Robbed hit of the week 9/28/20 - Sublime's "Santeria"...

 

 

"Santeria" - Sublime

from the album Sublime (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #43

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the reggae-punk band Sublime, whose breakthrough hit radio single, "What I Got", was bittersweet, coming after the death of lead singer Brad Nowell. The second song from the group's self-titled 1996 album to be promoted to radio was the lilting "Santeria". Written by Nowell with bandmates Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson, the track described the singer losing his girlfriend, and even though she's replaced he has ill will towards the new guy...

Since "Santeria" wasn't released as a commercial single (like "What I Got"), it wasn't able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However the song got enough mainstream radio love to almost get to the top-40 on the airplay component of the tally in April of 1997. The track was huge on rock radio, spending six weeks at #3 on their Alternative Rock chart, while getting to #38 on their Adult Top-40 radio format list. Internationally, the single got to #90 in Canada.

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Here's Sublime with new singer Rome doing "Santeria" for a webcast gig in 2015...