Songoftheday 3/28/20 - I am still living with your ghost, lonely and dreaming of the west coast...
from the album Sparkle and Fade (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #29 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from the power-pop rock group Everclear, who came together in the early 1990s in Portland, Oregon, after lead singer/guitarist Art Alexakis moved there after flopping out in San Francisco. recruiting two members from want ads, bass player Craig Montoya and drummer Scott Cuthbert, the trio released an EP and their first indie album World Of Noise in 1993. With the buzz from that set, and replacing Cuthbert with Greg Eckland, the new lineup signed to Capitol to record their major-label debut Sparkle and Fade. The first single from the record, "Heroin Girl", was a bleak reference to both Alexakis' girlfriend and brother, both who died from overdose. While it became their first rock radio success, climbing to #34 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock radio chart, the song was way too loud and dark to carry over to mainstream stations. That changed with their second release, "Santa Monica (Watch The World Die)", which had just as much angst in the title but a much more melodic and standard structure. Written by Alexakis, Montoya, and Eckland with Art producing the record, the song alluded to that girlfriend's end as well as his own attempt at ending his life, all to a volley of chiming guitars not unlike Green Day's "When I Come Around"...
Since "Santa Monica" wasn't released as a commercial single, it was unable to place on Billboard's official pop Hot 100 chart, but it got enough mainstream radio action to rise to #29 on the radio airplay component of that list. The song was huge at rock radio, where it spent three weeks at #1 as their biggest success at Mainstream Rock, while also going to #5 on the Alternative Rock list. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Australia (#25), New Zealand (#27), Canada (#40), and the UK (#40). A third release from the record, "Heartspark Dollarsign", was put out as a single in America, where it rose to #85 on the Hot 100, while going to #13 at Mainstream Rock and #29 at Alternative Rock, and was a top-40 hit in Australia at #40. A fourth single, "You Make Me Feel Like A Whore" was put out, but it was to much for radio at that time and it stiffed, though MTV gave the video love, and helped the Sparkle and Fade album peak at #25 on the Top 200 Albums sales chart and sell over a million copies.
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Here's the trio on a TV appearance promoting the single...
and another TV gig the following year...
Next up is the band at Woodstock 99...
and finally, Art solo and acoustic in 2013...
Up tomorrow: We're introduced to that bubbly blonde with the squeaky voice, no doubt.
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