Songoftheday 9/15/18 - What are those dogs doing sniffing at my feet, they're on to something picking up this heat...
from the album Us (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5
Today's song of the day comes from British rock music icon Peter Gabriel, who had transformed from his progressive rock roots with the band Genesis to being a funky hitmaker in his solo career. His 1986 album So had spun off three big pop hits in America, with #1 hit "Sledgehammer" and top ten single "Big Time" joined by "In Your Eyes", which scaled the pop chart twice. Instead of following up with another rock album, in 1989 Gabriel was commissioned to create a soundtrack for the movie The Last Temptation Of Christ. The resulting work, Passion, was an amazing combination of world music experiments, and ended up winning a Grammy Award for Best New Age album, also lifting Gabriel's stature in the world music community to new heights.
Three years later, Peter finally re-emerged with a new studio album, Us, in 1992. The first single from the record, "Digging In The Dirt", pulled from a lot of the sounds from the Passion project, and the dark, brooding track ended up topping both the Mainstream (one week) and Modern (two weeks) Rock radio format charts; however the song only got to #52 on Billboard's pop Hot 100 in America (it did climb to #6 in Canada). The second release from the record, though, did much better, since it was a funk-rock hybrid much like "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" were. "Steam", written by Gabriel who co-produced the song with Daniel Lanois, was also accompanied by a high-tech at the time special effects laden music video that won Music Video of the Year at the Grammy Awards...
"Steam" became Peter's fifth and so far final top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in January of 1993. The song spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and rook four weeks at #2 on their Mainstream Rock list. Internationally, the single topped the chart in Canada for one week, and reached the top ten in Ireland (#7), New Zealand (#7), and his native Britain (#10). It also made the top-40 in Belgium (#25), the Netherlands (#27), Sweden (#28), and Australia (#29). Along with the Music Video Grammy, Gabriel was nominated for Best Solo Rock Performance in 1994, losing to Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love".
The third release from Us, the emotional ballad "Blood Of Eden", featured Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, and just missed the British top-40 at #43. That was followed by the funkier "Kiss That Frog", which peaked at #18 on both the Mainstream and Modern rock charts in Billboard, but missed the pop Hot 100 entirely (and again missed the British top-40 at #46). Finally, the album track "Secret World", which lent its name to his accompanying tour behind the record, scaled to #34 on the Mainstream Rock chart. He also was nominated for a Grammy in 1993 for the whole Us album for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, losing to Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven".
Peter began 1994 with a song he contributed to the movie Philadelphia, "Lovetown", which rose to #22 on the Modern Rock chart. Later that year, with the release of the live album from his Secret World tour, his concert rendition of "Red Rain" made it to #33 on the Mainstream Rock list, so far his most recent lead chart appearance on the singles charts in America, and the single brought him back to the British top-40 at #39. It was also nominated for a Grammy for Male Rock Vocal Performance, which another cut from Philadelphia, Bruce Springsteen's "Streets Of Philadelphia", got the trophy.
Gabriel would take an extended break from recording new material, briefly returning in 2001 to sing on the single "When You're Falling" from the world music group the Afro-Celt Sound System. The result went to #27 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 radio chart (so far his only showing on that format). He finally returned with a proper album in 2002, when his seventh studio set Up arrived. But even though that record reached #9 on the American albums sales chart, none of the songs from it made either the pop or the rock radio charts. The lead single "The Barry Williams Show" did go to #10 in Italy, and again was nominated for a Male Rock Vocal Grammy in 2003 (again losing to Bruce Springsteen for his "The Rising" single). Second release "More Than This" managed to go #47 in the UK and #39 in Italy, then came "Growing Up", which was also a top-40 hit in Italy at #35. After that album came a compilation of his work, Hit, that included a previously unreleased track, "Burn You Up, Burn You Down", which got to #78 on the British singles chart.
In 2012, Gabriel would work with composer Thomas Newman for the soundtrack to the animated movie WALL-E; the result would grab him a pair of Grammy Awards, for Best Song from a Movie or Film, "Down To Earth", as well as one or Best Instrumental Arrangement for "Define Dancing".
Since then, Gabriel has been concentrating on touring, and albums not really meant for radio consumption; including a complimentary pair of cover albums, Scratch My Back and I'll Scratch Yours. His most recent studio album, New Blood, features orchestral version of his earlier work. Most recently, he was nominated for yet another Grammy Award in 2017 for Best song from a Movie or TV for "The Veil" from the movie Snowden (which Justin Timberlake took for the complete opposite in "Can't Stop The Feeling").
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Here's Peter performing the song live in concert in his Secret World tour behind the Us album...
And he provided a good show at the 1993 Brit Awards. where he won for best producer,
And lastly, in concert in Argentina in 2009...
Up tomorrow: Pop-metal band gets your relationship moving.
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