Songoftheday 4/23/21 - I will be king and you will be queen, though nothing will drive them away...

 

 

"Heroes" - The Wallflowers

from the album Godzilla: The Album (Original Soundtrack) (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #27 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 7

 

Today's song of the day comes from the Wallflowers, the rock band led by Bob Dylan's son Jakob. Their second album Bringing Down The Horse was their big breakthough in 1996, spinning off three big pop radio hits in "6th Avenue Heartache", "The Difference", and the Grammy-winning top ten airplay single "One Headlight".  Two years later, the group contributed a song to the soundtrack of the reboot of the iconic monster movie Godzilla starring Matthew Broderick. It was the lead cut on the record, and a cover of one of the most iconic alternative rock songs of all time. "Heroes", written by David Bowie and Brian Eno, was the title track of the "Thin White Duke"'s twelfth album in 1977. Despite being a commercial "flop", stalling at #24 in his native Britain and not even making the charts in America, the song grew enough of a following that it remains one of his cornerstone classics...

With such an beloved song so identified with an artist, it took a lot of self-worth (and balls) to try to cover it for a radio single. But hey, it's the son of one of the most revered artists in American music, so I guess nothing to lose? The Wallflowers' take on "Heroes" doesn't stray musically from the original at all, with its loud and crowded instrumentation, but instead of David wailing with all his might to get thru the din, Jakob's sardonic drone ably but unfeelingly rides the groove. It's not bad, it just seems unnecessary, and I'm definitely missing Bowie here...

Since the Wallflowers' "Heroes" wasn't released as a commercially available single, it wasn't able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, their track got enough radio love to return them to the top-40 of the airplay component of that tally in May of 1998. The song got a much better reception on rock radio, reaching the top ten on the Mainstream (#4),  Alternative (#9), and Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) (#3) Rock radio charts. It even crossed over to the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format list at #20. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in Canada (#13), Iceland (#21), and Australia (#38). The Godzilla tie-in album, which was released that same month, spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to move over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 1999, they were nominated for Best Rock Duo/Group Performance, which went to Aerosmith for "Pink". 

Despite the massive success of Bringing Down The Horse as well as the warm reception for this cover, it took another two years before the band would re-emerge with a third album, (Breach). The record's lead single, "Sleepwalker", was a modest rock radio hit (#26 Mainstream and #31 Alternative), and climbed to #21 on the Adult Top-40 list, but stalled all the way down at #73 on the pop Hot 100 in 2000. (It did go to #1 on the Triple-A Rock format.) That was followed in 2002 with Red Letter Days, which contained "When You're On Top", which did again top the Triple-A Rock chart, and was their most recent Adult Top-40 hit at #33. Three years later brought Rebel Sweetheart, their fourth and last disc with Interscope Records, with all reaching the top-40 on the Billboard 200, and "The Beautiful Side Of Somewhere" getting to #4 at Triple-A rock radio. Switching to Columbia Records, the band put out their sixth effort Glad All Over. Lead single "Reboot The Mission", featuring Mick Jones of the Clash, climbed to #2 on the Triple-A list in 2012. That was followed by "Love Is A Country" which just missed the top ten at Triple-A at #11, and is their most recent radio hit. Jakob and the group are expected to return with their next release, Exit Wounds, in July of 2021.

(4/10)

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Here's the band performing "Heroes" live in concert in 1998...

Up tomorrow: Two young soul singers fight over possession.