Songoftheday 2/26/19 - Take me now baby here as I am, hold me close try and understand...
from the album MTV Unplugged (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 24
Today's song of the day comes from the indie-rock band 10,000 Maniacs, who came together in upstate New York in the early 1980s. With lead singer Natalie Merchant, the group released a couple of independent albums, an EP and a proper album, before being signed to Elektra Records. Their first set on the new label, The Wishing Chair, wasn't statistically successful, but did create quite the buzz (as I heard them on college radio and proceeded to buy that record). The album nor any singles didn't chart, but it created enough buzz for them to concentrate on their next record, In My Tribe. With original guitarist John Lombardo quiting, they carried on to record that third album with legendary producer Peter Asher (Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor). Lead single "What's The Matter Here?" reached the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart and was their first minor pop hit here at #68 in 1988. The second, "Like The Weather", did even better, placing at #9 on the newly-minted Modern Rock radio format chart, and #80 on the pop Hot 100. The next year, the band came back with Blind Man's Zoo, with first single "Trouble Me" almost reaching the American pop top-40 at #44. But as they were recording their following album, Our Time In Eden, Merchant advised the group that this would be her last studio work with them, even as they yet captured another milestone with hitting #1 on the rock chart with "These Are Days" in 1992. So in 1993, after performing for the MTV Unplugged show announcing her departure, the resulting live album came out in the fall of that year. Included with a look back of their best (including all the songs I mentioned), the Maniacs included a cover of a song written by Bruce Springsteen but best known for being sung by punk icon Patti Smith, who supplied lyrics to the song. Released in 1978 on the Easter album from the Patti Smith Group, her version of "Because The Night" went to #13 in the U.S. and Canada but all the way to #5 in Britain...
Fifteen years after that recording, the live unplugged version from the MTV show by 10,000 Maniacs, possibly fueled with the sentimentality of Merchant's imminent departure, caused the single to become the band's biggest hit (but not Natalie's)...
"Because The Night" became 10,000 Maniacs first top-40 pop hit in America, and sole one with Merchant, just missing the top ten by a notch in February of 1994. The single also climbed to #7 on the Modern Rock chart in Billboard magazine, while getting to #9 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format list. Internationally, the single peaked at #10 in Canada, while in the UK it only managed to get to #65.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
A year before 10,000 Maniacs released their live hit, Italian Eurodance group CoRo took their take on the song, sampling Depeche Mode's "Master And Servant", to #1 in Spain, #6 in France, and #8 in Belgium, while becoming a minor hit in the UK at #61...
In 2008, German Eurodance kings Cascada again cast "Because The Night" in a club setting, and this time made the top-40 in Britain at #28, while just missing that level in Germany (#41) and Austria (#45)...
Five years later, Garbage teamed up with Jersey rockers Screaming Females to cover the classic for a one-off single for Record Store Day. The result hit the singles sales charts in America and the UK...
And finally, here's Natalie Merchant making her first "solo" appearance on Letterman performing "Because The Night"...
Up tomorrow: Three rock giants join forces for the Musketeers.
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