Songoftheday 1/10/19 - And I feel that time's a wasted go so where you going to tomorrow? And I see that these are lies to come would you even care?

"Plush" - Stone Temple Pilots
from the album Core (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: unable to chart
Billboard Hot 100 airplay peak: #39 (three weeks)
Weeks in the airplay Top-40: 4

Today's song of the day comes from the grunge rock band Stone Temple Pilots, who came together in the late 1980's, eventually settling on the band name (patterned after the STP motor oil sticker) at the start of the next decade. With lead singer Scott Weiland, brothers Robert and Dean DeLeo on bass and guitar, and drummer Eric Kretz, the band recorded their debut album Core for Atlantic Records in 1992. Although none of the tracks were released as physical stand-alone singles at the time, four songs from Core reached radio pretty easily and became rock standards. The first of them, "Sex Type Thing", was a raving burner about male insecurities and churned along like a cut from the Cult, and climbed to #23 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, while also becoming a minor hit in the UK at #55. But it was the more "classic grunge" of the second release, "Plush", that became their big breakthrough hit. Written by Weiland, Kretz, and Robert DiLeo, the chunky guitar chords struck a chord with rock fans, and eventually the mainstream, becoming their first to reach the top-40 on the pop airplay chart...

"Plush" made it to the top-40 of the Hot 100 pop airplay chart in August of 1993, the first of many to do so (in fact, only one STP track managed to make the Hot 100 proper, after the rules were changed, and that was "Sour Girl" in 2000). The song spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Mainsteram Rock radio chart, and even crossed to #9 on their Modern Rock format list. Internationally, the single was their first British Top-40 hit at #23, and climbed to #21 in Canada, #16 in Ireland, #15 in the Netherlands, #18 in Sweden, #23 in New Zealand, and #37 in Belgium. The band won their sole Grammy award so far with the track for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1994, not bad for their first time out and against competition like AC/DC, Robert Plant, Living Colour (who had won twice already), and Smashing Pumpkins.

The third radio single from Core, "Wicked Garden", just missed the top ten on the Mainstream Rock chart at #11 and #21 on the Modern Rock tally. That was followed by "Creep" (not to be confused with the Radiohead classic), which spent a week at #2 on the Mainstream Rock list, got to #12 on Modern Rock radio, and reached #59 on the Hot 100 pop airplay tally (it was a top-40 hit in New Zealand at #24 as well).

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Here's the band performing live at the MTV Music Video Awards in 1993, where they won best New Artist...