Songoftheday 5/15/23 - Hey don't write yourself off yet it's only in your head, you feel left out or looked down on...

 

 

"The Middle" - Jimmy Eat World

from the album Bleed American (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 26

 

Today's song comes from the pop-punk rock band Jimmy Eat World, who came together in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa in the early 1990s, with singer/guitariist Jim Adkins and drummer Zach Lind joining bass player Mitch Porter and guitarist/singer Tom Linton. After releasing an extended play single (1993's One Two Three Four) and an album Jimmy Eat World independently a year later on the Wooden Blue label, the group was signed to Capitol Records. In 1996, after Porter left and was replaced by Rick Birch, they put out Static Prevails, which didn't make any charts, nor did first single "Call It In The Air". After a second album Clarity in 1999 did the same, they were dropped. 

The band took on regular jobs to help fund the recording of their next album, which would eventually come out on Dreamworks Records in the summer of 2001, Bleed American, which would initially be released as Jimmy Eat World post 9/11. The title track "Bleed American" was released as the lead single, and was their first radio hit, reaching #18 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock chart. But it would be the second effort that would gift Jimmy Eat World their first and biggest pop hit. "The Middle", written by Adkins, Linton, Lind, and Birch, has Adkins singing to a woman about how despite the circumstances she is worthy, though according to the band it was them giving themselves a pep talk after the troubles on Capitol. But it was the punchy chorus and guitar crunch that won over fans, and mainstream radio to boot. MTV was all over the music video, with its stalkerish look at a teen underwear party that's been legend but never observed in the wild, though the subtle Mormon messaging creeps through at the end...

"The Middle" became Jimmy Eat World's first and only top-40 hit on Billboard's Hot 100, reaching the top ten in June of 2002. On the radio, the song peaked at #4 on the Mainstream top-40 chart, took ten weeks at #2 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, spent four weeks at #1 on the Alternative Rock list, and slipped in at #39 on the Mainstream Rock counterpart. Internationally, the single made the top-40 in the United Kingdom (#26) and New Zealand (#29). The Bleed American album, released in July of 2001, eventually climbed to #31 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending 70 weeks on the list and selling over a million copies.

The third single from the album, "Sweetness", was another successful hit on rock radio, taking a month at #2 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, while slipping on to the Adult Top-40 chart for a week at #40 and got to #75 on the Hot 100. That was followed by "A Praise Chorus", which interpolated a handful of rock classics in the backup vocals, which went to #16 on the Alternative Rock chart.

 

In 2004, after Dreamworks was folded into Interscope Records, Jimmy Eat World released their next album Futures which zoomed in at #6 on the Billboard 200, selling over a half million copies. The first single from the set, "Pain", landed a second #1 on the Alternative Rock chart, but stalled all the way down at #93 on the Hot 100. That was followed by Chase The Light in 2007, which was their highest rank on the Billboard 200 at #5, with the big single "Big Casino" spending four weeks at #3 on the Alternative Rock chart, while "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #122. A final disc on the label, 2010's Invented, just missed the Billboard 200 top ten at #11, while its lead single "My Best Theory" took a week at #2 on the Alternative Rock chart and again "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #114.

Despite those top ten placings, the band left Interscope and in time settled in with RCA Records, releasing Damage (along with DGC Records) in 2010, which hit #14 on the Billboard 200.  Their second on RCA, Integrity Blues, brought Jimmy Eat World back to the Alternative top ten at #10 with "Sure and Certain" in 2016. Their most recent studio release on the label, Survivng, arrived in 2019, peaking at #90 on the Billboard 200, with single "Love Never" making it to #31 on the Alternative Rock radio chart. 

Since then the band has released three live sets in 2021 under the Phoenix Sessions title. 

(8/10)

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Here's the band performing on The Tonight Show...

Next up, live in Germany in 2014...

and lastly, in Scotland in 2022...

Up tomorrow: Soul singer gets frisky in the sack.