Songoftheday 1/30/19 - All I can say is that my life is pretty plain, I like watchin' the puddles gather rain...
from the album Blind Melon (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band Blind Melon, who came together in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. With lead singer Shannon Hoon, along with guitar players Roger Stevens and Christopher Thorn, bassist Brad Smith, and drummer Glen Graham, the band made a failed attempt at a debut EP in 1991 after being signed to Capitol Records, then shipped themselves to the south to work on a true full album, since there was already buzz from them for opening for Soundgarden and Hoon's relationship with the band Guns N' Roses, whose Axl Rose and Hoon were friends. The result was their first album Blind Melon, produced by Rick Parashar (who helmed Pearl Jam's Ten). The lead single from the set, "Tones Of Home", had a sound between the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, and was a success on Alternative Rock radio, climbing to #20 on Billboard magazine's format chart, but it was the second release that would give the band their biggest success.
"No Rain", written by the band and released in the summer of 1993, had lyrics about being lonely and needing a girl's love, behind a sunny production of strummy guitars and quiet pauses. But it was the music video, featuring young actress Heather DeLoach as the "Bee Girl" to replicate the girl on the album cover (actually Graham's sister) as she's bullied off stage and wanders until she finds a place where she is quite welcome...
If the ending to this video doesn't bring you joy, get yourself checked out.
"No Rain" became Blind Melon's first and only top-40 pop hit in October of 1993. The song spent three weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart, and took two at the top of their Mainstream Rock format list as well. Internationally, the song hit #1 for a week in Canada, peaked at #8 in Australia, and reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#15), the UK (#17), Ireland (#24), the Netherlands (#26), Austria (#29), and Belgium (#31).
After the reaction to "No Rain", Blind Melon re-released "Tones Of Home" in America, where it hit #10 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and were minor hits in Canada (#47), the UK (#62), and Australia (#83). A final single, "Change", hit the top-40 in Britain at #35. After touring behind the album, which was marred by Hoon's struggle with addiction to alcohol and drugs, they went down to New Orleans to produce their second album Soup. The lead single from the set, "Galaxie", was a moderate hit on rock radio, hitting #8 on the Modern Rock chart and #25 on the Mainstream Rock list, but it didn't make the pop Hot 100, only managing a peak of #54 on the Hot 100 Airplay list (it did much better in England, reaching #37 on their singles chart). And Hoon's drug addiction grew to such a point that on the tour behind the Soup album, he overdosed from cocaine in 1995.
At that point the band called it quits after releasing the odds-n-sods charity collection Nico, but they reunited in 2006, hiring Travis Warren to be their new lead singer. Since then, they have released one album, For My Friends, which made the lower half of the albums sales chart in 2008 (#133). The band is supposedly still working on a new album.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band performing live at the MTV UK studios in 1993...
next up is the group on MTV's Unplugged program...
and lastly, Blind Melon at Woodstock '94...
Up tomorrow: Gangsta rap king requests a Lyft?
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