Songoftheday 1/23/20 - Mud flowed up into lump's pajamas She totally confused all the passing piranhas

"Lump" - The Presidents of the United States of America
from the album The Presidents of the United States of America (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #21 (one week)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 22

Today's song of the day comes from the pop-punk band The Presidents of the United States of America (or PUSA for short). Lead singer Chris Ballew, lead guitarist Dave Dederer, and drummer Jason Finn came together in the early 1990s in Seattle, where Chris and Dave were schoolmates. The trio release a couple of independent records locally before getting signed to label behemoth Columbia Records (most likely to have their own version of a Green Day). They released their self-titled major-label debut in 1995, with the single "Lump" promoted to radio as the first "single". Written by Ballew with the title referring to a (benign) tumor he had, and the visions he thought it caused, the punchy song got radio's attention and it became a rock airwave staple before crossing over to mainstream stations much their Green Day counterparts...

Since "Lump" wasn't released as a physical commercial single in America (yes, like Green Day), the song was not able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, it had enough mainstream pop airplay to spend over five months in the top-40 of the radio component of the chart in October of 1995. Also, the song spent a week at #1 on the Alternative Rock radio chart, as well as getting to #7 on the Mainstream Rock format tally. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in New Zealand (#8), France (#10), Australia (#11), the UK (#15), Canada (#21), Ireland (#27), and Belgium (#28).

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Here's the band making an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman...