, from their Balance tour in 1995...
Up tomorrow: Pop singer/songwriter returns, continuously.
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