Songoftheday 2/12/20 - If you were faced with Him in all His glory what would you ask if you had just one question?
from the album Relish (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 21
Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Joan Osborne, who moved to New York from her Kentucky birthplace originally to start a film career, but after singing at a few shows changed that right quick. After gigging for years including putting out a live album independently, she finally landed a record deal with Mercury records under the Blue Gorilla imprint. There Joan recorded her debut studio album Relish, which was released in the spring of 1995. She got a lot of help on the record from musicians Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman of the Hooters ("And She Danced"). They co-wrote a big chunk of the songs on the album, and Bazilian by himself penned the lead single which originally came out in February of 1995, "One Of Us". A slighty sarcastic look at religion and the images it holds, the song took a new life in December with MTV on board, and soon Joan had her first, biggest, and only pop hit...
"One Of Us" climbed up to the top ten on the American pop chart in February of 1996. The song reached both the Alternative (#7) and the Mainstream (#26) rock radio charts in Billboard magazine, as well as placing on their Adult Contemporary (#19) and the Adult Top-40 (#16) format lists. It also got to #16 on the Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) radio tally. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Canada, Australia, Belgium, and Sweden. It also reached the top ten in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, and Norway (all #2), the UK (#6), Ireland (#8), and France (#10). At the Grammy Awards that year, "One of Us" was nominated itself for three trophies, losing both Record and Song of the Year to Seal's Batman single "Kiss From A Rose", while the Female Pop Vocal Performance award went to Annie Lennox for "No More "I Love You's", The Relish album was up for Album of the Year, but Alanis Morissette claimed that for the deserving Jagged Little Pill. Finally, Joan was up for Best New Artist, which went to Hootie & The Blowfish. A second radio single from Relish, "Ladder", missed the pop and rock charts, but did place on the Triple-A Rock list at #6.
A follow-up single, "St. Teresa", missed the radio charts, but it too was nominated in 1996 for Best Female Rock Performance, which Alanis took for "You Oughta Know". She repeated the following year with "Spider Web", but that year Sheryl Crow took the crown for "If It Makes You Happy". After a re-release of her earlier live album in 1996, it was four year until Joan released her next album Righteous Love in 2000. With the long break between albums, Joan found she wasn't really widely remembered, and besides the Triple-A format, where "Safety In Numbers" went to #8, then "Running Out Of Time" peaked at #12. The album barely made the top half of the chart at #90, and Joan found herself without a record deal. Since then, Osborne has put out seven more albums, either of cover songs or originals. One the them, Bring It On Home, was nominated for a Grammy for Blues Album, losing to Dr. John's "Locked Down". Her most recent studio set, Songs Of Bob Dylan, came out in 2017.
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Here's Joan appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman to debut the song...
as well as on Leno...
I believe this is Joan at the Grammys...
A year after the original release of "One Of Us", Canadian techno act Outta Control put out an uptempo dance music cover of the song, which did get radio airplay as well as going to #36 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart...
In 2010, the cast of Glee covered the song for their second-season episode Grilled Cheezus, and the result made the top-40 in the US at #37 and in Canada at #27...
and finally, here's Eric Bazilian on Dutch TV talking about the making of "One of Us"...
Up tomorrow: Mrs. Biggie Smalls is expected shortly.
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