Songoftheday 8/1/23 - Please come now I think I'm falling, I'm holding on to all I think is safe...

 

 

"One Last Breath" - Creed

from the album Weathered (2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 25

 

Today's song comes from the hard rock band Creed, who had returned to the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 with "My Sacrifice", the lead single to their third album Weathered, which topped the albums sales chart for two months in 2001. Their follow-up, "Bullets", was too loud and abrasive for pop radio, but did climb to #11 on the Mainstream Rock airplay chart and #27 on the Alternative Rock counterpart.

For the third single, the group went back to their grandiose inspirational power-ballad ways with "One Last Breath". Written by lead singer Scott Stapp and guitarist Mark Tremonti, the lyrics seems to portray someone at the end of their days atoning for their sins and transgressions against others. But the final verse narrows it down to more of a plea to a romantic partner, begging them to stay with them. The best part of the record is the music, with Tremonti commanding a powerful soundscape to better frame Stapp's histrionics. The music video has the usual self-righteous imagery Creed is known for, notable just for the fact that Stapp got into a car accident on the way to the shoot, unknowingly having a concussion which would eventually lead to his pain pill problems...

"One Last Breath" became Creed's fourth top ten hit on Billboard's Hot 100, and their last in the top-40, in September of 2002. On the radio, the song peaked at #5 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, and spent six weeks at #2 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, while making both the Mainstream (#5) and Alternative (#17) Rock lists. Internationally, the single was a top-40 hit in New Zealand at #29, and missed the top-40 in the United Kingdom as a double-sided single with "Bullets". 

A third single, "Hide" was only released internationally, and didn't get much attention. Meanwhile, the softer "Don't Stop Dancing" was offered to pop radio, and went to #24 on the Adult Top-40 radio format. Lastly, title track "Weathered" landed at #7 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and #30 on the Alternative Rock counterpart. 

 

A disastrous tour followed, with Stapp's troubles with dealing with pain and medication caused so much of a rift that the group split in 2004. Later that year, Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips, and reunited Creed bassist Brian Marshall recruited singer Myles Kennedy and became Alter Bridge. They released their first album under the name, One Day Remains, in the summer of 2004, which went to #5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, selling over a half-million copies. Two singles from the set reached the Mainstream Rock radio chart, with "Open Your Eyes" taking a week at #2 and "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #123. A second set, Blackbird, came out in 2007, with "Rise Today" spending a week at #3 on the Mainstream Rock chart. 

Meanwhile Stapp started his own solo career in 2005, releasing The Great Divide, which topped out at #19 on the Billboard 200. The title track went to #20 on the Mainstream Rock chart, #24 on the Adult Top-40 format, and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #110. 

Tremonti, Phillips, and Marshall reunited with Stapp in 2009, and together recorded their fourth and so far most recent album Full Circle in the fall of that year. The set went to #2 on the Billboard 200, and lead single "Overcome" put them back on the Hot 100, albeit in a more muted form, at #73, while on rock radio they were welcomed back going to #4 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #22 on the Alternative list. That was followed by "Rain", which placed at #91 on the Hot 100 and got to #25 on the Adult Top-40 format. Lastly, "A Thousand Faces" was a minor Mainstream Rock hit at #23, and their final singles chart placing so far. However, an in progress fifth album was never completed, and they broke up again in 2013.

Since then, Stapp has released two more studio albums, with the latest, The Space Between The Shadows, arriving in 2019. Three songs from the record made the Mainstream Rock chart, with "Survivor" going to #24 in 2020. The others reunited with Kennedy to restart Alter Bridge, and their first record after that, ABIII, spun off the single "Isolation", which topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart for seven weeks in 2010. . They've since then released four more studio records, most recently Pawns & Kings in 2022. Their most recent rock radio hit, "Holiday", went to #22 this year. Tremonti also had another side project, the heavy metal band Tremonti, since 2012, and has released five albums. They've had six singles make the Mainstream Rock chart, with 2012's "You Waste Your Time" going to #28. 

And the band just announced they are getting back together for a "cruise concert series". So there's that.

(6/10)

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Here's the band performing the song on their Live From Alcatraz concert on VH1...

and lastly, on a reunion show in 2009...

Up tomorrow: R&B newcomer has a romantic proposition.