Songoftheday 7/11/20 - I had my world strapped against my back, I held my hands never knew how to act...
from the album Bringing Down The Horse (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #33 (one week)
Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 7
Today's song of the day comes from the mainstream rock band the Wallflowers, who came together under childhood friends Jakob Dylan, the son of music legend Bob, and guitarist Tobi Miller. After gigging in Los Angeles clubs, the group was signed to Virgin Records, where they released their self-titled debut album in 1992. Although the set was critically heralded, and the band opened for a few of the big alternative rock names at the time, the record stiffed at the stores, and the band left Virgin shortly after. Also, basically the whole lineup save for Dylan and keyboardist Rami Jaffee left, with Dylan having to assemble new members to again do the L.A. club circuit. Eventually they band was signed with Interscope, and with producer T-Bone Burnett and some studio ringer help the Wallflowers created their second album Bringing Down The Horse. Lead single "6th Avenue Heartache" was started to be pushed to rock radio in April of 1996, a month before the release of the album. Written by Dylan, the midtempo bar-band rocker featured counterpoint vocals from the Counting Crows' Adam Duritz. This time though, radio responded positively, and the new band found their first airplay hit...
Since "6th Avenue Heartache" wasn't released as a physical commercial single, it was unable to place on Billboard magazine's official pop Hot 100 chart. However the song got enough mainstream radio love to make it into the top-40 of the airplay component of that tally in October of 1996. The track was a big rock radio hit, reaching the top ten on both the Alternative (#8) and Mainstream (#10) Rock radio charts, and crossed over to #26 on the Adult Top-40 format list. Internationally, the single was a top ten success in Canada, reaching #8. The Bringing Down The Horse album peaked at #4 in the U.S., eventually going on to sell over four million copies.
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Here's the band appearing on Letterman performing "6th Avenue Heartache" live...
and lastly, the Wallflowers live in concert in California in 1998...
Up tomorrow: Slippery modern rockers serve up some spiritual narcotics.
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