Robbed hit of the week 6/17/24 - Live's "Heaven"...

 

 

"Heaven" - Live

from the album Birds Of Pray (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #59 (two weeks)

 

This week's robbed hit comes from the rock band Live, who had four album tracks reach the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 Airplay chart (since never released as "singles", their weren't eligible for the Hot 100 proper). The last of them, "Lakini's Juice" from their third album Secret Samadhi, made that mark in the beginning of 1997.  In 1999, Live came back with their next album The Distance To Here, which reunited them with producer Jerry Harrison (of the Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club). The lead single, "The Dolphin's Cry", spent six weeks at #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and four weeks at #3 on their Alternative Rock chart, their most recent top ten placing on either list. That song, now with airplay-only tracks able to list, got to #78 on the pop Hot 100. That was followed in 2001 by the more electronic-leaning V, which did better overseas, with again top ten placings with "Overcome" in Belgium (#2) and the Netherlands (#3), with the song going to #30 on the Alternative Rock chart in America.

 

In 2003, the group returned with their seventh studio release Birds Of Pray, with the title a nod to their nebulous ties to Christian rock. The lead single from the set was "Heaven", which brings that religious theme into focus. Lead singer and songwriter Ed Kowalczyk disavows scientific reasoning and simply puts out that looking at his daughter is the only proof he needs (?). The production by Jim Wirt makes the song seems darker and plodding than it really is, but while it's heavy on dramatics in Ed's vocals, it doesn't reach the histrionic heights from the likes of Creed. It return, radio gave them another chance...

 

 While "Heaven" climbed all the way to #4 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart in Billboard magazine, #36 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay list, and #33 on both the Mainstream and Alternative Rock formats, the song (without a commercial single release) stalled in the lower half of the Hot 100 in October of 2003. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#16), Australia (#19), and the Netherlands (#30). The Birds Of Pray album, released in May of 2003, came in at #28 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. 

A second single from the record, "Run Away", was modified for the radio from the album version with the inclusion of Grammy-winning alt-country singer Shelby Lynne. The song was a minor hit on the Adult Top-40 format peaking at #20. (Shame, it was a better record than "Heaven" was especially with Shelby's input.)

(5/10)

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Here's the band performing the song in the Netherlands in 2003...