Songoftheday 3/12/18 - Hold on little girl show me what he said to you, stand up little girl a broken heart can't be that bad...
from the album Lean Into It (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17
Today's song of the day comes from the heavy metal band Mr. Big, who came together in the late 1980s when bass player Billy Sheehan quit ex-Van Halen singer David Lee Roth's band. He hired singer Eric Martin, who had both a minor rock hit with "The Eric Martin Band" in "Sucker For A Pretty Face" (#42 Mainstream Rock, 1983), and a minor pop one solo with "Information" (#87, 1985). Joined by drummer Pat Torpley and guitar player Paul Gilbert, and dubbing themselves "Mr. Big", they released their self-titled debut album in 1988. One single from the record, "Addicted To That Rush", slipped on to the Mainstream Rock radio chart at #39, and also reached the top-40 in Japan. The album itself did respectably, peaking just under the top-40 (#46).
Two years later, the group put out their sophomore effort, Lean Into It. The first single "Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy" didn't make the chart, but the gimmick of using electric drills on their guitars gave them a buzz that helped its follow-up, "Green-Tinted Sixties Mind", make the rock radio chart at #33 and even scored their first British success at #72. But it was the third release from the record that would catapult the quartet to mainstream stardom. "To Be With You" was an acoustic non-percussive ballad written by Eric Martin with David Grahame back in his early years. Taking note of the success with fellow metalheads Extreme on their soft-sell "More Than Words" hit, they sent this to radio, which resulted in their biggest pop success...
Not only was "To Be With You" Mr. Big's first pop success, the song climbed all the way to #1 on the American pop Hot 100 in February of 1992. The single also made it to #19 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart, and even crossed over to #11 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") tally. Internationally, the record topped the charts in Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, New Zealand, and Norway. It also reached the top ten in Ireland (#2), the UK (#3), Finland (#6), and France (#10).
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Here's the band performing live on Top Of The Pops in 1993...
In 2003, Irish boy-band Westlife covered "To Be With You" on their UK #1 album Turnaround...
Back to Mr. Big in 2009 in Japan, always their biggest market...
Lastly, the band in 2012 in an intimate concert with string section...
Up tomorrow: Things aren't bad with this Christian-pop singer.
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