Songoftheday 7/11/19 - Do you have the time to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once...

"Basket Case" by Green Day
from the album Dookie (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #26 (one week)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 21

Today's song of the day comes from the punk band who turned into pop stars, Green Day. After releasing their third album on a major label for the first time, they scored a pop and rock hit (and a Grammy nomination) for their song "Longview", which reached the top-40 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 Airplay chart in the summer of 1994. The second track from the album to reach the charts also was not released commercially as a "single", and therefore not able to place on Billboard's Hot 100 official pop chart. Nevertheless, "Basket Case", written by the band who produced it with Rob Cavallo, reached the top-40 on the airplay component chart of the Hot 100 based on the amount of mainstream radio airplay, even more so than "Longview"...

"Basket Case" became Green Day's second top-40 pop airplay hit in October of 1994. The song was a huge rock radio hit, spending five weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern/Alternative Rock chart, while crossing over to peak at #9 on their Mainstream Rock format list. Internationally, where in most places the song was put out as a single, "Basket Case" reached the top ten in Norway (#2), Sweden (#3), and the UK (#7). It also cleared the top-40 in Ireland (#11), Canada (#12), France (#18), Belgium (#21), New Zealand (#21), France (#35), and the Netherlands (#39). At the 1995 Grammy Awards, where the band won Best Alternative Album for Dookie, "Basket Case" was nominated for Best Duo/Group Rock Performance, which went to Aerosmith for the blander "Crazy".

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Here's the band making their debut on Letterman in 1994...