Robbed hit of the week 9/10/18 - 10,000 Maniacs' "These Are Days"...

"These Are Days" - 10,000 Maniacs
from the album Our Time In Eden (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #66

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs, who had nearly made the top-40 on the pop chart in America with their laid-back single "Trouble Me" in the summer of 1989. Three years later, the group, led by singer Natalie Merchant, released their fifth studio album Our Time In Eden. The lead single would be the ebullient jangle-pop of "These Are Days". Written by Merchant and band guitarist Robert Buck, and produced by studio journeyman Paul Fox, it would continue their success on rock radio, it would predict the rise of indie folk decades later...

While "These Are Days" spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, it only got to the lower half of the pop Hot 100 at the end of December of 1992. The song also reached #34 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format tally. Internationally, it was their second top-40 pop single in Canada at #35, and a minor hit in the UK (#57). The follow-up single, "Candy Everybody Wants", also was a big rock radio record, peaking at #5 on the Modern Rock list, and one notch down from "These Are Days" on the pop Hot 100 at #67 (in the UK, it was their biggest success at #47). The "B-side" of that single, a stellar remake of "Everyday Is Like Sunday" from the Smiths' lead singer Morrissey, reached #22 on the Modern Rock chart on its own as well. The third release from the set, the retro-soul of "Few & Far Between", slipped on to the American pop chart at #95.

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Here's the band playing at President Clinton's Inaugural Ball on MTV in 1993...