Songoftheday 7/25/20 - You and me we used to be together every day together always, I really feel that I'm losin' my best friend...
"Don't Speak" - No Doubt
from the album Tragic Kingdom (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #1 (16 weeks)
Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 52
Today's song of the day comes from the California pop/rock band No Doubt, whose 1995 breakthrough album Tragic Kingdom had slowly but surely spun off two decent radio hits with "Just A Girl" and "Spiderwebs". But it was the third release that would take the band to another level altogether. "Don't Speak" was originally written by brother/sister members Eric and Gwen Stefani for the album, done as a breezy love song. However, as time went on and Gwen's relationship with bandmate/boyfriend Tony Kanal turned sour, the lyrics completely transformed into one of hurt and pain, as Gwen sings that she can tell the end of the story already. It became their biggest radio "hit", and the biggest song of the year (well, years, as it reached it's apex at the close of 1996 and stayed long into the new one)...
Since "Don't Speak" wasn't released as a physical commercial single (vinyl, cassette, or CD), it was kept from appearing on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, the song was by far the biggest thing on the radio for quite a while, spending four months at #1 on the airplay component of that tally starting in December of 1996. In fact, the undeniable success of that track was one of the factors into the magazine's decision to include radio-only hits on the chart (though that wouldn't come until the end of 1998). "Don't Speak" also spent five weeks at #2 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, and topped their older-skewing Adult Top-40 format list for fifteen weeks. It even crossed over to the "easy listening", or Adult Contemporary chart at #6. Internationally, the single was just as massive, topping the charts in Australia, Belgium (F), Canada, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. It also reached the top ten in Germany (#2), Spain (#2), Austria (#2), France (#4), and Finland (#4). At the Grammy Awards in 1998, "Don't Speak" was nominated for two categories, losing Song of the Year to Shawn Colvin's "Sunny Came Home", and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, which went to Jamiroquai for "Virtual Insanity".
After the huge success of "Don't Speak" at pop radio, where it lasted a year on the airplay chart, the next release to stations, "Excuse Me Mr", got completely overshadowed, and didn't even appear on the list, though it rose to #17 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, while getting to #11 in New Zealand. That was followed by "Sunday Morning", which appeared on the "Mainstream Top-40" airplay chart at #35, but not the main Hot 100 or Hot 100 airplay list. (It did reach the top 40 in Canada, Iceland, and Poland.) Then came "Happy Now?", which completely stiffed everywhere. Lastly, the single "Hey You!" was serviced to Europe, and became a minor hit in the Netherlands at #51.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band performing "Don't Speak" live in concert in 1997...
In 2012, the musical show Glee covered "Don't Speak" naturally on a "break-up" episode, and the cast's version "bubbled under" the Billboard Hot 100 at #123...
Finally, back to No Doubt live at the iHeart Radio Festival that same year...
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