Robbed hit of the week 4/15/24 - Jane's Addiction's "Just Because"...

 

 

"Just Because" - Jane's Addiction

from the album Strays (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #72 (two weeks)

 

This week's 'robbed hit' comes from the alternative rock band Jane's Addiction, who came together in the mid-1980s under singer Perry Farrell. Farrell, who grew up as Peretz Bernstein in Queens, New York but spent his teens in Florida,  before moving to California to eventually start his band Psicom. On the dissolution of that group, Farrell recruited bassist Eric Avery and friends Stephen Perkins on drums and guitarist Dave Navarro. Renaming the new act Jane's Addiction, they garnered a huge local following in Los Angeles and released an eponymous live album on the indie label Triple X in 1987 before signing with Warner Brothers Records. Their first studio set with Warner, Nothing's Shocking, came out a year later. The first single from the set, "Jane Says", got enough major-label push to climb to #6 on Billboard magazine's Alternative/Modern Rock radio chart. The album, which peaked at #103 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, was nominated for a Grammy Award in its first year of the Best Hard Rock/Metal Vocal or Instrumental Performance, which was notoriously won by old-timer progressive rock back Jethro Tull for Crest Of A Knave. The album would go on to sell over a million copies.

Disputes between bandmates rocked the recording of the group's sophomore set, Ritual de la Habitual, which came out in 1990. Despite that, the set became their biggest success, selling over two million and reaching #19 on the Billboard 200. Two tracks from the record topped Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, with "Stop!" taking two weeks and the shoplifting anthem "Been Caught Stealing" spending a month at #1, as well as climbing to #29 on the Mainstream Rock radio counterpart. The latter also landed a surprise top-40 hit over the pond in Ireland at #24 and the United Kingdom at #34. At the Grammys in 1992, "Been Caught Stealing" was up for two categories, losing Best Rock Song (it's first year as well) to Sting's "The Soul Cages" and Best Duo/Group Rock Performance to Bonnie Raitt and Delbert McClinton's "Good Man, Good Woman".

However tensions boiled to the surface and became physical during the tour behind the album, and by 1991, Avery and Navarro quit. Instead of continuing the Addiction, Farrell and Perkins set up shop with new guitarists and bassists as Porno For Pyros. Their self-titled first record together came in at #3 on the Billboard 200 in 1993, though it sold only about a half million. But one of the singles, "Pets", ended up landing Farrell his first appearance on Billboard's Hot 100 at #67 while topping the Alternative Rock chart for five weeks. A second Pyros album, Good God's Urge, was released in 1996, and included the top-ten Modern Rock radio hit "Tahitian Moon" (#8 Alternative Rock). Meanwhile Navarro had become the new guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, though he along with Flea from that band played on the album and tour for the second Pyros album. A semi-reunion release of sorts, Kettle Whistle, was released under the Jane's Addiction name with Farrell, Perkins, Navarro and Flea recording two new tracks. After being canned from the Chili Peppers in 1998 , Navarro released a solo album, Trust No One in 2001, which spun off the hit single "Rexall" which peaked at #8 on the Alternative Rock radio chart. Farrell also put out a solo record in 2001, Song Yet To Be Sung, but that got mostly ignored.

Farrell, Navarro, and Perkins reunited in 2001 for a tour after playing the Coachella festival. With the success of the shows, they brought in bass player Chris Chaney for a comeback album Strays on Capitol Records, which came out in the summer of 2003. The lead single from the record was "Just Because", written by the band with producer Bob Ezrin. The song is a lyrically simplistic but aggressively biting snark from Farrell that is addressing someone apparently he thinks is selfish. As opposed to their punkish beginnings, the production here is deliberate and a bit over-professional. It sounds great, but it definitely it a departure from their earlier work, save the distinctive drum pattern. But nostalgia for the act and its members was at a high, and the group found themselves on top of rock radio again...

While "Just Because" spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, and peaked at #4 on their Mainstream Rock counterpart, the single stopped in the lower half of the Hot 100 in July of 2003. Internationally, the song did a bit better, making the top 40 in the United Kingdom (#14) and Canada (#22 Sales). The Strays album, which was released in July as the hit was peaking, came in at #4 on the Billlboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Just Because" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Vocal Performance, which went to Evanescence for their mainstream crossover smash "Bring Me To Life". 

 

A second single from the record, "True Nature", was a modest rock radio success, making both the Alternative (#30) and Mainstream (#35) airplay charts.

But again, touring behind Strays made the band hate each other again, and another split happened, with Farrell forming yet another project called Satellite Party which featured guitarist Nuno Betencourt of the group Extreme. Their only album, 2007's Ultra Payloaded, hit #91 on the Billboard 200, and included the single "Wish Upon A Dog Star" which climbed to #26 on the Alternative Rock radio chart. That didn't last either, and Farrell ended up reuniting with Avery, Perkins, and Navarro for an awards gig that was followed by touring with Nine Inch Nails. However despite Nails' leader Trent Reznor attempting to record a new record with the Addiction as producer, it disintegrated quickly.

After working with Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan for months, Farrell, Navarro, and Perkins came back together with TV On The Radio fill-in David Sitek for their most recent studio set The Great Escape Artist in 2011, which crested at #12 on the Billboard 200. While the promo track "End To The Lies" stiffed that spring, the follow-up, "Irresistible Force (Met The Immovable Object)", returned the band to the top ten on Alternative Rock radio at #9, while getting to #23 on the Mainstream Rock list. The third single, "Underground", was a mid-level hit on Alternative (#22) and Mainstream (#23) Rock radio, and so far is their most recent appearance. 

Since then Jane's Addiction have been sporadically playing live shows, with even Avery rejoining in 2020 after Navarro's COVID-19 aftereffects sidelined him. In 2019, Farrell released another solo album, Kind Heaven, and got back to rock radio with "Pirate Punk Politician", which rose to #35 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. But Farrell's most lasting legacy is the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago, which began in 1991 and not only continues today, but is expanded to worldwide branded concert weekends. 

(7/10)

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Here's the band performing on Jimmy Kimmel in 2003 to promote the single...

and lastly, in concert in New York in 2011...