Songoftheday 2/26/20 - Doctors have come from distant cities just to see me, stand over my bed disbelieving what they're seeing...

"Wonder" - Natalie Merchant
from the album Tigerlily (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 26

Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Natalie Merchant, who left her band 10,000 Maniacs to do something they couldn't, land a top ten pop hit with her first single "Carnival" in the fall of 1995. Her second single from her solo debut album Tigerlily is the midtempo jangle-pop gem "Wonder". Written and produced by Merchant, the song was inspired by twins she knew with a birth defect, and turning it into a special feature instead of a fault...

"Wonder" became Natalie's second top-40 solo pop hit in March of 1996, spending a half a year (26 weeks) in the top-40. The song was her biggest hit on Billboard magazine's Adult Top-40 format list, taking a week at #2, while on the more sedate Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio tally it stopped at #17. On rock radio, the song peaked at #16 on their Alternative Rock chart, while hitting #8 on the Triple-A Rock (Adult Album Alternative, or "hipster rock") list. Internationally, the song reached #10 in Canada (her biggest hit there), made the top-40 in Iceland at #30, while being her first solo minor hit in the UK, slipping in at #84.

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Here's Natalie performing the song on Letterman...