Songoftheday 5/15/20 - Must have been late afternoon, I could tell by how far the child's shadow stretched out....
from the album Pet Your Friends (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #15 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 33
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band Dishwalla, who came together in the early 1990's in the beachfront city of Santa Barbara, California. With lead singer J.R. Richards, guitarist Rodney Cravens, bass player Scot Alexander, and drummer George Pendergast, the group was first heard on the 1994 Carpenters tribute album If I Were A Carpenter, remaking "It's Going To Take Some Time". From that exposure they signed with A&M Records, where they recorded their debut album, Pet Your Friends, which came out in the summer of 1995. While the lead single, "Haze", stiffed, it would be their second try which became their first and biggest hit. "Counting Blue Cars", written by the band with their former keyboardist Greg Kolanek, was another rumination of religion in America, with the twist being a switch in gender of the diving being...
"Counting Blue Cars" became Dishwalla's first and only pop hit, reaching the top 20 on the Hot 100 in August of 1996, and eventually spending 11 months on the list. The song was huge at rock radio, topping the Alternative Rock format chart for a week and spending four weeks at #2 on the Mainstream Rock radio list. The track also made it to #5 on the Adult Top-40 airplay tally. Internationally, the single peaked at #16 in Canada. The Pet Your Friend album reached the top half of the Billboard 200 Album sales chart at #89.
The second single from the record, "Charlie Brown's Parents", was a minor hit on mainstream rock radio at #24, but didn't manage to get noticed anywhere else. A third, "Give", did the opposite, climbing to #26 on the Adult Top-40 format, but ignored by rock stations. In 1998, with new drummer Pete Maloney and keyboardist Jim Wood, the band returned with their sophomore effort, And You Think You Know What Life's About. The record skimmed the lower reaches of the album sales chart at #164, while first single "Once In A While" hit both Mainstream (#17) and Alternative (#20) rock radio. The album was a great piece, with an evolved sound, but the lack of response got them dropped by A&M. The group went indie for their 2002 set Opaline, which spun off their most recent radio hit, "Somewhere In The Middle", which went to #25 on the Adult Top-40 radio list. After a self-titled indie studio album in 2005, Dishwalla split up. But that break didn't last that long, with Cravens, Alexander, and Wood reuniting with Pendergast and hiring on new lead singer Justin Fox, and have released a live album, Christmas music, and their most recent studio album Juniper Road in 2017.
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Here's the band promoting the song on Conan in 1996...
and in concert that same year...
J.R. Richards recorded a solo acoustic version of the track in 2015...
And finally, the reincarnation of Dishwalla with Justin singing on "Counting Blue Cars" in 2017..
Up tomorrow: R&B singer tells you his preferences.
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