Songoftheday 10/28/21 - We were out on a date in my daddy's car, we hadn't driven very far...

 

 

"Last Kiss" - Pearl Jam

from the album No Boundaries: A Benefit for the Kosovar Refugees (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 15

 

Today's song is from the grunge rock band Pearl Jam, whose fifth studio album Yield had yielded a top-40 crossover pop hit with "Given To Fly" in the beginning of 1998. While touring behind the album, original drummer Jack Irons left, to be replaced by Matt Cameron (formerly of fellow grunge giants Soundgarden). Later that year, the band started to perform a song in concert that would eventually end up their biggest "pop" hit. Lead singer Eddie Vedder, who found the 7 inch single of "Last Kiss" at a consignment store, convinced his bandmates to take it on. 

"Last Kiss" was a "one-hit-wonder" for J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers. Written by soul singer Wayne Cochran, who originally released it as a single on various labels between 1962 and 1963, but didn't get much notice outside his Georgia home. It had a gruesome premise - about a young couple that got into a car accident and has the singer holding his love as they die - kind of like a southern soul "Dead Man's Curve" situation....

Two years later, Texans J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers recorded a cover of "Last Kiss" that wasn't too different from Cochran's, although sporting a much more prominent bassline that anchored the song. It also had to go through being released on multiple labels before catching on, where it went all the way to the runner-up spot on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart in 1964. Sadly ironically, as the song was making waves at radio, the group, driven by producer Sonley Roush, got into an accident, killing Roush and severely injuring Wilson...

 

 

Pearl Jam's version, recorded on a soundcheck during their tour for the Yield album, brings the guitars to the forefront, while Vedder's voice delivers the lyrics faithfully, though his growl is unmistakable. It's a loose recording that was originally sent to their fanclub, but after radio picked it up popular demand caused it to be released as a benefit single, with the proceeds going to the victims displaced by the Kosovan War of the 1990s in southeastern Europe's former Yugoslavia (now Serbia). It also was the centerpiece of an album dedicated to the refugees, No Boundaries, that sported two Pearl Jam songs as well as cuts from Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Sarah McLachlan, Oasis, and more. As the song became a big hit, most of the people of younger age at the time probably had no clue that it was a cover song, but rather an original from the band...

Pearl Jam's "Last Kiss" matched the Cavaliers' peak on the Hot 100 at #2 in June of 1999. The song spent three weeks at #2 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock radio chart, while getting to #5 on the Mainstream Rock format list. It also crossed over to peak at #5 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart. Internationally, the single spent seven weeks at #1 in Australia and six weeks at the top in Iceland. It also made the top ten in Canada (#2) and Belgium (#6F), reached the top-20 in New Zealand (#19), and just missed the top-40 in the UK (#42). The No Boundaries album, released as the single was peaking on the charts in June, climbed to #18 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. 

 

In 2000, the band returned with their next studio album Binaural. Lead single "Nothing As It Seems" was a decent hit at rock radio, spending a week at #3 on the Mainstream Rock chart and going to #10 on the Alternative Rock list, but missed the Hot 100 top-40 at #49. Perhaps fans were waiting for more of a headbanger than the pensive slowness of that song. The Binaural album spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200, but was their first to not sell over a million copies at that time. Another cut from the album, "Grievance", was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance, losing to Rage Against The Machine for their "Guerrilla Radio". Touring behind the album, tragedy struck in Europe where a crowd stampede caused nine deaths. The band paid tribute to those victims on a cut from their next album Riot Act in 2002. The first single from the set, "I Am Mine", hit the top ten on both the Mainstream (#7) and Alternative (#6) rock radio charts, but again stalled under the Hot 100 Top-40 at #43. Internationally, the song did much better, going to #2 in Canada and Portugal, #4 in Italy, #7 in Spain, and #10 in Norway, and reaching the top-40 in Australia (#12), Finland (#20), the UK (#26), Sweden (#29), and Ireland (#35).

 

Leaving their label since their debut, Epic, to move to Clive Davis' J Records imprint (albeit under the same Sony/BMG distribution umbrella), Pearl Jam released their eponymous eighth album in 2006. The lead single from the set, "World Wide Suicide", brought back the frenetic loud energy they had been known for in the past, and the group was rewarded with a #1 hit on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, while just missing the Hot 100 top-40 at #41.  That would be their only release on that label, which closed doors in 2011.

The band re-issued their debut breakthrough album Ten with new previously unreleased tracks in 2009. One of those songs, "Brother", topped Billboard's Alternative Rock radio chart for two weeks, their most recent #1. Later that year, Pearl Jam put out Backspacer, which topped the Billboard 200 for a week. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album, which modern rock giants Muse took home for The Resistance. Also, lead single "The Fixer", which reached the top ten on both the Alternative (#3) and Mainstream (#10) rock radio charts, got the nod for Best Rock Song, which went to Kings of Leon for the massive crossover hit "Use Somebody". Another cut from the set, "Just Breathe", went to #1 on Billboard's Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) rock radio format chart and #20 on the Adult Top-40 list. Their 2013 follow-up, Lightning Bolt, did win a Grammy, for the Best Recording Package (for the cover and sleeve materials), and scored their fifth #1 on the Billboard 200. Second single "Sirens" placed on the Hot 100 at #76, their most recent appearance to date, while topping the Triple-A Rock radio chart and #34 on the Adult Top-40 radio rundown. In 2017, Pearl Jam was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.

The band's most recent studio album, Gigaton, was released in 2020, reaching #5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. Two of its tracks made the top ten on the Triple-A Rock chart: "Dance Of The Clairvoyants" (#2) and "Retrograde" (#9), while "Superblood Wolfmoon" went to #4 on the Mainstream Rock format list. In 2019, the band finally released their MTV Unplugged album from their 1992 appearance on the show, and went to #47 on the Billboard 200. Eddie Vedder, who had previously released two solo albums with Ukelele Songs in 2011 hitting #4 on the Billboard 200, is currently in the top ten at Triple-A rock radio for "Long Way", from his upcoming Earthling album. The band is still together, and played in Asbury Park last month.

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Besides the versions from J Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers and Pearl Jam, Canadian band Wednesday made the American top-40  in 1974 (and #2 in their native Canada) with their take on the song, which sounds a bit clinical Beach Boys pastiche-like...

 

 Back to Pearl Jam performing the song live at a charity concert in 1999...

next up, to an arena full of fans....

and finally, another show for the Bridge school, with just Eddie and his guitar...

Up tomorrow: One of the biggest hits of 1999 gets an answer record.