Songoftheday 3/17/19 - Alone listless breakfast table in an otherwise empty room, young girl violence center of her own attention...
from the album Vs. (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #97 (in 1996)
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #33 (one week)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay top-40: 15
Today's song of the day comes from the "grunge-rock" band Pearl Jam, who came together in Seattle in the early nineties. Guitarist Stone Gossard and bass player Jeff Ament had been members of the group Mother Love Bone, who were a critically ascending act in grunge who had just recorded their first album Apple when lead singer Andrew Wood overdosed on heroin. Despondent after that tragic loss, they got help to find a new lead singer, who came to them on the recommendation of Jack Irons (who would join the band later). Eddie Vedder joined the band (then renamed Mookie Blaylock) quickly after submitting lyrics to songs that eventually would find a place on the rechristened Pearl Jam's debut album Ten. One of those tracks, "Alive", would be serviced to rock radio as the first single, and it would climb to #16 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, as well as hit #18 on their Modern Rock list. (It would eventually find itself "bubbling under" the pop chart at #107 in 1997, spending over a year underneath the Hot 100). Their second release, the raucous "Even Flow", scored the band their big breakthrough radio hit, spending three weeks at #3 on the Mainstream Rock list, and #21 on the Modern Rock chart (also "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #108 in 1997, staying 52 weeks under the list). But both of those tracks were eclipsed in the winter of 1993 with the epic tale of child cruelty and revenge, "Jeremy", which was the most bleakest and direct cuts about the horrors of school bullying and violence of that year. With a graphic music video that horrifies and makes one think without even directly showing any violence made for an unforgettable experience that helped the song rise for the first time on the Pop Hot 100, landing at #70, while hitting #5 on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock lists. But beyond numbers, that song indelibly changed the lives and minds of every person who watched the video, and ended up being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Vedder, Gossard, and Ament, along with guitarist Mike McCready and changing drummers to Dave Abbruzzese, regrouped for their sophomore effort Vs.. Lead track "Go" returned them to #3 for a week on Billboard's Mainstream Rock list, and #8 on the Modern Rock chart, but wasn't promoted or receive any attention at pop radio. It would it up being nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1995, losing out to fellow grungers Soundgarden for "Black Hole Sun". It's pulsing but primal beat was a hard match for pop radio, but that was corrected with the second release just two weeks later. "Daughter", written mostly by Vedder and Gossard with help from the band, was a much more sonicly accessible and reflective track, again tackles the difficult subject of child abuse and being different as an adolescent to their peers, and with its country-pop touches, finally got mainstream radio on board...
Since "Daughter" was not originally released as a single, it was unable to reach the proper pop Hot 100 chart in Billboard; however on the Hot 100 Airplay list that contributes to the main chart, the song climbed into the top-40 spending almost eight months on the chart altogether. (In 1996, "Daughter" would be released as a proper single, and slipped on to the Hot 100 at #97.) The track became their first #1 hit on both the Mainstream Rock (eight weeks) and Modern Rock (one week) radio charts in Billboard. Internationally, the single made it to #4 in Ireland, and was a top-40 hit in New Zealand (#11), Canada (#16), the UK (#18), Australia (#18), and Belgium (#39). "Daughter" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Group/Duo Rock Vocal Performance, which ultimately went to Aerosmith for "Crazy".
The same week "Daughter" entered the rock radio chart, raucous album track "Animal" climbed in as well, eventually peaking at #21 on the Mainstream Rock chart in America, as well as #7 in New Zealand and #30 in Australia. That was followed by the folkie "Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town", which was more popular on the Modern Rock chart (#17) than the mainstream one (#23). "Dissident" went all the way to #3 on the Mainstream Rock radio list for a week; finally "Glorified G" slipped on to that chart at #39. And all six of these hits were made without the use of music video for MTV, with the band eschewing the medium after the behemoth of "Jeremy".
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
When "Daughter" was finally released as a physical single in 1996, the non-album "B-Side", a live version of "Yellow Ledbetter", had enough airplay to receive credit on the chart listing...
And here's the band performing "Daughter" on S#turday Night L!ve in 1994...
Next up is Pearl Jam in concert in California in 1994...
Lastly, here's the group with Ben Harper performing "Daughter" mixed with Harper's "With My Own Two Hands" in 2003...
Up tomorrow: Two female R&B acts combine forces to gloat over the guy.
Comments