Songoftheday 4/30/18 - Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner, sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in the City of Angels...
from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 23
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, who came together in Los Angeles in the early 80s. Originally a funk rock outfit with lead singer Anthony Kiedis and bass player Michael "Flea" Balzary, they pair dubbed themseleves the RHCP to release their self-titled debut album in 1984. The sole single from the record, "Get Up and Jump", failed to chart anywhere, but eventually the album would sell in the six figures, establishing a legit fanbase behind the group, which would then include guitarist Hillel Slovek who started on their sophomore effort Freaky Styley, which was produced by George Clinton, upping their funk credentials exponentially. Again, they failed to chart with singles like "Jungle Man", but college radio gave them exposure they tapped in for their tour, taking in drummer Jack Irons, who played in their pre-RHCP days.
With Irons bringing the band to it's original lineup as Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, the quartet released their third album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan in 1987. It would be their first charting album (#148), and while single "Fight Like A Brave" again missed the singles charts, another track from the record, "Behind The Sun", would eventually become a rock radio hit after their breakthrough in the 1990s. However, during the tour behind the record, Slovek died from drug overdose, and a distraught Irons left the band as a result as well.
Rather than slipping through the drug-induced cracks many punk band succumbed to, the Kiedis and Flea regrouped, hiring drummer Chad Smith and new guitar axe John Frusciante for what would be their final album for EMI Records, Mother's Milk. The result was their first international success, with the album reaching the top-40 in Australia. Also, the first single, "Knock Me Down", scored them a top-ten hit on Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart (#6). That was followed by a cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground", landed them on the Alternative Rock radio chart in America at #11 (also #26 on their Mainstream Rock list), and they reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#15) and the Netherlands (#38), and was a minor hit in the UK at #54. A third song from Mother's Milk, "Taste The Pain", was their first to make the top-40 in Britain, climbing to #29. The B-side of "Knock Me Down", "Show Me Your Soul", appeared on the soundtrack to the Richard Gere/Julia Roberts movie Pretty Woman, where it was promoted as the first radio single, and reached #10 on the Modern Rock chart in 1990. The following year, "Higher Ground" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Rock Group/Duo Performance.
Bouncing of the momentum of the success of Mother's Milk, the Red Hot Chili Peppers signed to Warner Brothers Records, hired then up-and-coming hot producer Rick Rubin, and recorded their first album for the label, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The set would become their critical pinnacle, appearing on Rolling Stone magazine's top 500 albums of the rock and roll era. The lead single, "Give It Away", was a fluid slice of funk-rock, and while it was their first minor pop hit, climbing to #73, the single went to top the Modern Rock chart for two weeks. It was followed by "Suck My Kiss", which missed the pop Hot 100 but climbed to #15 on the Modern Rock list.
In the spring of 1992, they would release a song unlike any of their prior work, but would go on to define the band nonetheless. "Under The Bridge", written by the band with lyrics from Kiedis that would twist and turn around his feelings being sober, the emotionally tainted words would contrast from his new life away from drugs, even as the rest of the band partied on. The "Bridge" was an unnamed place he would procure drugs at his lowest point, while "the city" would be the rest of his body that loved himself enough to let that go. The music video, directed by Gus Van Sant, who had just made a name for himself with My Own Private Idaho, which Flea acted in. And that guitar strum, which is so Smiths in 1984...
"Under The Bridge" became the band's first and biggest pop hit, claiming the runner-up spot on the American top-40 in June of 1992. The song spent eight weeks at #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, as well as peaking at #6 on their Modern/Alternative Rock list. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Australia, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and reached the top ten in New Zealand (#2), Canada (#3), and Norway (#10). It also got to #11 in Germany, #13 in the UK, and #20 in Ireland. "Under The Bridge" would be nominated for a Grammy for "Best Rock Vocal Performance Duo/Group", losing out to U2's Achtung Baby album, while at the same time winning an award for "Give It Away" for Best Hard Rock Performance. Re-released as a physical single Down Under, "Suck My Kiss" would end up hitting the top ten in New Zealand (#3) and Australia (#8), while a fourth single, "Breaking The Girl", reached the top 20 on both the Mainstream (#19) and Modern (#15) rock radio tallies in America, and almost reached the top-40 in the UK at #41. A fifth single, "If You Have To Ask", stiffed on the charts as "Behind The Sun" from their previous label's retrospective capitalizing on the success of "Under The Bridge" took over on radio. The success of the album, sadly, had an effect of the band as Frusciante, not happy over being in the spotlight, ended up leaving the band as they were touring behind the record.
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Here's Kiedis and Frusciante performing "Under The Bridge" for TV in the Netherlands...
They appeared on Saturday Night Live, where Frusciante allegedly sabotaged Kiedis' pitch and rhythm on the song...
Fast forward to their gig at Woodstock 99...
The Peppers were not a fan of the cover done by British female vocal group All Saints, which was released as a charity single for breast cancer relief, but nonetheless their modified take did what RHCP's couldn't , topping the British chart in 1998...
...and again back to Kiedis and the boys at Slane Castle in Ireland in 2003...
and finally, from a concert in 2017...
Up tomorrow: The Peppers' one-time tour openers have no dress code.
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