Robbed hit of the week 4/8/19: The Breeders' "Cannonball"...
from the album Last Splash (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44
This week's "robbed hit" comes from the alternative rock band the Breeders, who came together when two of the biggest women stars of the genre, Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses, left their respective bands and hooked up with bass player Josephine Wiggs (of Perfect Disaster) and drummer Britt Walford (of Slint). They released their debut album Pod in 1990, but despite it becoming a top-40 album in the UK (#22), no hit singles came of it, and it went relatively unnoticed in America. Another EP, Safari, also made the British singles chart at #69, but by then Kim's sister Kelley joined the group portending the departure of both Donnelly (to make her own band Belly) and Walford. Replacing Walford with Jim MacPherson, the Breeders released their second and biggest album Last Splash in 1993. The lead single from the set, "Cannonball" was written by Kim Deal, who produced the track with Mark Freegard. The soft-loud flow of this alternative rock classic has influenced countless of acts since, and even at the time Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was a huge fan, letting the band open for Nirvana on their In Utero tour. The music video was directed by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon along with video legend Spike Jonze...
While "Cannonball" spent two weeks at #2 on the Modern Rock radio chart, the single stalled right under the pop top-40 in Billboard magazine, taking three weeks at #44. The song also went to #32 on their Mainstream Rock list as well. Internationally, the song climbed as high as #8 in France, and made the top-40 in the UK (#40) and the Netherlands (#35). The second single from Last Splash, "Divine Hammer", got to #28 on the Modern Rock list, while a third, "Saints" did a bit better at #12.
The following year, the Breeders recorded another EP, Head To Toe, with Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis producing, but that only got to #68 in the UK. But after a tour including a stint on Lollapalooze in 1994, the band fell apart due to addiction troubles for both of the sisters, who each ended up in rehab. After trying to start another band The Amps, then trying to convert that to a new Breeders, Kim and Kelley reunited in the 2000s with a new guitarist, drummer, and bassist and recorded a new album, Title TK. Released in 2002, the album stalled in the lower half of the American albums chart, while in the UK it did a bit better at #51, and even spun off a minor hit there in "Son Of Three". A second with that lineup minus guitarist Richard Pressley, Mountain Battles, arrived in 2008, and peaked at #98 in the US.
Most recently, with the 20th anniversary of Last Splash, the lineup from that album reunited for a tour, and subsequently their most recent album All Nerve in 2018. That set went to #9 in the UK and #79 in America.
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Here's the Breeders appearing on the Jon Stewart show in 1993...
And a year later in concert at the Pinkpop Festival in the Netherlands...
Finally, the reunited band in Later With Jools Holland...
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