Songoftheday 8/25/19 - It's easier not to be wise and measure these things by your brains, I sank into Eden with you....

"I Alone" - Live
from the album Throwing Copper (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: Ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #38
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 2

Today's song of the day comes from the Pennsylvania-based hard rock group Live, who had originally formed in the early 1980s with lead guitarist Chad Taylor, bass player Patrick Dahlheimer, and drummer Chad Gracey. Hiring lead singer Ed Kowalczyk in the mid-decade, the group changed their name from Public Affection to Live in time for their second EP and third release Four Songs in 1991. From that short set the single "Operation Spirit (The Tyranny Of Tradition)" broke the band on rock radio, where the song rose to #9 on Billboard magazine's Alternative/Modern Rock chart. It also appeared on Live's second full-length album (and first under the "Live" name), Mental Jewelry. With exposure from that song and the album, which sold over a million dollars, expectations were higher for their next album, Throwing Copper. The lead single from the set, "Selling The Drama", ended up topping the Alternative Rock chart for three weeks, although on the pop Hot 100 is stopped right below the top-40 at #43. The second song promoted from the record, "I Alone" was not released as a single, but since the powerful mid-tempo ballad written by the band and produced by Talking Head Jerry Harrison carried a shit-ton of emotion, eventually mainstream stations...

While "I Alone" wasn't able to place on Billboard's Hot 100 chart since it wasn't commercially released as a single in America, nonetheless it garnered enough radio airplay for it to be in the top-40 in January of 1995. The song peaked at #6 on both the Mainstream and Alternative/Modern Rock charts as well. Internationally, the single hit the top-40 in New Zealand (#18) and the Netherlands (#19).

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Here's the band appearing "live" on SNL in 1995...