Songoftheday 2/13/23 - It's time to face and come-on in and join the party, life has been waiting for you to care...

 

 

"Dig In" - Lenny Kravitz

from the album Lenny (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #31 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

 

Today's song comes from rock singer/songwriter/guitarist/producer Lenny Kravitz, who had one of his biggest hits in the beginning of 2001 with a new track on his Greatest Hits album, "Again".  In the autumn of that year Kravitz returned with his sixth studio album Lenny. The lead single from the set was "Dig In", which Lenny wrote and produced by himself. The song is more attitude than storyteller, with generalities about partying or doing something for the world or neither or both. I'm not sure. It's more about the wall of guitar sound and compressed vocals to feign the retro vibe he's coasted on most of his career but with lesser results. It's fine, but I seriously forgot that this song existed until this series, and especially when there are much better songs on the disc that didn't get the attention this one did. Nevertheless, Lenny was still riding on a high from the Greatest Hits, his best-selling record, and at least made it back into the pop top-40...

 

"Dig In" became Lenny's fourth top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in December of 2001. On the radio, the song went to #17 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, #7 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, and made all three rock radio charts - Mainstream (#11), Alternative (#13), and Album Adult Alternative (or "Triple A")  (#2). Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Portugal (#6), Italy (#8), and Spain (#9), and hit the top-40 in Belgium (#17 Flanders). The Lenny album, released in October of that year, peaked at #17 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards, "Dig In" won for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance

The follow-up single to "Dig In" was the far superior track "Stillness Of Heart", which got to #38 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, #7 on the Triple-A Rock format, and #18 on the Adult Top-40 list, but only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #118. There were dance remixes of the record, which helped it reach #13 on the Dance Club Play chart. Overseas, the song made the top-40 in Italy (#16), Belgium (#16 Wallonia), Canada (#22), Switzerland (#31), and Germany (#38), and just missed that level in the United Kingdom at #44. The third offering from the record, "Believe In Me", didn't get any action in the States, but was a decent hit internationally, making the top ten in Portugal (#6), Belgium (#8 Flanders), Italy (#10), and the Netherlands (#10). Lastly, the fuzz guitar-heavy "If I Could Fall In Love", which appeared in the surfing movie Blue Crush, popped on to the Adult Top-40 radio chart in the U.S. for a week at #40, while being a top-40 hit in Italy at #31. The song was nominated for the Grammy in 2004 in the same category "Dig In" won two years before, Best Male Rock Vocal, but lost this time to Dave Matthews for his solo single "Gravedigger" (it was the last year the category was sorted by sex). Kravitz will return to the series.

(5/10)

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Here's a taped live performance for the VH1 Vogue Fashion Awards in 2001...

and finally, live at the iTunes Festival in 2014...

Up tomorrow: Yes, she brings out the snake for this problematically-titled song.