Songoftheday 5/13/19 - Give me a word give me a sign, show me where to look tell me what will I find...
from the album Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 23
Today's song of the day comes from the rock group Collective Soul, who came together in the suburbs of Atlanta under lead singer Ed Roland in the early 1990s after being in a couple of earlier bands, one with future go-to producer Matt Serletic (most famous for producing Matchbox Twenty and its lead singer Rob Thomas). Recruiting his brother Dean Roland for guitar along with lead guitarist Ross Childress, drummer Shane Evans, and bass player Will Turpin. Signed to Atlantic Records, their first single would be from a demo Ed recorded before putting Collective Soul together. "Shine", written and produced by Ed, was a grunge rock classic that seemed more spiritual than the usual dark and brooding work in the genre. Coupled with an undeniable guitar hook in the chorus, and you've got the biggest rock radio hit of 1994...
"Shine" became Collective Souls' first and highest-charting top-40 pop hit in August of 1994. The song was massive on rock radio, spending two months (eight weeks) at #1 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart, and also rising to #4 on their Modern Rock format tally. Internationally, the single made the top ten in Canada (#6) and Australia (#8), and also reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#21) and Austria (#25). It was a minor hit in France (#50) and the UK (#82).
Their second single from their debut album Hint, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid was "Breathe", which couldn't overcome the long-lasting power of the debut. It missed the pop chart completely, and climbed to #12 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Still, the album peaked in the top-20 and sold over two million copies.
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Here's Collective Soul appearing at Woodstock 94, after an introduction that followed a muchly needed PSA...
And that same year, at the Billboard Music Awards, where they won Album Rock Song of the Year with "Shine"...
Back to Woodstock in 1999...
In 2001, Dolly Parton gave "Shine" a bluegrass treatment for her stunning cover that went on to win a Grammy Award for best Female Country Vocal Performance. Performed with the artists in Nickel Creek, this basically reinvented Dolly's career at that time...
Here's the band playing with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra in 2005...
And finally, an acoustic take from 2010...
and for shits and giggles, this from the interwebs...
Up tomorrow: Electropop duo are continuously in need of your company.
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