Songoftheday 10/9/18 - My child arrived just the other day, came to the world in the usual way...

"Cat's In The Cradle" - Ugly Kid Joe
from the album America's Least Wanted (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from the rock band Ugly Kid Joe, who had landed a top ten hit in the spring of 1992 with the comical tune "Everything About You". That song would also appear on their first proper full-length album America's Least Wanted, which was released later that year. The first single from the record, the raucous "Neighbor", nicked the Mainstream Rock radio chart at #29, but while it made it to #19 in Canada and #28 in the UK, it missed the American pop Hot 100 completely. A second release, "So Damn Cool", missed the British top-40 at #44, and stiffed in America altogether. Both suffered from language that pop radio may have shut even a censored version out. So for the third try they did both the "power-ballad" and the "remake" trick many hard rock bands did. Reviving the father-son drama of "Cat's In The Cradle" was a gamble, since the song is so polarizing to music fans, who either love the message or loathe the sappy sentiment. But it did pay off, granting the band the biggest hit of their career...

"Cat's In The Cradle" became Ugly Kid Joe's second and final top-40 pop hit in America, reaching the top ten tier in April of 1993. The song spent a week at #3 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart. Internationally, the single topped the chart in Australia for one week, and reached the top ten in Norway (#2), Canada (#3), Sweden and New Zealand (#4), Switzerland (#5), the UK and Austria (#7), and Germany (#10). It also made it to #12 in the Netherlands, #20 in Belgium, and #28 in France.

The band's next single, "Busy Bee", got to #22 on the American rock chart, though in missed the pop Hot 100, even though making the top-40 in both Australia and the UK (both at #39). Two years later, they re-emerged with their second full-length disc, Menace To Sobriety, with new drummer Shannon Larkin. The second single from the set, "Milkman's Son", stiffed in America, but hit the top-40 in the UK (#39) and Australia (#40). After that they were let go from Mercury Records, and went on their own for their next record, Motel California. Having no success with that, the group split, with Larkin going on to join hard-rock stars Godsmack. In the early 2010s Ugly Kid Joe reunited, and started touring again, eventually releasing their most recent album, Uglier Than They Used Ta Be, in 2015, and hit #84 on the British albums sales chart.

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The original of "Cat's In The Cradle", sung by Harry Chapin, was co-written with the help of his wife Sandy, which detailed her son's relationship with her ex-husband James. It went to #1 in America in December of 1974...