Robbed hit of the week 9/2/19 - Veruca Salt's "Seether"...
from the album American Thighs (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #53
This week's "robbed hit" comes from the alternative rock band Veruca Salt, who came together in Chicago in the early 1990s under a couple of female singer/guitarists, Nina Gordon and Louise Post. Joined by drummer Jim Shapiro (Nina's brother) and bass player Steve Lack, the band signed to David Geffen offshoot label Minty Fresh and released their debut album American Thighs in 1994. The lead single from the set, "Seether", caught on fast with college and alternative rock radio, and became their breakthrough hit...
While "Seether" made it to the top ten on Billboard magazine's Alternative/Modern Rock radio chart at #8, spending over five months on the chart, the single was unable to place on the official American pop Hot 100 since it wasn't released as a commercial physical single. It stalled under the halfway point of the airplay component of their pop Hot 100 chart in January of 1995. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Australia at #34. A second release from the album, "Number One Blind", reached #20 on the Alternative/Modern Rock list, while being their first minor pop hit in the UK at #68. A final release from the record, "Victrola", slipped on to the British chart at #88.
Veruca Salt returned in 1997 with their sophomore effort Eight Arms To Hold You. Lead single "Volcano Girls" matched their breakthrough hits success by peaking at #8 on the Alternative Rock chart (and also crossed over to the Mainstream Rock list at #9). But like "Seether", it also didn't get a commercial release, and with pop airplay it only rose to #59 on the radio portion of the Hot 100. The third single from the set, "Straight", is the band most recent radio hit at #39 on the Mainstream Rock radio list.
After that, both Shapiro, then Gordon and Shapiro replacement Stacy Jones left the band after the tour behind the second set. While Post continued on as Veruca Salt, Nina released a solo album, Tonight And For The Rest Of My Life, that ended up being more successful than her bandwork. The title track climbed to #7 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 radio chart, spending 26 weeks on the list, while from that record "Now I Can Die" made it to #29. Meanwhile, Post would release a couple of indie records under the Veruca Salt name with various bandmates, until shutting the band down in 2012.
However, a year later, Post reunited with Gordon, Shapiro, and Lack, at first releasing an EP in 2014, then touring, and then releasing their most recent album Ghost Notes in 2015.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
First up, I've got a live TV appearance from the band in 1994...
Here's the band performing "Seether" at Glastonbury in 1995...
South African hard rock band Seether, who named themselves for the song, covered it for their retrospective Seether: 2002-2013, and the result went to #12 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart in 2013...
And finally, the reunited band in 2018 in Australia...
Comments