Songoftheday 8/26/19 - If you could see yourself now baby It's not my fault, you used to be so in control...
from the album Monster (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band from Athens Georgia, R.E.M., who had already landed a top-40 pop hit in the fall of 1994 with "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?", the lead single from their ninth studio album. The second single from the set was "Bang and Blame", a boisterous but admittedly forgetable rock jam. Written by the group who also produced it with Scott Litt, the song was light on lyrics...
The next song promoted to radio would be the raucous "Star 69", which wasn't released as a physical single in the U.S. Nonetheless, the song rose to #8 on the Modern Rock list, #15 on the Mainstream Rock tally, and had enough pop radio love to go to #74 on the airplay component of the Hot 100, and went to #73 in Canada. That was followed by the full single release of the ballad "Strange Currencies", which served as the "Everybody Hurts" of the Monster album. That track almost reached the pop top-40, stopping at #47, while being a moderate hit on the Alternative (#8) and Mainstream (#14) rock format charts. But in the UK, that song was another big hit at #9, while in Canada it climbed to #13. The fourth "single" from Monster, "Crush With Eyeliner", got to #20 on Alternative Rock and #33 Mainstream Rock in America, while only "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #113. But again it reached the top-40 in both the UK (#23) and Canada (#28). Lastly, the song "Tongue" became R.E.M.'s fifth British top-40 hit from Monster at #13, not surprising since the band won best international band at the Brit Awards.
With the success of Monster, the band toured the world behind the album, but during the trek three of the four members ended up in the hospital at one point, most seriously drummer Bill Berry who had an aneurysm that thankfully he fully recovered from. As they resigned a lucrative deal with Warner Brothers Records, the band released their next album New Adventures In Hi-Fi in 1996. But that album didn't carry the momentum the band had been riding on the last few records, and none of the three singles from the set made the pop top-40 in the U.S., though all three did in Britain. The lead track, "E-Bow The Letter", which did climb to #2 on the Modern Rock chart in Billboard, stopped at #49 in America, while in the UK it was their highest-charting single at the time at #4.
Despite Berry's recovery from his aneurysm, that health scare undoubtedly led to Berry leaving the band amicably before the recording of their next record, Up, which ended up being a stressful affair anyway with his loss. Released in 1998, the set continued the band's success in the UK, with two top ten hits in "Daysleeper" (#6) and "At My Most Beautiful" (#10). But only the former made the American pop chart, and only then at #57. A one-off single for the soundtrack to the Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon, "The Great Beyond", took over as R.E.M.'s most successful single at #3, while in the States the song was a minor hit again at #57 (although topping Billboard's Triple-A Rock format and almost making the Alternative top 10 at #11).
With the success of "The Great Beyond", the band seemed sonically revived on their 2001 album Reveal. Lead single "Imitation Of Life" may have only gotten to #83 on the Hot 100, but by that time that chart was irrelevant to their style of music; they ended up going to #1 on the Triple-A rock list again, while again reaching the Adult-Top-40 chart at #15 (of course in the UK they again got to #6). Two years later, with their hits retrospective In Time, the group topped the Triple-A rock list again with "Bad Day", which was another British top tenner at #8.
R.E.M. returned in 2004 with their thirteenth studio effort Around The Sun. From it the single "Leaving New York" again topped the Triple-A rock radio chart while making the top ten in Britain at #5. Four years later in 2008, after live sessions that resulted in a concert album, the trio came back with Accelerate. While the lead single "Supernatural Superserious" continued the band's success on Adult Album Alternative radio, topping the Triple-A format chart, it signaled their first bump in the UK, only getting to #54 there. In fact, by the time of their most recent (and possibly last) studio album Collapse Into Now, while "Mine Smell Like Honey" going to #8 on the Triple-A rock chart, with two more songs from the set also reaching the list, nothing made the singles list in the UK. But by that time, Stipe, Mills, and Buck announced the band's end, with their final chart entry being a Collapse Into Now-era track "We All Go Back To Where We Belong" reaching #13 on the Triple-A rock chart in 2011. They have since stayed in "retirement", leaving a legacy of amazing music that got them into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame on their first try in 2006.
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Here's the band performing "Bang and Blame" live in concert in Albany in 1995...
Up tomorrow: Latin-American pop singer has an idea.
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