Robbed hit of the week 1/2/23 - LFO's "Every Other Time"...

 

 

"Every Other Time" - LFO

from the album Life Is Good (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44 (one week)

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the trio LFO, or "Lyte Funky Ones", who used their pin-up worthy looks to score two top ten pop hits in 1999 with the equally wacky "Summer Girls" and "Girl On TV".  In 2001, Rich Cronin, Brad Fischetti, and Devin Lima returned with their second album on Arista Recods, Life Is Good. The lead single from the set was the mid-tempo ditty "Every Other Time". Written by Cronin with producers Kenny Gioia and Shep Goodman, the song attempts to give a pop-punk vibe like blink-182 and the like while still giving the base single-note hook that's lower-tier boyband. It at least seems like their trying harder this time, but of course with lyrics about a bad girlfriend like "But then I think about the time when we broke up before the prom and you told everyone that I was gay" bring it down (many "pop" songs around that time used that trope). The song got them back on MTV, but since it was probably too much later after their big hits the momentum just wasn't there and their young fanbase had moved on...

While "Every Other Time" went to #8 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Top-40 Airplay chart, the single stalled just under the top-40 on the main Hot 100 chart in September of 2001. The Life Is Good album, released in June of that year, made it to #75 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. After a follow-up single, "Life Is Good", which paired them with rap duo M.O.P. to try to fit in with the changing music landscape, stiffed, they were let go by Arista. They attempted a reunion in the latter part of the decade, but that didn't go anywhere, and since then both Cronin and Lima passed away from cancer eight years apart.

(3/10)