Songoftheday 8/6/20 - I would die for you I would die for you, I've been dying just to feel you by my side to know that you're mine ...

"#1 Crush" - Garbage

from the album William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: Music From The Motion Picture (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #29 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 10

Today's song of the day comes from the modern rock band Garbage, who landed a top-40 pop hit in America with the fourth single from their self-titled album, "Stupid Girl" in the late summer/early fall of 1996. Later that year, the group recorded a song for the soundtrack to the film treatment of Shakespeare's classic Romeo & Juliet done by director/writer Baz Luhrmann.starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as the ill-fated titular couple. Graced with a kaleidoscope of musical styles more hip to younger audiences, the album was kicked off by Garbage's "#1 Crush". Written by the band, it was originally recorded but relegated to being a "B-side" on a couple of their singles and kept from the album for its ambiguously dark and possibly self-harming themes. However, those are the themes that Romeo & Juliet is made of, and once the soundtrack came out, it quickly overshadowed their current single from their debut "Milk". Even though their label wouldn't let it be released as a commercial single (they were loaned out to Capitol for it), it got a ton of radio love for the new remix done by Nellee Hooper that sampled Madonna's "Bedtime Story"...

Since the new version of "#1 Crush" wasn't released to record stores commercially, it was not able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, the song was popular enough at mainstream stations to spend over two months on the airplay component of the chart in January of 1997. Meanwhile, the track spent a month (4 weeks) at #1 on Billboard's Alternative Rock format chart. Internationally, the single went to #2 in Iceland, and #20 in Canada. The Romeo + Juliet soundtrack, which also featured "Lovefool" from the Cardigans, rose to #2 on the Billboard 200 sales chart.

Later that year in the spring of 1997, Shirley Manson, Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson released their sophomore album, Garbage 2.0. Lead single "Push It" became their second top ten hit in the UK at #9, while in America it stalled down at #52. However, the song got to #5 at Alternative Rock radio in the U.S., one of four rock radio hits from the album. It was their first and so far only #1 album in the UK (it went to #13 in America), and at the 1999 Grammy Awards, Garbage 2.0 was nominated for both Best Rock Album and the coveted Album Of The Year (losing the former to Sheryl Crow and the latter to Lauryn Hill's solo debut). Third single "Special" was the biggest hit from the set, scoring their biggest Adult Top-40 radio hit at #16, just missing the Alternative Rock format chart top ten at #11, and landing also at #52 on the Pop Hot 100. The following year's Grammys saw Garbage get two more nominations for "Special", for Best Rock Song (which went to the Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Best Rock Duo/Group Performance (which Santana and Everlast stole that year). Three of the singles from 2.0 became dance hits, with "When I Grow Up" doing their best on that list at #4.  Also in 1999, Garbage became one of the very few bands to record a theme songs for a James Bond movie, this time for "The World Is Not Enough". While it didn't make an impression on American shores, the song was a decent hit internationally, going to #1 in Iceland and just missing the top ten in England at #11.

Fighting to change labels after the collapse of Almo Records, the band signed with Interscope, and recorded their third disc Beautiful Garbage. However its scheduled release around September 11 was driven to chaos with the tragedy that dominated everyone's life and news, and lead single "Androgyny" stiffed here on American radio. It did better internationally, with the album spinning off four top-40 hits in the UK, including "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go)", which is their first and only top ten hit in Australia so far. After almost splitting up, the group re-emerged in 2003 with their fourth disc, Bleed Like Me. First single "Why Do You Love Me" put them back into the top ten on both the British singles chart at #7 and the Alternative Rock chart at #8, while skirting the pop Hot 100 at #94 (their most recent appearance). Second single "Bleed Like Me" landed a top ten Dance Club Play showing at #6. But even though the record was their first top ten effort and highest ranking set at #4, interpersonal tension in the band caused them to cut their tour short and put Garbage on ice in 2005, though they briefly got back in 2007 for new songs for a greatest hits collection, with "Tell Me Where It Hurts" making the UK chart at #50 (their most recent showing there).

Garbage made a proper return in 2012, reuniting for a fifth album, Not Your Kind Of People. Lead track "Blood For Poppies" hit #17 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart. Still with their original lineup, the band's most recent album, Strange Little Birds, was released in 2016, reaching #14 in the U.S. and #17 in the UK. "Empty", the single from the record, went to #39 on Billboard's Alternative Rock list.

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Now here's how the original version of "#1 Crush" sounded as the B-side to their single "Vow"...

Next up, the band live in concert in 1998...

and for a show in 2012...

and finally, the band on a radio gig in 2015...

Up tomorrow: C'mon and ride the train into the heavens for some B-Ball.