Songoftheday 12/4/18 - Call you up in the middle of the night, like a firefly without a light...

"Runaway Train" - Soul Asylum
from the album Grave Dancers Union (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 19

Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band Soul Asylum, who came together in the early 1980s in Minneapolis under a core of lead singer and guitarist Dave Pirner, lead guitarist Dan Murphy, and Karl Mueller on bass. After settling in on the Soul Asylum name after a couple other monikers, the band was signed to the indie punk label Twin/Tone, and released their debut album Say What You Will, Clarence, produced by Husker Du's Bob Mould, in 1984. After a second album produced by Mould (1985's Made To Be Broken), and a b-sides/rarities set, they obtained a major label deal from A&M, where their third effort Hang Time would be recorded. It didn't get much notice, but they persevered and with their next release, And The Horse They Rode In On, finally made the radio charts, with single "Spinnin'" peaking at #15 on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock radio format tally. Produced by Saturday Night Live drummer Steve Jordan, their sound had evolved quite a bit from the rough uncut punk force of their Twin/Tone days and more like the burgeoning alt-rock scene breaking from the colleges to mainstream radio with acts as diverse as Nirvana and Toad The Wet Sprocket. While the album didn't make the chart, the two hits from it set them up for their next release.

In 1992, Soul Asylum's Pirner, Murphy, and Mueller, joined by drummer Grant Young, put out the band's sixth studio album and third with A&M, Grave Dancers Union. Produced by Michael Beinhorn, who had originally come from the jazz scene with Herbie Hancock, and had worked with pre-fame Red Hot Chili Peppers, the album found the band's transformation to mainstream alt-rockers complete. The lead single, "Somebody To Shove", was on its surface aggressive but completely sing-along-able, and ended up going all the way to #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart (and even making it to #9 on their "mainstream rock" list). That was followed by "Black Gold", which followed it into the top ten on both the modern (#6) and mainstream (#4) rock radio chart. But despite the success of those two tracks, it would take an even more restrained performance to break them on pop radio, and that happened with the third release from the set. "Runaway Train", written by Pirner, was a song about losing control over oneself while trying to connect to the outside world, but it was the music video which spotlighted the literal "runaway" problem of missing children, that brought MTV to the party and national (and international) notice to the song. Featuring kids police and families were trying to locate from different areas depending on the broadcaster, it packed quite a punch in those pre-internet days where there was little to go on. As for the single itself, it toned them down to just acoustic guitars and even bringing in hired hand Sterling Campbell (who subbed in for Duran Duran) on drums...

"Runaway Train" became Soul Asylum's first and biggest pop hit, reaching the top five in August of 1993. The song spent three weeks at #3 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and got to #13 on the Modern Rock format as well. It even crossed over to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list at #15, and staying on that chart for over six months. Internationally, the single topped the Canadian pop chart for three weeks, and made the top ten in Sweden (#2), Norway (#2), Switzerland (#2), New Zealand (#2), the Netherlands (#3), Austria (#3), Germany (#4), the UK (#7), and Belgium (#8). At the Grammy Awards in 1994, they won Best Rock Song for the track.

A fourth single from Grave Dancers Union, "Without A Trace", hit #6 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #27 on the Modern Rock chart, but missed the pop Hot 100 completely (it did go to #37 in Canada). Also, their cover of "Summer Of Drugs" from the Victoria Williams tribute album Sweet Relief hit #20 on the Modern Rock list. And the band closed out 1993 with another remake, this time Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" for the AIDS relief No Alternative set, which climbed to #10 on that same list.

You can check out a very interesting article about the kids featured on the "Runaway Train" video by clicking here.

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Here's the band performing live on Jools Holland to promote the single in 1993...