Songoftheday 2/13/19 - Now that I've lost everything to you you say you want to start something new, and it's breaking my heart you're leaving baby I'm grieving...
from the album Bump Ahead (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7
Today's song of the day comes from the hard rock band Mr. Big, who turned down their amplifiers and scored a pair of big pop hits in America with "Just Take My Heart" and the #1 single "To Be With You". After touring by themselves and opening for Aerosmith, the band led by bassist Billy Sheehan returned with their third album Bump Ahead in the fall of 1993. The lead single was a cover of Cat Stevens' borderline-misogynistic break-up track "Wild World". The song had already been a hit in the last five years, as reggae artist Maxi Priest climbed to #25 in America and #5 in the UK. For their version, the band again went for a stripped-down approach focusing on Eric Martin's vocals and Paul Gilbert's acoustic guitar...
Mr. Big's version of "Wild World" became their third and final top-40 pop hit in November of 1993. The song also climbed to #33 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, and peaked at #36 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Denmark (#4), Austria (#7), Switzerland (#7), Canada (#9), Sweden (#10), and Norway (#10), while reaching the top-40 in the Netherlands (#11), Iceland (#13), Germany (#24), Belgium (#24), France (#39), and New Zealand (#39). In the UK, it sputtered out down at #59.
The second single from Bump Ahead, "Ain't Seen Love Like That", was another toned-down affair, but in the end only made it to #83 on the American pop chart, although up north in Canada it did much better at #35. That would be their final charting hit in most of the world, although they continued to have a huge fanbase in Japan. In fact, from their next album Hey Man, the song "Take Cover" peaked at #2 in Japan. They continued to release albums through the decade on Atlantic based on that Asian popularity, though Gilbert left the band to be replaced by Poison axe-man Richie Kotzen for a short stint, which followed with the band splitting in 2002. Of course, like most metal bands, the original members reunited again in 2009, and since then they put out three more studio albums on aging rocker label Frontiers. Their most recent, Defying Gravity, came out in 2017, and was still a top ten success in Japan.
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Here's the band making a live appearance on MTV to promote the single in 1993...
and next up on the tour behind the album in Japan...
Finally, from another Japanese concert in 2009...
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