Songoftheday 2/17/20 - My lips are shakin' my nails are bit off, it's been a month since I've heard myself talk...
from the EP Merkinball (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9
Today's song(s) of the day come from grunge rock band Pearl Jam, whose third album Vitalogy had scored the band their first "official" top-40 pop hit with the double-sided single "Spin The Black Circle"/"Tremor Christ" in the fall of 1994. Also, the album cut "Better Man" got enough radio love to spend a whole half a year on the pop airplay chart peaking within the top-20. In the following year, the band played on Canadian rock legend Neil Young's album Mirrorball, while lead singer Eddie Vedder laid low. That record was a big success, peaking at #5 being Young's highest charting album since Harvest in 1972 (the one with "Heart of Gold"). There were a couple of songs recorded in the sessions that featured Vedder on lead vocals, and were therefore delegated to be released as a separate EP they titled Merkin Ball. Since the two-song EP wouldn't be eligible for Billboard magazine's Albums chart, and since both got airplay (albeit one song got the most), they entered the pop Hot 100 as a two-sided hit. "I Got Id", originally titled "I Got Shit", features Vedder and Young with PJ drummer Jack Irons and producer Brendan O'Brien, and was about a love that wasn't returned and the feelings that ensued...
The other track on the EP, "Long Road", was written by Vedder about his former drama teacher who had passed. Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament and Irons joined Vedder on the record...
Because of the high demand of fans sales of the EP were great enough to put the two songs within the top ten on Billboard's pop Hot 100 chart in December of 1995. And opposed to "Spin the Black Circle"'s two weeks on the chart, "I Got Id" had a bit more legs on the radio, actually making the top-40 on the airplay chart and spending more than a couple months in the top-40 and a full 20 weeks on the Hot 100 chart in general. On Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, "I Got Id" spent four weeks at #2, while on the Alternative Rock format tally, it took two weeks at #3. Internationally, the song reached the top ten in Australia (#2), Finland (#3), Norway (#5), and Denmark (#10). It also reached the top-40 in Sweden (#14), New Zealand (#17), the UK (#25), Iceland (#26), Ireland (#29), and the Netherlands (#38).
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band performing "I Got Id" in concert at Red Rocks, CO in 1995...
...as well as "Long Road" from the same show...
Back to "I Got Id" live in Canada in 2000...
and "Long Road" from the same tour in Phoenix...
Back to 1995 with a Japan show clip of "I Got Id"...
Although "I Got Id" got the most airplay during its time as a single, "Long Road" proved to have longer "legs", appearing in many movies like Dead Man Walking as well as being featured in the America: Tribute To Heroes concert in 2001...
Here's the band in 2010 with "I Got Id"...
and "Long Road" in Boston in 2016...
Lastly, in 2010 Vedder re-recorded "Long Road" for the movie Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts, with Pakistani singer/musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, which is honestly stunning...
Up tomorrow: Alt-rockers talk about their earth.
Comments