Songoftheday 7/2/19 - Times are gone for honest men and sometimes far too long for snakes...

"Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden
from the album Superunknown (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: Not eligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 airplay peak: #24 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Hot 100 airplay top-40: 11

Today's song of the day comes from the hard rock band Soundgarden which evolved from a band started by Seattle singer/drummer Chris Cornell in the early 1980s, with two guys who moved in from Park Forest, Illinois - guitarist Kim Thayil and bass player Hiro Yamamoto. After a short stint with drummer Scott Sundquist who helped make their first recordings, the band hired Matt Cameron on as permanent drummer. With help from a rock radio DJ, who helped invest in the band through then starting out label Sub Pop, the newly christened Soundgarden released a couple compilation tracks and two extended play records (EPs), Screaming Life and Fopp, that recieved local attention at the end of the 1980s, with single "Hunted Down" getting airplay on college radio. Even though at the time they were starting to get attention from major labels, the band changed to another indie label, SST, for their first full-length effort Ultramega OK. Though none of the songs from the record were able to make the charts, nevertheless the album grabbed a nomination for Best Metal Performance in its first year of being given out (which went to Metallica for "One"). A year later, the band finally settled in with A&M Records, and recorded their second studio set Louder Than Love. It was their first charting album in the U.S., peaking at #108, while two songs from it were minor hits in the UK, with "Hands All Over" going to #82. However, Yamamoto quit the group over feeling neglected in the creative process, with Cornell, Cameron, and Thayil having to first hire ex-Nirvana member Jason Everman to tour with them; he was fired as well before they replaced him with Ben Shepherd, creating their lineup for the rest of their career until the death of Cornell.

With Shepherd Soundgarden returned in 1991 with Badmotorfinger. It became their first breakthrough record when the controversial lead single "Jesus Christ Pose", which pointed out the hypocrisy in religious fervor, climbed to #30 on the British singles chart. The follow-up single, "Outshined", was much more polished, and scored the band their first rock radio hit, peaking at #45 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock chart, while going to #50 in the UK. And the Badmotorfinger set landed a second Grammy nom for Best Metal Performance (again, going to Metallica for the Metallica album). When a re-release of the record included the EP Satan Oscillate My Metallic Sonatas, their interpolation of the Black Sabbath track "Into The Void (Sealth)" which dubbed in new lyrics, scored yet another Best Metal Performance nomination, which Nine Inch Nails won for "Wish".

While Badmotorfinger was their first step to success, reaching the top-40 on the albums chart at #39, it would be their fourth release that would make Cornell and band superstars. The lead single, "Spoonman", was based on a busker who performed on spoons in Seattle for money. Originally intended for the Singles movie soundtrack, it was instead revamped for the Superunknown album, which was released a month later. "Spoonman" spent two weeks at #3 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard and peaked at #9 on the Modern Rock list. It also climbed to #20 in the UK and was a top ten hit in New Zealand at #10. The actual "spoonman", Artis, was featured in the striking video, their first real conceptual piece since "Jesus Christ Pose". That artisanship would carry over to their iconic clip for their next single, "Black Hole Sun". Written by Cornell and produced by Michael Beinhorn, the apocalyptic dirge that flirted with more positive touches in the verses found favor not only with rock stations, but mainstream audiences all over America, and became their biggest success and best-remembered song. But that video, that strange, trippy, nightmare-inducing contortion of perfect #MAGA-style life that gets thrown to hell that will be remembered most of all...

Since "Black Hole Sun" was not released as a commercial single in the U.S., it was ineligible to chart on Billboard's Hot 100 pop chart at that time. However, the song had gained enough radio airplay to climb to #24 on the airplay component of that chart in September of 1994. On the rock radio charts, "Black Hole Sun" spent seven weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Rock format chart, while it took one week at #2 on their Modern Rock radio list. Internationally, where the song was generally released physically as a single, it reached the top ten in Canada (#5), Australia (#6), Ireland (#7), and France (#10), while getting into the top-40 in the UK (#12), Finland (#13), Sweden (#19), New Zealand (#22), the Netherland (#25), Germany (#26), and Belgium (#37). At the Grammy Awards in 1995, Soundgarden won Best Metal Performance finally for "Spoonman", and won Best Hard Rock Performance for "Black Hole Sun". The latter was also up for Best Rock Song, which went to Bruce Springsteen for "Streets Of Philadelphia", while the Superunknown album was in the running for Best Rock Album, which in its first year was won by the Rolling Stones for Voodoo Lounge.

The song the band promoted next to radio, the ultra-moody "Fell On Black Days", was also not put out as a physical single, and while it hit #4 on the Mainstream rock chart, #13 at Modern Rock, and #54 on the Hot 100 Airplay, it wasn't able to place on the pop chart either (it did reach #24 in the UK). That was followed by "My Wave", which made the top-20 on the Mainstream (#11) and Alternative (#18) rock radio charts. Lastly, the cut "The Day I Tried To Live", which got to #13 on Mainstream Rock and #25 Alternative, while just missing the British Top-40 at #42.

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Here's Soundgarden performing "Black Hole Sun" live in concert in 1995...