Songoftheday 10/25/19 - Why drink the water from my hand, contagious as you think I am...
from the album Collective Soul (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 30
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band Collective Soul, who had scored their first top-40 pop success in America in the summer of 1994 with the #1 rock radio hit "Shine". The band then went to record their second album, which they self-titled to imply that it's their proper "introduction" (their first album, Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid was meant to be a demo). The lead track promoted to radio from the set was the raucous "Gel", which wasn't released as a single, but managed to climb to #49 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, while spending four weeks at #2 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart (it also got to #14 on the Modern Rock format list as well). The second offering, though, would be released commercially; "December", written by lead singer Ed Roland, who produced the track with Matt Serletic, had just enough grit to be embraced by rock stations, while softer in tone in the guitars, which gave mainstream radio an "in" in the "post-grunge" scene with this single...
"December" became Collective Soul's second top-20 pop hit in September of 1995. The song spent a massive nine weeks at #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, while taking a week at #2 on their Modern Rock list as well. The song was sedate enough to even appear on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening" format list, peaking at #14 and spending a half year (26 weeks) on the chart. Internationally, the single went to #2 in Canada, and was a top-40 hit in New Zealand at #34.
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Here's the band performing on MTV's Spring Break in 1996...
And live on stage in concert...
Next up is the group at Woodstock 99....
And finally, in 2005 with the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra...
Up tomorrow: Jersey rockers lose a member and disavow their romantic music.
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