Songoftheday 7/3/18 - Now I don't wanna lose you, but I don't wanna use you just to have somebody by my side...
from the album Patty Smyth (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (six weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20
Today's song of the day comes from rock singer Patty Smyth, who was the lead singer of the band Scandal. With the Philadelphia-based outfit they landed a top ten pop hit in the fall of 1984 with "The Warrior". Their success, though, proved to be their downfall, as the group didn't even last to a second full-length album. Smyth struck out alone as a solo artist, and in 1987 released her first record under her name, Never Enough. Lead single and title track "Never Enough" was a decent rock radio hit, peaking at #4 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock format chart, but it stalled out at #61 on their pop Hot 100. Five years later, she returned with a self-titled sophomore effort. Leading it off was a break-up ballad written by Smyth with Glen Burtnik (who at that time was a member of arena-rock giants Styx). Produced by E Street Band member Roy Bittan, "Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough" was a poignant yet still angsty reflection of a couple calling it quits, with Don Henley of The Eagles as her male counterpart. The single, entrancing the older pop listeners, became Patty's biggest hit with or without Scandal...
"Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough" spent six weeks in the runner-up spot on the American pop chart in September through October of 1992. It so far is Henley's most recent trip as a solo artist into the pop top-40 (he did return with the Eagles later on). The song topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart for a month. Internationally, the record spent seven weeks at #1 in Canada, and reached the top-40 in Ireland (#2), Australia (#5), Norway (#9), New Zealand (#18), the UK (#22), Austria (#28), and Sweden (#33). "Sometimes..." was nominated for a Grammy Awards for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in 1993, losing out to Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson's "Beauty And The Beast".
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Here's Patty appearing on Arsenio Hall to promote the single (along with top-40 follow-up "No Mistakes")...
And co-writer Burtnik performing the hit live...
In 2013, country rocker Travis Tritt teamed up with his daughter Tyler to record a cover of the song, which was a single from his 2013 album The Calm After...
and finally, Patty reunited with Scandal in concert in 2018...
Man, this was one of my all-time favorite songs of the 90s. No joke.
Up tomorrow: Rap collective jam about the common man.
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