Songoftheday 4/4/19 - In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey, butane in my veins so I'm out to cut the junkie...

"Loser" - Beck
from the album Mellow Gold (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15

Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock artist Beck (Hansen), who grew up in Los Angeles the son of two very artistic people (his dad's a film score composer and mom was an artist and "Warhol girl") who had divorced. A high school dropout, nevertheless Beck explored music through connections with college people. Hooking up with Tim Rothrock of Bong Load Records, who paired him with Karl Stephenson, who was a producer at Rap-A-Lot Records (best known for fare like gore-gangsta rappers the Geto Boys), and recorded the single "Loser", which would hang around while Beck released an indie record Golden Feelings with the label Sonic Enemy.

Meanwhile, Rothrock didn't forget about "Loser", and released it under Bong Load records in the spring of 1993. College radio in California started to play the song, which quickly gained steam in popularity and caused major labels to fight over signing Beck, with Geffen winning out. By the time "Loser" hit mainstream radio, Beck had already put out an EP, Western Harvest Field By Moonlight, as well as a compilation of earlier recordings, Stereopathic Soulmanure, each on different labels, and the latter merely a week before the release of his Geffen debut, Mellow Gold. "Loser", a trippy psychedelic rock guitar-dominated stream of consciousness that was delivered like a rap song, with folk notes guiding the attitude. The music video, done on a budget of under 15 grand, was a masterpiece in art rock...

"Loser" not only became Beck's first hit, but his highest charting, landing in the top ten on the pop Hot 100 in April of 1994. The song spent five weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock radio chart, while also climbing to #39 on their Mainstream Rock format list. Internationally, the single was a huge success, topping the singles chart in Norway for three weeks, and reaching the top ten in Iceland (#2), New Zealand (#5), Sweden (#6), Canada (#7), Australia (#8), and Austria (#10). It also made the top-40 in the UK (#15), Finland (#16), Germany (#18), Belgium (#18), Switzerland (#19), France (#20), and the Netherlands (#21). A second single from the Mellow Gold album, "Beercan", didn't get embraced by mainstream radio in America, though it did manage to peak at #27 on the Modern Rock radio list in Billboard. Meanwhile, the Mellow Gold set rose to #12 on the albums chart and sold over a million copies.

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Beck rarely sang "Loser" live - here he is appearing on French TV in 1994...

 Here's Beck performing the song live in England in 2003...

Fast forward a decade, and Beck at the BBC Sessions gig, a little more relaxed about the song...

And finally, that same year on Austin City Limits with a full band...

Up tomorrow: Canadian rock band mumbles their way to the top ten.