Robbed hit of the week 8/28/23 - Hoobastank's "Running Away"...

 

 

"Running Away" - Hoobastank

from the album Hoobastank (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44 

 

This week's "robbed" hit comes from the hard rock band Hoobastank, who came together in the mid-1990s when schoolmates Doug Robb and Dan Estrin brought in drummer Chris Hesse and bassist Markku Lappalainen. They released a few independent releases as they were working the California rock circuit as the nu-metal genre was gaining steam, until they were signed to Island Records. They released their self-titled debut album in the late autumn of 2001, with the lead single "Crawling In The Dark" as the lead single a month before. The driving but melodic song was a decent rock radio hit, spending a week at #3 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock airplay chart, and peaking at #7 on the Mainstream Rock counterpart. It also was able to place on the "big chart", Billboard's Hot 100, at #68. It was also a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #47. 

The second release from the major-label debut was "Running Away". Written by Robb (who sings lead) and Estrin (who handles lead guitar), the lyrics are pretty darn bitter, with Robb alternating between pleading for them to stay and scorning them for wanting to leave. It looks like a losing battle anyway, so the record is an effective cathatic release of emotions that probably didn't even have the subject there. In fact, the lover in question may not have even been a real lover, but someone who friendzoned him ("You never gave us a chance to be") which would make this quite the effective incel anthem. Nevertheless, the music and production elevates this greatly, especially with the plucked arpeggios going in the background during the verses. It still rocked, but "Running Away" was melodic enough to capture the ear of pop radio programmers...

While "Running Away" was a big rock radio hit, spending five weeks at #2 on Billboard's Alternative Rock airplay chart, and getting to #9 on the Mainstream Rock counterpart, the song stalled just under the top-40 in September of 2002. On the radio the song also made it to #23 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart and #31 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list. Internationally, the single slipped on to the British chart at #100. The Hoobastank album, released in November of 2001, peaked at #25 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies.

A third radio single from the eponymous debut, "Remember Me", which was a minor rock radio hit (#23 Alternative, #28 Mainstream), but was a little hard to keep the pop radio programmers interested. But by their next album, the band will see their true big break.

(7/10)

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Here's the band appearing on the Tonight Show....

Next up, in concert in 2004...

and finally, an acoustic version...