Songoftheday 6/26/22 -I think you're already leaving feels like your hand is on the door, I thought this place was an empire now I'm relaxed I can't be sure...

 

 

"If You're Gone" - Matchbox Twenty

from the album Mad Season (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 34

 

Today's song comes from the pop/rock group Matchbox Twenty, who landed their first (and only) Hot 100 #1 hit in the summer of 2000 with "Bent" coming off lead singer Rob Thomas' #1 smash with Santana "Smooth".  The second single pulled from their sophomore album Mad Season was the somber mid-tempo track "If You're Gone". Written by Thomas and produced by Matt Serletic, the song starts out slow, with Rob addresses his romantic partner about how unsure he is about the relationship. By the chorus, he's begging them to stay, and in the bridge a brass section comes in like it's a Chicago record from the 80's. However couplets like "And I think you're so mean, I think we should try" make little sense in all of this, but perhaps its the crazy thoughts going around his head, maybe it's just words put together to sound good. The music video has my anxiety on edge as they perform on a rooftop...

"If You're Gone" rose to the pop top five in America in January of 2001. The song topped Billboard magazine's older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart for thirteen weeks (matching "Bent") and spent three weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list, racking up 95 weeks on the tally. It also climbed to #5 on Billboard's Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple-A") Rock radio chart. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in New Zealand (#12), Australia (#18), Canada (#27), and Ireland (#36), while stopping at #50 on the British Singles chart.

 

During the time that "If You're Gone" was hitting radio, another cut from the album, "Crutch", also made the Triple-A rock radio chart, peaking at #20.  The "official" third single from Mad Season, title track "Mad Season", climbed to #5 on the Adult Top-40 radio chart, but stalled down at #48 on the pop Hot 100, while being a top-40 hit in New Zealand at #34. That was followed by "The Last Beautiful Girl", which made it to #20 on the Adult Top-40 radio list, and "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #113. Matchbox Twenty will return to the series.

(7/10)

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Here's the band performing the hit on Letterman...

Next up, in concert...

The group included "If You're Gone" on their VH1 Storytellers episode in 2001..

And lastly, bandmates Rob Thomas and Kyle Cook doing a COVID quarantine Zoom-in...

Up tomorrow: Rapper requests your reveries.