Songoftheday 4/24/24 - Realize that I can never win sometimes feel like I have failed, inside where do I begin my mind is laughing at me...

 

 

"Did My Time" - Korn

from the album Take a Look in the Mirror (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 1

 

Today's song comes from the band Korn, who came together in the early 1990s in Bakersfield California.  Three of the original members was in another local group called L.A.P.D. - bassist Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer, and drummer David Silveria. They brought in lead singer Jonathan Davis and guitarist Brian "Head" Welch to form the new group, and moved to southern California. There they played local gigs and released a demo album Niedermeyer's Mind, before getting discovered by a rep from Immortal Records, which was an affiliate of Epic. 

With that major-label backing, the group released their debut album Korn in 1994, which spent over a year on the Billboard 200 sales tally with a high of #72, going on to sell over two million copies. The first single from the record, "Blind", got a little bit of radio airplay in the U.S. and Canada, but none of the four singles made the charts in Billboard magazine. But the songs and album as a whole got a lot of critical praise in retrospect, and one of the cuts, the bagpipe-infused "Shoots and Ladders", was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, losing to Rage Against The Machine's "Tire Me". 

 

That exposure set the band up for their next release Life Is Peachy in 1996. By that time the grunge rock of Nirvana and Pearl Jam had made way for the rap-rock hybrid of nu-metal from bands like Rage Against the Machine and Limp Bizkit. Life Is Peachy spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200, and also sold two million. While their songs were still being mostly ignored by rock radio in America, they broke first in the United Kingdom, where three of the songs made the top-40 on the official British singles chart - "No Place To Hide" (#26), "A.D.I.D.A.S." (#22), and "Good God" (#25). "A.D.I.D.A.S", which had remixes on a CD Single, managed to "bubble under" the Billboard Hot 100 at #113. "No Place To Hide" gave Korn their second consecutive Grammy nom for Best Metal Performance, which this time went to Tool's "Aenema". 

 

Korn's third effort, Follow The Leader in 1998, brought them all the way to the top of the Billboard 200, with their biggest-selling set at five million copies. From the record "Got The Life" was the song that broke the band on rock radio, hitting both the Mainstream (#15) and Alternative (#17) Rock charts in Billboard.  That was followed by "Freak On A Leash", which MTV adored the part animated/part special effects video for playing it incessantly. The song not only hit the top ten on both the Alternative Rock (#6) and Mainstream counterpart (#10) formats, and again bubbled under the Hot 100 at #106. It was nominated for two Grammys, winning the Best Short Form Music Video and losing Best Hard Rock Performance to Metallica's "Whiskey In A Jar". Both singles also hit the top-40 in the UK, with their fans buying up collectable CD Singles like hotcakes.

For their next record, Korn brought in Pearl Jam's producer Brendan O'Brien for Issues in 1999, which also topped the Billboard 200 for a week, even beating the long-awaited second album from rap legend Dr. Dre. The first single from the set "Falling Away From Me" returned their to the top ten on Alternative (#7) and Mainstream (#7) radio, as did the follow-up "Make Me Bad" (#7 Alternative, #9 Mainstream). And again both of those reached the British top-40, and both "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #108 and #114 respectively.

The band returned in 2002 with Untouchables, which entered the Billboard 200 at #2 behind the unstoppable 4th week win of The Eminem Show. The lead single from the record, "Here To Stay", became their first to reach the Hot 100 proper at #72, while reaching #4 on both the Mainstream and Alternative Rock radio charts in Billboard. The song also became their highest-charting hit in the UK at #12, and won them the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2003. 

 

In the summer of that year, Korn returned with a song that they recorded for the soundtrack to the second Lara Croft franchise movie Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life. "Did My Time", written and produced by the band, wasn't included on the soundtrack for label reasons, but rather released as its own CD Single, giving Americans the chance to get that form the British were accustomed to. The lyrics, as always, are full of angst and bitterness over Davis' feelings about success and his lot in life that many (mostly young men) could relate to. The production tightens up their rage-infused wall of noise, while putting a nice bridge section where the tempo slows and the instruments free up. Coupled with a video including the film's star Angelina Jolie, and sales of the then one-off brought Korn their biggest success on the "big" chart...

 

 "Did My Time" became Korn's first and only "top-40" hit on Billboard's Hot 100, spending a week there in August of 2003. On the radio, the song was more modestly recieved on rock stations, hitting #12 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #17 on the Alternative counterpart. Internationally, the single topped the chart in Iceland, reached the top ten in Portugal (#6), Canada (#9 Sales), and Poland (#9), and made the top-40 in Germany (#12), Austria (#12), Belgium (#12 Wallonia/#18 Flanders), Finland (#13), Denmark (#14), the United Kingdom (#15), Switzerland (#17), Italy (#19), Sweden (#19), Ireland (#24), and Australia (#29). At the Grammy Awards in 2004, "Did My Time" was nominated for a Grammy for Best Metal Performance, which Metallica took home for "St. Anger".

