Songoftheday 10/16/24 - I'm not a perfect person there's many things I wish I didn't do, but I continue learning I never meant to do those things to you...

 

 

"The Reason" - Hoobastank

from the album The Reason (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 34

 

Today's song comes from the hard rock band Hoobastank, who came together in the mid-1990s when schoolmates Doug Robb and Dan Estrin brought in drummer Chris Hesse and bassist Markku Lappalainen. They released a few independent releases as they were working the California rock circuit as the nu-metal genre was gaining steam, until they were signed to Island Records. They released their self-titled debut album in the late autumn of 2001, with the lead single "Crawling In The Dark" as the lead single a month before. The driving but melodic song was a decent rock radio hit, spending a week at #3 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock airplay chart, and peaking at #7 on the Mainstream Rock counterpart. It also was able to place on the "big chart", Billboard's Hot 100, at #68. It was also a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #47.  

 

The follow-up single, "Running Away", did even better, spending five weeks at #2 on Billboard's Alternative Rock airplay chart, and getting to #9 on the Mainstream Rock counterpart, while almost making the top-40 on the Hot 100 at #44. On the radio the song also made it to #23 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart and #31 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list. Internationally, the single slipped on to the British chart at #100. The Hoobastank album, released in November of 2001, peaked at #25 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies.

 

In 2003, the group returned with their second album on Island, The Reason, preceded by the single "Out Of Control", which got a placement on a popular video game.  While the alt-metal track rose to #9 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart and #17 on their Mainstream Rock counterpart, it was way to hard to get any notice from pop radio. 

That changed with the next release, the power-ballad "The Reason". Written by the band's lead guitarist Dan Estrin and lead singer Doug Robb, the lyrics spell out the basic "apology song" to their partner, starting with the rote "I'm not a perfect person" then saying they know they hurt them but don't say what exactly they did, allowing for the listener to glean from it whatever transgression they want when they play it to their wronged girlfriend Say Anything-style. But the mood is serious, and by the end with the production from Howard Benson builds to Creed-like bombast, and he was rewarded for it by a Grammy nomination for Producer of the Year (which went to Rick Rubin). The music video has the band and a model commit a low-rent Oceans Eleven...

"The Reason" climbed all the way to #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 in June of 2004. On the radio, the song spent eight weeks at #1 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, ten weeks atop the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list, and got to #17 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format. It was a decent rock radio hit as well, taking a week at #1 on the Alternative Rock chart and climbing to #4 on the Mainstream Rock list. Internationally, the single hit #1 in Italy and on the radio in Canada, and reached the top ten in Czechia (#2), Austria (#5), New Zealand (#5), Switzerland (#6), Australia (#7), Belgium (#7 Wallonia/#12 Flanders), