Songoftheday 7/22/21 - I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend, you could cut ties with all the lies that you've been living in...

 

 

"Jumper" - Third Eye Blind

from the album Third Eye Blind (1997)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 19

 

Today's song of the day comes from the rock group Third Eye Blind, who had already scored a pair of top ten pop hits from their eponymous debut album with "Semi-Charmed Life" and "How's It Going To Be", the latter hitting the mark in the beginning of 1998. Like the album track "Graduate", the breakup song "Losing A Whole Year" was promoted to rock radio without being released as a retail single, and reached #13 on the Alternative Rock radio chart (and #36 on the Mainstream Rock format list) in the spring of that year. The fifth radio offering, and third commercial single, from the debut was "Jumper". Written by lead singer Stephen Jenkins and inspired by a friend of their manager who took their life after being bullied for their sexuality, the song offers an ally's promise of support and protection, if only they would give themselves a chance, even it it means giving them space afterwards to deal with their shame and emotions. It resonated with many a person who suffered bullying in school, and especially the LGBT+ community, who are most prone to it. The song delivered it with enough crunchy guitar hooks to have radio give a tough subject a full go, as did MTV, though the music video really muddies the message a bit...

"Jumper" became the third (and for now the last) top ten pop hit for Third Eye Blind in January of 1999. The song climbed to 9 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock radio chart, and got to #5 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format list. Internationally, the single went to #10 in Canada.

(9/10)

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Here's the band appearing on Letterman to perform "Jumper"..

Next up, live in concert in Philadelphia...

...and at the SXSW festival in 2007...

and lastly, an acoustic take in 2008 for AOL...

Up tomorrow: Alaskan folk gem sings on appendages.