Songoftheday 2/6/20 - Make up your mind, decide to walk with me around the lake tonight...
from the album Rubberneck (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: not eligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #40 (one week)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 1
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band Toadies, who came together in Fort Worth, Texas, in the late 1980s. Led by singer/guitarist Todd Lewis, bassist Lisa Umbarger and a series of drummers and guitarists did the indie route for a little bit before buzz from their EP Pleather attracted Interscope Records who signed them. Adding lead guitarist Darrell Herbert and drummer Mark Reznicek, from there they recorded their debut album Rubberneck, which was released in the summer of 1994. After lead single "Mister Love" (a do-over from their earlier days) stiffed, they started to promote the second radio single "Possum Kingdom" a week after the release of the album. A muddy takeoff on Texan hand-me-down stories sounding half like Nine Inch Nails and half like Weezer was written by Lewis. The track took almost a year to reach rock radio, where it became a fave, and even longer to cross over to mainstream pop stations...
Because "Possum Kingdom" wasn't released as a commercial single, it wasn't able to place on the official pop Hot 100 chart, but it gained enough radio love to just sneak into the airplay top-40 for a week in November of 1995. The song reached the top ten on both the Mainstream (#9) and Alternative (#4) rock radio charts. Lewis and Toadies followed the hit up with "Away", which climbed to #28 on the Alternative Rock and #24 on the Mainstream Rock charts, but failed to make the pop airplay list. The Rubberneck album made it into the top half of the sales chart at #56.
After spending a lot of time touring behind the album, during which Herbert was replaced by Clark Vogeler, the group recorded a sophomore effort, Feeler. However, Interscope shelved it, and by the time they put together a new album in 2001, all their momentum was tanked. Titled Hell Below/Stars Above, lead single "Push The Hand" managed to get to #34 on the Mainstream Rock list, but that was it, and with the album doing half as well. Umbarger left the group, followed by Lewis dissolving Toadies altogether.
In 2008, Lewis, Vogeler, and Reznicek reunited to record a new album, No Deliverance, which landed the band on the top half of the sales chart again at #59, while first single "No Deliverance" put them back on rock radio, peaking at #38 on the Mainstream Rock list. Recruiting new bass player Doni Blair, they have since released four more studio albums (including a re-recorded version of Feeler). Their most recent release, The Lower Side Of Uptown, came out in 2017, popping in at #40 on the independent albums chart.
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Here's an early clip of the song before it was a hit in 1991...
Next up, the band on a TV appearance promoting the single in 1995...
And live in concert in 2008....
and finally, an acoustic version on a radio gig in 2014...
Up tomorrow: A vocal legend breathes again.
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