Songoftheday 12/2/20 - You come out at night that's when the energy comes, and the dark side's light and the vampires roam...

 

 

"Building A Mystery" - Sarah McLachlan

from the album Surfacing (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (four weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan, who grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada, before moving to Vancouver to start her music career. Signed to the Canadian alt-dance-heavy label Nettwerk, Sarah released her debut album, Touch, in 1988 when she was turning twenty years old. The record entered the Billboard 200 sales chart a year later, going to #132 and eventually selling over a half-million copies, while in her home county entered at #61 to sell over 100,000. One track from that album, "Steaming", became her first charting single, rising to #38 on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart. Her sophomore effort, Solace, came in 1991, and reached the top-20 on the Canadian Albums sales list and landed McLachlan's first Canadian Top-40 hit, "The Path Of Thorns" (CAN #24). A second single from the set, "Into The Fire", also made the top-40 there at #30, while becoming her first big radio success in the States, climbing all the way to #4 on Billboard's Alternative Rock radio chart. Two years later, Sarah returned with her third disc, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, which was where her popularity grew exponentially. Lead single "Possession" also climbed to #4 on the Alternative Rock chart, and the album reached the top quarter of the American album sales chart at #50, going on to sell over three million copies. Another song from it, "Good Enough", gave Sarah her first top ten single in Canada at #9, while peaking at #16 at Alternative Radio and #77 on the pop Hot 100 in the U.S.. Fumbling was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Rock Album, losing to Green Day's pop-punk masterpiece Dookie. In 1995, Sarah contributed a song to the movie The Brothers McMullen; the result, "I Will Remember You", was a decent hit, scoring a second top ten hit in Canada at #10, while in the States, spent five months on the pop chart peaking at #65, and making both the Adult Contemporary (#21) and Adult Top-40 (#37) radio format lists.

All this building momentum carried through for McLachlan's fourth release, Surfacing, in 1997. The lead single from the record, "Building A Mystery", was written by Sarah with producer and frequent collaborator Pierre Marchand. Describing the veils we wear to hide our flaws and worries from the world to appear more attractive was quite the universal consensus, and her emotional yet restrained vocals portray the seething hurt and shame within, while exuding a glow for self-survival I definitely quite can relate to...

"Building A Mystery" became Sarah's first top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in October of 1997. The song also spent a week at #3 on Billboard's Alternative Rock radio chart, while peaking at #4 on their Adult Top-40 format list. It also rose to #28 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio tally. Internationally, the single was her biggest hit in her homeland by far, spending two months (eight weeks) at #1 on the Canadian singles chart, and was a top-40 hit in Iceland at #23. The Surfacing album came in at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales list (eventually selling over eight million copies in the U.S.), while topping the Canadian counterpart. At the Grammy Awards in 1998, "Building A Mystery" won the away for Best Female Pop Vocal, while another track from the album, "Last Dance", also won for best Pop Instrumental Performance. The Surfacing album was up for Best Pop Album, which went to James Taylor for his Hourglass record.

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Here's Sarah performing the song on Canada's version of MTV, MuchMusic, in 1997...

And live in concert on her Mirrorball tour/album in 1999...

Again on a show from Sarah's Afterglow shows in 2004...

This is a more restrained take on Sirius radio...

and lastly, at Boulder's famous Red Rocks with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra...

Up tomorrow: New Orleans rapper takes account of his losses.