Songoftheday 7/30/20 - I hear the clock, it's 6 a.m., I feel so far from where I've been...

"You Were Meant For Me" / "Foolish Games" - Jewel

from the albums Pieces Of You (1995) and Batman & Robin (Original Soundtrack) (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 60

Today's song(s) of the day come from folk singer/songwriter Jewel, who just missed the top ten on the American pop chart with her debut single "Who Will Save Your Soul?" in the summer of 1996. The second release from her first album was the love ballad "You Were Meant For Me". Written by Jewel with fellow northern folkie Canadian Steve Poltz, the song was much easier for radio for grab on to. Poltz also appears in the music video...

"You Were Meant For Me" became Jewel's biggest hit, spending two weeks at the runner-up position on Billboard magazine's official pop Hot 100 chart in April of 1997. The song topped their Adult Top-40 format list for six weeks, while also taking a week atop their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio tally. It even made her second and last Alternative Rock radio chart hit at #26. Internationally, the song went to #2 in Canada and #3 in Australia, and peaked at #32 in the UK.

Now during the long "chart life" of that song, instead of putting out a new single, the record company decided to take the next radio release, "Foolish Games", which was re-recorded and shortened and used on the soundtrack to the franchise movie Batman & Robin, and put it as the "B-Side" of a re-released single for "You Were Meant For Me", which was still in the top 40. Since Billboard rules at the time counted airplay from both songs on a single, it ended up rebounding, and in no time re-entered the top ten, getting as high as #7 due to the airplay for "Foolish Games", which at that time was the biggest "B-side" radio hit that I can think of...

Besides its rebound on the pop chart, where it crested again in November of 1997, "Foolish Games" topped Billboard's Adult Top-40 radio list for five weeks, while going to #4 on the Adult Contemporary chart. The song also went to #2 in Canada, as it went to #8 in Belgium and #10 in the Netherlands. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for Best Female Pop Performance, which she lost to Sarah McLachlan for "Building A Mystery".

All in all, the combined two songs spent 60 weeks in the Top-40 and 65 weeks in the whole Hot 100, then a record. No other songs would get to radio until her next album.

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Here's Jewel performing "You Were Meant For Me" on Letterman with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers...