Songoftheday 10/4/20 - Look at all that shines, baby's down on the world and she knows it...

 

 

"Elegantly Wasted" - INXS

from the album Elegantly Wasted (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #27 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 7

 

Today's song of the day comes from the Australian rock band INXS, whose album Welcome To Wherever You Are had spun off a top-40 pop hit with "Not Enough Time" in the fall of 1992. A year later, keeping producer Mark Opitz on board, the group released their ninth studio album, and last one with Atlantic Records, Full Moon, Dirty Hearts. While a top ten success in their native Australia and the UK, the set fell flat in the U.S., with one song making the Alternative Rock top ten in "The Gift" (#6), but nothing from the record made the pop chart here. After a four year break, INXS re-emerged with their first set with Mercury, Elegantly Wasted. The title track and lead single "Elegantly Wasted", written by lead singer Michael Hutchence and bandmate Andrew Farriss, continued their debaucherous streak of sexy rockers about the high life. It was a step up from the disjointed noise of "The Gift", and radio responded favorably...

 

 Since "Elegantly Wasted" wasn't released as a commercial single (most likely to try to goose sales of the album), it wasn't able to place on Billboard magazine's official pop Hot 100 chart. However the track got enough mainstream radio love to make the top-40 of the airplay component of that tally in April of 1997. The song was another decent rock radio hit, making both the Alternative (#13) and Mainstream (#37) Rock charts, while crossing over to climb to #13 on their Adult Top-40 format list. Internationally, the single was huge in Canada, spending three weeks at #1, while also reaching the top-40 in Belgium (#7F), Iceland (#7), the UK (#20), and Switzerland (#36). The Elegantly Wasted album criminally just missed the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales chart in the States, peaking at #41.

A second single from the album, "Everything", was a minor hit in the UK at #71, while another cut, "Don't Lose Your Head", popped on to the Australian list at #94. However neither song made any big stamp in America, even with the latter being used in the John Travolta/Nicholas Cage movie Face/Off. But sadly, things took an even worse turn when Hutchence was found dead in a hotel room from a drug overdose in November of 1997. It would be eight years and two replacements later for the band to return to the American top-40. 

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Here's INXS appearing on Letterman to promote the album in 1997...

and live in concert in Aspen in 1997...

Up tomorrow: Rap king puts a spell on you.