Songoftheday 6/15/20 - It's a state of affairs and a state of emotions, the kind of thing that you must understand...
from the albums Blues Traveler (1990), Kingpin (Original Soundtrack) (1996), and Live From The Fall (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: 36 (one week)
Weeks in the Hot 100 Airplay Top-40: 3
Today's song of the day comes from the New Jersey jam-rock band Blues Traveler, whose fourth album Four (natch) had broke them through with mainstream radio, scoring a top ten pop hit with the Grammy-winning single "Run-Around", along with a top-40 follow-up in "Hook". After an extensive tour behind the record, the band released a live album in 1996, Live From The Fall. The double-disc set included a song from their self-titled debut set from 1990, "But Anyway". Written by lead singer John Popper and guitarist Chan Kinchla, the album version of the bouncy jangle-pop nugget would also be used in the Woody Harrelson bowling movie Kingpin. With exposure from the film and radio playing the live version (which Billboard magazine "officially" counted as the prime version in 1996), the song would become the band's next success...
Since "But Anyway" wasn't released as a commercial physical "single", it was unable to place on Billboard's official pop Hot 100 chart. However, it got enough mainstream radio love to spend a few weeks in the top-40 on the Airplay component of that tally in September of 1996. The song was a decent rock radio hit, reaching both the Mainstream (#19) and Alternative (#17) rock format charts. Internationally, the single peaked at #45 in Canada. The Live From The Fall album respectably made the top-40 on the sales chart at #36, a rarity for a live album in those days.
The following year, Blues Traveler returned with their next studio album, Straight On Til Morning. Lead single "Carolina Blues" was a hit at rock radio, becoming the group's biggest single on the Mainstream Rock format at #4, while peaking at #30 at Alternative Rock, but the hard blues didn't get the attention of pop stations. The more radio-friendly "Most Precarious" was promoted as the second "single", and managed to slip on to the Hot 100 Airplay chart at #74, while hitting both the Mainstream (#27) and Alternative (#25) rock lists moderately, and even crossed over to the Adult Top-40 format at #33. The Straight On Til Morning album missed the top ten by a notch at #11. But those two songs would be the band's last radio hits.
The next years would be precarious for the band, with bassist Bobby Sheehan passing away from an overdose in 1999, and after their next album with new members Tad Kinchla (brother of Chad) and keyboardist Ben Wilson, just barely making the top half of the sales chart at #91 with no rock or pop radio interest, they were dropped by A&M/Interscope Records. Going indie, the band has released seven studio album for as many record labels. In 2012, their set Suzie Crack The Whip reached the Billboard sales chart at #91, their most recent appearance. The band's most recent studio album, Hurry Up And Hang Around, was released in 2018.
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This is the original video for the song as their debut single in 1990...
Here's the band performing the song live in concert in 1995 when the Live From The Fall album was recorded...
and again at a show that I think is a punchier performance in 1997...
And finally, from a Jam In The Van radio appearance in 2014...
Up tomorrow: Canadian rocker wants an unforgettable evening.
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