The hit would eventually appear on Korn's sixth (and final) studio album on Immortal/Epic, Take A Look In The Mirror, which came out in November of 2003 and peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200, selling over a million copies. The record was preceded by the single "Right Now", which like it's predecessor made the Mainstream (#11) and Alternative (#13) top-40, while bubbling under the Hot 100 at #119. For the third release, the band took the piss out of its label and the record business with "Y'all Want A Single", which barraged the listener with the F-word (changed to "suck" for the radio version), and sporting a hilarious anti-corporate music video. The track went to #23 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart, and was followed by "Everything I've Known", which made it to #30 on that list.

Ending their relationship with Epic, Korn and the label released Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 in 2004, which went to #4 on the Billboard 200 selling over million, and contained a pair of unexpected cover songs that made the top-20 on the rock radio charts with Cameo's "Word Up" and Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall". They also put out a Live & Rare collection to complete their contract (so far it's their only set to miss the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #51). 

Korn signed with Virgin Records, but lost a member as "Head" left to get his life together and become immersed in his church which helped get him off his drug addiction. The remaining four returned with their first disc on the label, See You On The Other Side, which came out in 2005 and spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200, their last so far to go "platinum" (a million shipped). The first single "Twisted Transistor" took three weeks at #3 on the Mainstream Rock chart while rising to #9 on the Alternative list, and returned the band to the Hot 100 at #64 and made the British top-40 at #27. The second, "Coming Undone", scored another Hot 100 hit at #79, while going to #4 Mainstream Rock and #14 Alternative, and was their last British charting single at #63. However, after a tour that saw the international leg canned due to a medical emergency for Davis, Silveria left the band somewhat quietly but behind the scenes acrimoniously. Davis, Fieldy, and Munky along with some fill-ins did an episode of MTV Unplugged which was released as a proper live CD and hit #9 on the Billboard 200. A stripped down version of "Freak On A Leash" with Amy Lee from the goth rock band Evanescence landed their most recent appearance on the Hot 100 at #89. Their third and final release on Virgin was an Untitled set in 2007, which scored a pair of top ten hits on the Mainstream Rock chart with "Evolution" (#4 Mainstream/#20 Alternative) and "Hold On" (#9 Mainstream/#35 Alternative). The record spent a week at #2 going gold (shipping over a half-million), but they again left for newer pastures at the hard rock-centric label Roadrunner (onetime home to Slipknot and Nickelback). 

After taking a break for some side projects, and bringing in new drummer Ray Luzier, Korn put out Korn III: Remember Who You Are in 2010. The lead single, "Oildale (Leave Me Alone)", made it to #10 on the Mainstream Rock chart, while the second, "Let The Guilt Go" (#23 Mainstream), was nominated for the Best Metal Perforamnce Grammy, which went this time to veterans Iron Maiden for "El Dorado". With their second Roadrunner set, the band recruited a myriad of alternative dance artists and DJs most prominently with dubstep king Skrillex for 2011's The Path Of Totality. Still, both "Get Up!" and "Narcissistic Cannibal" with Skrillex expanded the sound of rock radio and made the top ten on the Mainstream chart at #10 and #6 respectively, and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #108 and #117. 

"Head" reunited with the group in 2012, and the following year Korn released The Paradigm Shift, a return to heavier but still thoughtful rock music, on their own Prospect Park imprint on semi-indie Caroline Records. The buzz around the reunion got radio back in a big way, and the first single "Never Never" became their first and so far only single to top a Billboard radio chart, spending three weeks at #1 and also popping on to the Alternative list (which by then had moved on from nu-metal) at #36. Two more songs made the Mainstream Rock top ten with "Spike In My Veins" (#5) and "Hater" (#5). 

The group returned to Roadrunner for their next studio set The Serenity Of Suffering in 2016. The record again spawned three top ten hits on the Mainstream Rock chart with "Rotting In Vain" (#4), "Take Me" (four weeks at #2), and "Black Is The Soul" (#10). Korn earned their most recent Grammy Nomination for Best Metal Performance in 2017 with "Rotting", losing to Megadeth for "Dystopia". Later that year, Davis released a solo album, Black Labyrinth, which placed at #67 on the Billboard 200. A single from the record, "What It Is", rose to #5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. Jonathan came back to Korn for their 2019 set The Nothing, which peaked at #8 on the Billboard 200 and spun off two more top ten Mainstream Rock hits with "You'll Never Find Me" (#3) and "Can You Hear Me" (#4). 

Their most recent album, Requiem, was released in 2022, and came in at #14 on the Billboard 200. The set again produced two top ten Mainstream Rock hits with "Start The Healing" (#2) and "Worst Is On Its Way" (#10). 

(6/10)

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Here's the band performing the song live in concert in Montreux...

And lastly, at the Rock Am Ring festival in 2013...

Up tomorrow: A country music newcomer questions his actions.