Songoftheday 5/12/21 - Here is the money that I owe you so you can pay the bills, I will give you more when I get paid again...

 

 

"I Will Buy You A New Life" - Everclear

from the album So Much For The Afterglow (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #33 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 7

 

Today's song of the day comes from the alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon, Everclear, who had broken through to the mainstream with a radio hit from their second album Sparkle and Fade, "Santa Monica", which reached the pop airplay top-40 in the U.S. in the spring of 1996. A year later, Art Alexakis, Craig Montoya, and Greg Eklund returned with their third effort, So Much For The Afterglow. The lead radio single, "Everything To Everyone", topped Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock radio chart and #15 on the Mainstream Rock format list, and almost made it into the top-40 on the airplay component of their Hot 100 pop tally, cresting at #43.  The second track promoted to stations was the overpromising "I Will Buy You A New Life". Written by the trio, with Alexakis producing with Neal Avlon, the song has Art singing to the mother of his child from somewhere else, saying he will make things up to her and the baby, knowing the pain of being destitute. He acknowledges her infidelity with passing understanding, but believes he would be better for her in the end. By the end, he tips off that he's apparently not welcome, but wants to secretly get back with her. It's a very real plotline for a pop-punk-ish song in its dealing with relationships, though the music video comes across quite stalkery...

Since "I Will Buy You A New Life" wasn't available as a retail "single", it wasn't able to place on Billboard's official Hot 100 pop chart. However, the track got enough radio love to place in the top-40 on the airplay component of that tally in July of 1998. The song spent four weeks at #3 on the Alternative Rock radio chart, and got to #20 on the Mainstream Rock list as well. It even crossed over to the older-skewing "Adult Top-40" format, making it to #20 and spending a half a year on the chart. Internationally, the single went to #49 in Canada. The So Much For The Afterglow album peaked at #33 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to move over two million copies.

The third song from the record to hit radio, "Father Of Mine", rose to #4 on the Alternative Rock chart, #29 on the Mainstream list, and #23 at the Adult Top-40 format. It originally climbed to #46 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, and briefly appearing on the main Hot 100 when the rules were changed, going as high at #70. (It also got to #50 in Canada.) That was followed by "One Hit Wonder", which made it to #12 on the Alternative Rock radio chart. At the 1999 Grammy Awards, the album track "El Distorto De Melodica" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental, losing out to the Pat Metheny Group for "The Roots Of Conscience". The band will appear in this series again.

(7/10)

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Here's the band doing an in-store appearance (remember those?) at the Tower Records in Atlanta in 1997...

Next up, an acoustic reading from the band on MTV's TRL Live....

This is Everclear in concert in Santa Monica in 2000...

and lastly Art doing a solo turn at the Guitar Center in 2012...

Up tomorrow: R&B backup singer gets the spotlight due to a colleague.