Songoftheday 11/9/19 - Dressing like your sister living like a tart, they don't know what you're doing babe it must be art...
from the album Batman Forever (Original Soundtrack) (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day comes from the Irish rock band U2, who to many had achieved their creative peak in 1991 with their album Achtung Baby, which spun off four top-40 pop hits in America with "Mysterious Ways", "One", "Even Better Than The Real Thing", and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses". They embarked on a massive worldwide tour afterwards, in which during a break recorded the most of another studio album, Zooropa. That disc, experimental for them with its departures into electronica and dance music, was weirdly received by the public. In the U.S., the record hit #1, but none of the three single reached the top-40 (partly due to availability as a commercial product). Lead track "Numb", the first to feature guitarist The Edge on "lead vocals", made the top ten in Australia (#7) and Canada (#9), but in America it was ineligible for the Hot 100, but climbed to #61 on the airplay component of the chart. (It did spent a week at #2 on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock chart). The club jam "Lemon", which went to #1 on the Dance Club Play list in America, it only got to #71 on the Hot 100 Airplay list, but again making the top ten in Australia (#6) and New Zealand (#4) and peaking at #20 in Canada. The third release from the record, "Stay (Far Away, So Close)", was actually put out commercially in America and England, but only got to #61 on the Hot 100, while doing much better in the UK hitting #4 and going to #1 in their native Ireland. Despite the mixed reaction to the record, even from the band themselves, Zooropa ended up winning a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Rock Album, beating out huge albums from Nirvana, R.E.M., and the Smashing Pumpkins. The songs from the set were featured on the latter leg of their Zoo TV tour, and the resulting live video ZOO TV: Live From Sydney won a Grammy the following year in 1995 for Best Music Video (Longform).
After a break the band reunited in 1995 to record a song for the third movie in the Warner Brothers Batman franchise, Batman Forever, which substituted Val Kilmer in the title role. The first Batman, starring Michael Keaton, sported the famous soundtrack from Prince which topped the album and singles charts in 1989. However the sequel, Batman Returns, had a soundtrack of mostly Danny Elfman score with one song from Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Face To Face", dragged down by label politics so that it couldn't chart on the American pop chart, though getting to #7 on the Modern Rock radio list, and peaking at #21 in the UK. All of that changed with the third installment; besides the addition of Kilmer to "lighten up" the film, the soundtrack featured all pop music of many genres. And the first single release had U2 providing A-list status with their album opener "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me". Not related to the 60's Mel Carter tune, the brash alt-rock banger pointed the band in yet another direction without being the disco, though Nellee Hooper of Soul II Soul helped Bono and the Edge produce it...
"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" returned U2 to the American top-40, reaching the top 20 in July of 1995. The song was a massive hit on rock radio, spending a month (four weeks) at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart and one week on their Mainstream Rock list. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand, and Norway, and reached the top ten in the UK (#2), Sweden (#2), Canada (#3), Austria (#3), Belgium (#4), Switzerland (#5), the Netherlands (#7), Germany (#8), and France (#10). At the Grammy Awards in 1996, "Hold Me" was nominated for Rock Song, which Alanis Morissette won for "You Oughta Know", and also for Best Rock Duo/Group Vocal Performance, which Blues Traveler took for "Run-Around".
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Here's the band performing the song in concert in the Popmart tour...
And next up, on their 360 tour in 2011...
and lastly, live in 2018 on their Experience + Innocence show....
Up tomorrow: New Jersey hip-hop trio wants you to get their phrasing.
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