Songoftheday 9/17/22 - Did you sail across the sun? Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded and that Heaven is overrated?

 

 

"Drops Of Jupiter (Tell Me)" - Train

from the album Drops Of Jupiter (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 38

 

Today's song comes from the rock band Train, who first crossed over into the pop top-40 in the beginning of 2000 with "Meet Virginia" from their eponymous debut album. A year later, lead singer Pat Monahan, bassist Charlie Colin, guitarist Rob Hotchkiss, lead guitarist Jimmy Stafford, and drummer Scott Underwood returned with their sophomore effort Drops Of Jupiter. The title track, written by the group and produced by Brendan O'Brien, was released as the lead single. Per Monahan the song was inspired by his mother who passed from cancer, with lyrics having her spirit float in the universe. The seeds of Pat's future stream-of-consciousness foibles are in this with name-checks to Mozart, deep-fried chicken, and soy latte, but thankfully are muted by the grandeur they're trying to sell. What helps best is the use of string arrangements from Paul Buckmaster, who two decades before gave Elton John's work such lush backdrops, and his inclusion definitely carries the weight, especially as the chorus booms in. In return, the track brought rock music back to pop radio in a big way, with the song spending over a year on Billboard magazine's pop Hot 100 chart...

 

 "Drops Of Jupiter" became Train's first top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in June of 2001. The song spent a half year on both the Mainstream (#19) and Alternative (#11) rock radio charts. The track went to #4 at Mainstream Top-40 radio, but the biggest success of the song was on the older-skewing formats, spending fourteen weeks at #1 on both the Adult Top-40 and Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple-A Rock") charts and getting to #8 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list, spending over a year at Adult Top-40 and AC. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in the Netherlands (#5), Australia (#5), Belgium (#5F/#9W), New Zealand (#5), Italy (#7), Denmark (#8), and the United Kingdom (#10). 

 

The Drops Of Jupiter album, released in March of that year, went to #6 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over three million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "Drops Of Jupiter" won for Best Rock Song, as well as one for Buckmaster for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocals. The song lost Record of the Year to U2's "Walk On" and Song Of The Year to Alicia Keys' "Fallin'", while also having U2 snatch the Best Rock Duo/Group Performance for "Elevation". 

 

Train's follow-up single, the Beatle-esque by way of Oasis-esque "Something More", missed the Hot 100, but did "bubble under" the chart at #115.  On the radio, the song made it to #20 at Adult Top-40 stations. A third single, the upbeat love song "She's On Fire", peaked at #21 on that format, and brought the band back to the Mainstream Rock chart for a week at #40. Train will be back to the series.

(8/10)

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There was a different version of the video at the start, which tries to copy the cosmic vibe of the song, but was replaced by the more known take...

Here's the band performing on the British TV show CD:UK...

Train, along with Buckmaster, did "Drops Of Jupiter" at the Grammys where they won two...

Back to the band live on Letterman...

and lastly in concert at the iHeart Radio Theater in 2017...

Up tomorrow: Country star sings about toxic masculinity.