Songoftheday 7/24/24 - Hey Dad look at me, think back and talk to me. did I grow up according to plan?...
"Perfect" - Simple Plan
from the album No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #24 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11
Today's song comes from the Canadian pop-punk band Simple Plan, who came
together in Montreal at the end of the 1990's, with high school friends
Chuck Comeau, Jeff Stinco, and Sebastien Lefebvre along with lead singer
Pierre Bouvier soon joined by David Desrosiers. Signed to Atlantic
Records' imprint Lava (who also hosted Matchbox Twenty), the group
released their debut album No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls at the start of 2002. The first single from the record, "I'm Just A Kid",
got play on music television but never made any of the radio charts in
Canada or the U.S., though it recently got tagged as a meme on the
TikTok app and has since become their most streamed song (deservedly
so). For
the second release from the debut, "I'd Do Anything", came out that
fall. Written by the band, the song was produced by Arnold Lanni, who
himself is a veteran of the charts as a member of the bands Sheriff and
Frozen Ghost, with the former having written their #1 hit "When I'm With
You". While "I'd Do Anything" climbed to #15 on Billboard magazine's
Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, the song stalled right under the
halfway mark on the Hot 100 in March of 2003. Internationally, the
single was a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #78. The second release, "Addicted", was also co-written and produced by Lanni. While "Addicted" came only one notch from reaching the top ten on Billboard's
Mainstream Top-40 radio airplay chart at #11, the single stopped a few
notches below the top 40 on their complete sales & airplay Hot 100
in August of 2003. The single was big in Australia, reaching #10, while
it was a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #63.
In the third and final single from the record, the group released "Perfect", again teaming up with Arnold Lanni. The lyrics have lead singer Pierre Bouvier confronting his father who disapproves of his career choice, but still wants to make him proud. It's a pretty bitter go, which is understandable considering they hadn't reached their success until after this record came out. The production is effectively angsty, with Bouvier getting harmonic help at the right times in the swelling chorus, with his voice a more Canadian polite version of the pain expelled from Linkin Park's work. With a music video with the band infiltrating younger peeps "struggles", and MTV was on board, and Simple Plan scored their biggest hit....
"Perfect" became Simple Plan's first single to crack the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in December of 2003. On the radio, the song rose to #5 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, and #24 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, but stiffed at the rock radio formats. In their Canadian homeland the single peaked at #5 in sales and #13 on the radio chart, while internationally it reached the top-40 in Australia (#6) and New Zealand (#13). The No Pads album, released in February of 2002, eventually peaked at #35 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending 69 weeks on the list and going on to sell over two million copies.
Simple Plan will be back to the series.
(6/10)
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
and live in concert in Germany in 2012...
And lastly, an acoustic version for New Year's in 2008....
Up tomorrow: Some more angst by the masters in the 2000s.
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