Songoftheday 3/21/20 - I poked my finger down inside make a little room for an ant to hide, nature's candy in my hand or can or a pie...
from the album The Presidents Of The United States Of America (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6
Today's song of the day comes from the pop-punk band from Seattle, The Presidents Of The United States of America (or PUSA for short). The group landed a top-40 pop airplay hit in the fall of 1995 with "Lump". A second cut from their debut, "Kitty", was served up to radio, and it climbed to #13 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock chart, while not being released as a physical single, missed the official Hot 100 pop chart but got to #67 on the Airplay component. ("Kitty" made the top 40 in both Australia and New Zealand.) For the third song, they finally released a commercial single for the quirky rock of "Peaches". Written by lead singer Chris Ballew and produced by Conrad Uno, it became their sole hit on the "big" pop chart...
"Peaches" reached the pop top-40 in America in April of 1996. The song also placed on both the Alternative (#8) and Mainstream (#24) rock radio charts. Internationally, the single went to #1 in Iceland, and made the top ten in the UK (#8) and New Zealand (#9). It also landed in the top-40 in Australia (#13), Canada (#15), Ireland (#17), Sweden (#28), the Netherlands (#29), and France (#34). A fourth single from the record, "Dune Buggy", was absent on the charts in the states, while hitting the top-40 in the UK (#15), Australia (#16), and Ireland (#29).
Later in the fall of 1996, the Presidents returned with their sophomore effort, II. While the album reached the top-40 on the sales chart in America (#31) and the UK (#36), the lead single "Mach 5" only rose to #68 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, while doing modest better at Alternative (#11) and Mainstream (#24) rock radio. The single did better internationally, peaking at #29 in Australia, Canada, and the UK. A second track, "Volcano", was a minor hit in Australia at #55. In 1998 they recorded a cover of the Buggles' 80s classic "Video Killed The Radio Star" for the movie The Wedding Singer, which got to #52 in the UK. By the millennium, the trio split while Ballew settled down with his family. The act reunited twice, first in 2000 where they released two albums before guitarist Dave Dederer left, then again with new guitarist Andrew McKeag for a couple more, their most recent being 2014's Kudos To You!. Not long after Ballew shut down the group for good.
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Here's the Presidents appearing on French TV in 1996...
And live in concert that same year...
And finally, on a Dutch show in 2008...
Up tomorrow: Soul singer slows down a disco classic.
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