Robbed hit of the week 11/21/22 - Matchbox Twenty's "Mad Season"...

 

 

"Mad Season" - Matchbox Twenty

from the album Mad Season (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #48

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the mainstream rock band Matchbox Twenty, whose second album Mad Season had already spun off a #1 pop hit in the summer of 2000 with "Bent", followed by a top-5 followup "If You're Gone" that was hugely successful on "adult pop" radio.  Another track from the album, "Crutch", made it on to the new Adult Alternative (or "Triple-A") rock radio format, reaching #20 on that chart in Billboard magazine in the late fall of 2000. The third single promoted to pop radio was the album's title track "Mad Season". Written by lead singer Rob Thomas and produced by the group's frequent collaborator Matt Serletic, the song came from a place where Thomas though they may have been a "one-hit wonder", and threat of a "sophomore slump" was quite real. Baring his insecurities, the lyrics could be interpreted in that aspect or in a romantic setting, where being unsure is quite damn common. But the result isn't quite as strong as some of their established hits, with the harder Beatles-esque stomp not completely memorable, but it's certainly well-crafted musically, and the chorus has a nice transition. The music video recreated the original intention of the lyrics overly, recreating the Beatles landing in America at the airport scene, with the too-blatant "rock star" necklaces and totally weird dance interlude...

While "Mad Season" did well at the older "Adult Top-40" radio format, peaking at #5, and #20 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, the song stalled a couple blips above the halfway point on the Hot 100 chart in June of 2001. Perhaps the lack of rock radio airplay kept it right outside the pop top-40. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand at #34, but just missed it in neighboring (and bigger) Australia at #42, while it was just a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #76. 

A fourth single from Mad Season, "Last Beautiful Girl", climbed to #20 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 chart, but only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #113.

(5/10)

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Here's the group performing the song on their VH1 Storytellers episode in 2001...

 

 

 and lastly, in concert in 2003...