Songoftheday 2/28/20 - Must be your skin that I'm sinking in, must be for real 'cause now I can feel...

"Glycerine" - Bush
from the album Sixteen Stone (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #28 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's song of the day comes from the British post-grunge rock band Bush, whose debut album Sixteen Stone had landed the band their first top-40 pop hit with "Comedown" in the autumn of 1995, as well as a top-40 radio airplay hit with "Everything Zen" and one that almost made that mark with "Little Things". The fourth song promoted to radio would be the ballad "Glycerine". Written by lead singer Gavin Rossdale about his then-girlfriend, the track sports really vague lyrics that allude to the fact that they were in a volatile relationship that was ending, but really uses more poetic turns of phrase than direct feelings. Nevertheless, fans approved, and the song became their fourth big rock radio hit, crossing over to mainstream pop stations in due time...

"Glycerine" became Bush's second and most successful "official" top-40 pop hit on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in February of 1996. The single was a big hit on American rock radio, spending two weeks at #1 on the Alternative Rock chart and peaking at #4 on the Mainstream Rock list. Internationally, the single had its biggest success in Australia, topping out at #5, while reaching the top-40 in New Zealand (#31) and Canada (#38). A fifth promoted song from Sixteen Stone, "Machinehead", actually bested them all on the pop airplay chart at #24, but as it was released as a physical single, and as the fifth release sales lag because most every fan had the album, the song stalled right under the pop top-40 at #43, while making it to #4 on both the Mainstream and Alternative rock radio lists.

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Here's the band performing on Howard Stern's show in 1995...

And Gavin live on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno the following year - I think the rest of the band were having visa issues...

That must've been solved by the time of MTV's Spring Break in 1996...

Moving up to 1999 and their stint at Woodstock 99...

In 2012, Gavin invited his wife Gwen Stefani to duet on "Glycerine" at the Christmas show for radio station KROQ, and the result actually made the sales chart, getting to #38 on Billboard's Hot Rock Songs chart, and #16 on the Alternative Singles list...

and lastly, Bush in concert in 2017...

Up tomorrow: R&B diva's eyes are dry.