Songoftheday 8/21/20 - I know what you're doing I see it all too clear, I only taste the saline when I kiss away your tears
"Barely Breathing" - Duncan Sheik
from the album Duncan Sheik (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 42
Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Duncan Sheik, who hails from Montclair, New Jersey. Sheik released his self-titled debut album in the summer of 1996, with the first single from the record, "Barely Breathing" arriving not until November. A midtempo song about the pains of loving someone who is indifferent to it, still had enough of an positive vibe on the production that fooled many a casual listener, who might not have gotten the sour tone of the lyrics...
"Barely Breathing" became Duncan's first and only top-40 pop hit in May of 1997, barely making the top 20 but staying on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for over a year, at the time one of the longest stays on the list. The song spent a week at #2 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 radio chart, while making it to #19 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list. The track also topped the Triple-A (or "Adult Album Alternative") airplay tally as well. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Canada (#12) and Iceland (#40). The Duncan Sheik album climbed to #83 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, going on top sell over a half million copies. At the 1998 Grammy Awards, "Barely Breathing" was nominated for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance, losing out to Elton John's dirge "Candle In The Wind 1997".
The second single from the debut was "She Runs Away", which peaked at #24 on the Adult Top-40 chart and #17 at Triple-A Rock, but missed the pop Hot 100 entirely (probably hindered by the lingering success of the previous single). A third released from the record, "Reasons For Living", sported remixes from Johnny Vicious which helped it rise to #3 on Billboard's Dance Club Play tally.
A year later, Sheik recorded a song for the Ethan Hawke/Gwyneth Paltrow film adaptation of the classic novel Great Expectations. Released as a single, "Wishful Thinking" just missed the pop chart, "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #103. Later in 1998, he returned with his sophomore effort, Humming, which was a bit more experimental in nature, including the London Symphony Orchestra in parts. The record made the Billboard 200 sales list at #163, but radio passed on anything from the set. His next release, Phantom Moon, was even more esoteric, a collaborative album released on art label Nonesuch Records with playwright Steven Sater, and inspired by the works of British indie-folk artist Nick Drake.
Coming back to Atlantic Records for his next album, Daylight, which also saw Duncan return to straightforward but brainy pop music. Lead single "On A High" rose to #21 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 radio list in 2002, while the remixes of the song scored Sheik his sole #1 Dance Club Play hit. Since then Duncan has put out four more studio albums, his most recent being Legerdemain in 2015. But his fame and success grew even more from his work on the Broadway stage, penning a series of musicals including the Tony-winning show Spring Awakening in 2006, which he wrote with Sater. He finally won a Grammy Award in 2008 for the cast recording of the piece.
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Here's Duncan performing "Barely Breathing" live on Letterman in 1997...
and live in concert in New York...
Up tomorrow: A flighty rock band has a hell of a month.
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