Songoftheday 6/3/22 - Well, I just heard the news today, it seems my life is going to change...

 

 

"With Arms Wide Open" - Creed

from the album Human Clay (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 29

 

Today's song comes from the hard rock band Creed, who had taken their spirituality-lite anthem "Higher" on to the radio and into the pop top ten in America in the summer of 2000. The second single from the record, the hard-edge "What If", was used prominently in the horror spoof film Scream 3, and was a big hit on rock radio, spending a week at #3 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock chart and peaking at #15 on the Alternative Rock format list, but only "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #102. (It's my favorite track on the album, but it wasn't promoted at pop radio which was heavy into "Higher" at the time.)

The third release from the album, and second promoted to pop stations, was the big "power-ballad" on the record, "With Arms Wide Open". Written by lead singer Scott Stapp and lead guitarist Mark Tremonti, the song has a simple premise. Inspired by the news of his wife's pregnancy with their first child, it's a contemplation on manning up and making a family, along with the fears the kid will be like him. There's not much lyrical input here, it's all emotion in his bullhorn of a baritone, but its simplicity did the trick, and the record became their biggest hit (and possibly biggest curse). The music video dials the bombastic drama up to eleven, in some sort of apocalypse/Lord of the Rings fantasy dreamscape Stapp mugs and Jesus-poses through...

"With Arms Wide Open" spent a week at #1 on Billboard's pop Hot 100 in November of 2000, eventually spending a hefty 47 weeks on the list. The song topped the older-skewing Adult Top-40 chart for eight weeks, while even making the serene Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list at #29. On rock radio, it spent four weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, four weeks at #2 on the Alternative Rock list, and got to #6 on the Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple A") format. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Canada (#2), Iceland (#2), Australia (#4), Norway (#6), Portugal (#10), and New Zealand (#10), while peaking at #13 in the UK. At the Grammy Awards in 2001, Stapp and Tremonti won the awards for Best Rock Song, while the band was nominated for Best Duo/Group Rock Performance with Vocals, losing to U2 for their equally brash "Beautiful Day". 

A fourth song from the Human Clay album, "Are You Ready?", was a decent rock radio hit, going to #4 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #37 at Alternative Rock radio, but barely "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #125. Creed will be back to the series.

(6/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Creed performed "With Arms Wide Open" live on The Tonight Show...

The band brought a string section for their appearance on VH1's short-lived My Music Awards show in 2000...

Here they are in concert in 2009...

and lastly, a stripped down version for iHeartRadio that same year...

Up tomorrow: This rapper gets to some booty-movin'.