Songoftheday 7/24/23 - I'm lyin' here on the floor where you left me, I think I took too much...

 

 

"Just Like A Pill" - Pink

from the album Missundaztood (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

 

Today's song comes from P!nk, whose sophomore album Missundaztood had already spun off two top ten hits with "Get The Party Started" and "Don't Let Me Get Me", The third offering from the record had the singer drift even more from the R&B posturing of her debut.  "Just Like A Pill" was a rock-styled emotional track, but it was produced and co-written by Pink with Dallas Austin, who worked with L.A. Reid and Babyface and was known at the time more for his work with TLC and Boyz II Men. The lyrics frame her previous troubles with drugs and the psychological issues that led to and were caused by addiction, but cached in imagery of a more romantic relationship. But there's no questioning what the original intent was here. It's an intensely powerful song for an offering to pop radio, but Austin and Pink deliver a melodic package that serves up the message in an accessible artful way. And for such an exposing personal piece it must have been a relief to see it accepted by pop radio and the public, continuing her momentum. The music video furthers her self-realization by eschewing the fake hair color to her natural darker tone, and there's quite a bit of LGBT imagery inserted in the fast-edited shots...

"Just Like A Pill" became the third top ten pop hit from Misundaztood in August of 2002. On the radio, the song peaked at #2 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, got to #19 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 station list, and went to #34 on the dance-R&B oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single topped the radio charts in Canada and Poland, hit #1 on the singles chart in the United Kingdom, and reached the top ten in Germany (#2), Austria (#2), Ireland (#2), New Zealand (#2), Croatia (#2), Sweden (#5), Belgium (#5 Flanders/#19 Wallonia), Switzerland (#6), Hungary (#6), the Netherlands (#7), Norway (#7), and Denmark (#10). It also made the top-40 in Greece (#12), Romania (#17), Finland (#19), the Czech Republic (#23), and France (#29).

Pink and the album will be back to the series.

(9/10)

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Here's Pink performing the song live in Italy in 2002...

She also chose "Just Like A Pill" for the MTV Video Music Awards that same year, when she won for "Get The Party Started"...

Next up, in concert at the Wembley Arena in London in 2007...

And lastly, from BBC Radio's "Piano Room" this year...

Up tomorrow: California country troubadour is singularly thinking.