Songoftheday 8/18/20 - You've got to trust your instinct and let go of regret, you've got to bet on yourself now star 'cause that's your best bet...

 

 

"All Mixed Up" - 311

from the album 311 (1995)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #36 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 7

 

Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band 311, who had scored a huge rock radio hit with their single "Down", which went on to get picked up by mainstream stations in enough numbers to reach the top-40 on Billboard magazine's airplay portion of the official Hot 100 chart in the fall of 1996. For their followup on pop radio the band went back to promote their earlier single "All Mixed Up", which had already reached the Alternative Rock top-5 in the beginning of that year. Written by bandleader and singer/guitarist Nick Hexum along with DJ/vocalist S.A. Martinez, the song lays lyrics about being confused about love and life and their direction as artists over a reggae beat that was jacked up by electric guitars...

Since like "Down", "All Mixed Up" wasn't released as a commercial single in America, the song wasn't able to place on Billboard's Hot 100 list, but it also received enough radio love to make it to the top-40 on the airplay component of that official tally in January of 1997. The song (as mentionned before) peaked at #4 on the Alternative Rock radio list nine months prior. 

Later that year, 311 returned with their next album Transistor. While the album landed their first top ten placing at #4 (the first of nine consecutive top ten studio albums plus a greatest hits set that made #7), none the set's three radio singles made the pop radio chart, with title track "Transistor" doing the best at rock radio, but only maxing at #14 at Alternative Rock and #31 on Mainstream Rock. In 2002, from their sixth album From Chaos, the song "Amber" spent over a half year on the Alternative Rock radio list, peaking at #13, while scoring their first hit on the Adult Top-40 format at #27, and almost reaching the Hot 100, "bubbling under" the official scorecard at #103. Two years later, the band recorded a reggae-rock remake of the Cure's goth-rock classic "Love Song" for the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore romcom 50 First Dates, which gave them their second (and so far most recent) #1 Alternative Rock radio hit, and made the top ten on the Adult Top-40 chart at #7. It also became their first and only Hot 100 hit, peaking at #59 and spending 20 weeks on the list. After that success, 311's next studio album Don't Tread On Me took its title track to #2 on the Alternative Rock list in 2005, with their most recent "bubbling under" pop chart showing at #107.  After a four year break from recording, the band returned with Uplifter, their highest-ranking album at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. Two years later, their next set Universal Pulse was released, with lead single "Sunset In July" their most recent top ten Alternative rock hit at #7 in 2011. With the same lineup since 1992 including lead guitarist Tim Watson, drummer Chad Sexton, and bass player P-Nut Wills, 311 has released three studio album since, with their most recent, Voyager, coming out in 2019, peaking at #18 on the Billboard 200. Lead single "Good Feeling" made the Alternative Rock chart at #35. 

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Here's the band on tour at Red Rocks in Colorado in 1996...

Blake Lewis, one of the most underrated of American Idol finalists, performed "All Mixed Up" on the sixth season of the show...

And lastly, back to 311 live in the SiriusXM radio studio earlier this year...

Up tomorrow: Singing/songwriting/production genius is continuously shutting his lids.