Songoftheday 10/3/18 - One has diamonds in his pockets that's some bread now, this one said he wants to buy you rockets ain't in his head now...
from the album Pocket Full Of Kryptonite (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 22
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band the Spin Doctors, who landed their first pop hit in the winter of 1992 with "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong". The second physical single, they released a jangle-rock gem, "Two Princes", that sounds like it's the direct predecessor to the Dave Matthews Band's entire career start. Written by the band's Chris Barron, Aaron Comess, Eric Schenkman, and Mark White, the single would be their biggest success...
"Two Princes" became the Spin Doctors' second and final top-40 hit in April of 1993. The song spent seven weeks at #2 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart, and even crossed over to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list at #24 (spending 24 weeks on that chart). Internationally, the record took two weeks at #1 in Sweden, and reached the top ten in Canada (#2), Norway (#2), the UK (#3), Germany (#3), Australia (#3), the Netherlands (#3), Switzerland (#4), New Zealand (#4), France (#5), Ireland (#5), Austria (#5), and Belgium (#10). "Two Princes" grabbed the band their sole Grammy nomination for Best Duo/Group Rock Performance, which they lost to Aerosmith's "Livin' On The Edge".
The third single from the record was "Jimmy Olsen's Blues", which was a skillful play on the Superman story told by the meek photographer. While it had already went to #8 on the rock radio chart before "Two Princes" was released, as a single it popped on to the Hot 100 at #78 (it was a top-40 hit in Britain at #40). That was followed by "What Time Is It?", which climbed to #26 on the rock radio chart. Finally, "How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)" peaked at #28 and almost put them back on the pop chart, "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #102. The Pocketful Of Kryptonite album ended up peaking at #3 on the albums sales chart, spending 115 weeks on the list and selling over five million copies.
In 1994, three years after their debut was released, the band's sophomore effort Turn It Upside Down arrived, but to much less fanfare. Lead single "Cleopatra's Cat", which had more of an experimental sound, reached #22 on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock radio charts, but only got to #84 on Billboard's pop Hot 100, though in the UK it peaked at a respectable #29. That was followed by "You Let Your Heart Go To Fast", which had the same pleasant guitar rhythm as "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong", but by then, their momentum had waned, just missing the pop Top-40 at #42, although it did do better on rock radio, peaked at #8 on the Mainstream Rock list and #20 on the Modern Rock tally, their final charting hit. The album stopped at #28 but did go platinum (a million copies). During the tour for the album, guitarist Schenkman quit the band.
With new guitar man Anthony Krizan, the Spin Doctors returned in 1996 with their third disc, You've Got to Believe in Something. But by then America had passed them by, not even charting on either the singles or albums charts, though in the UK they had a minor hit with "She Used To Be Mine" (#55 UK). With that the band was dropped and Crizan and then White left, to be replaced by Eran Tabib and Ivan Neville. After another album that tanked, the band called it quits for awhile until 2001, when the original members reunited for sporadic shows and two more albums so far; their most recent studio set, If The River Was Whiskey, came out in 2013.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the original low-rent version of the music video from the album release in 1991...
And here is the band live at Farm Aid in 1994...
and live in England in 2011...
Lastly, here's a clip of the Doctors doing an reggae-style take with the Blues Travelers' John Popper (a school friend of Barron's) in 2014...
Up tomorrow: New Jack Swing queen feels for a little Chaka.
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