Songoftheday 11/15/20 - I could feel at the time there was no way of knowing, fallen leaves in the night who can say where they're blowing...

 

 

"More Than This" - 10,000 Maniacs

from the album Love Among The Ruins (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

 

Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs, who scored the biggest hit single of their career just as they were losing their lead singer Natalie Merchant when their MTV Unplugged live cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Because The Night" missed the pop top ten by one notch in the beginning of 1994.  After Natalie's departure, the band brought back original guitarist John Lombardo along with his cohort Mary Ramsey, whom he had a folk duo with, who became their new lead singer. Their next album Love In The Ruins was released in 1997, with another cover song as the lead single. "More Than This", written by Bryan Ferry, was originally released by his iconic art-rock band Roxy Music in 1982 on their Avalon album. It reached the top ten in the UK at #6, but besides some college rock stations went relatively unnoticed in America...

 

The Maniacs' version sped up the pace to put a dance beat behind Mary's ethereal voice...

 

Their version of "More Than This" became 10,000 Maniacs' second and so far last top-40 pop hit in August of 1997. The song also climbed to #10 on Billboard magazine's Adult Top-40 radio format chart. Internationally, the single peaked at #11 in Canada, and was a minor hit in the UK at #87. The Love Among The Ruins album, released in June of that year, got to #104 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, a big dropoff from their last three top-40 albums, and the band found themselves dropped from the Geffen label after one go. Since then, they have released three more studio albums, the most recent being 2015's Twice Told Tales folk set, as well as a handful of live recordings. Original guitarist Rob Buck died in 2000. Ramsey and Lombardo, who had left the group for a bit, rejoined the current lineup of the group including bassist Steve Gustafson, keyboard player Dennis Drew, and drummer Jerry Augustyniak, all of who had been with the Maniacs since their first album. 

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Here's the original album version of the song, which was much more jangle-pop in production that the "Tee's mix" that was on the single...

Next up is the band performing on Regis and Kathie Lee (with Deborah Norville subbing for KL) to promote the song...

and lastly, in concert in the band's original hometown of Jamestown, New York in 2010...

Up tomorrow: A slightly warm boyband is transparent.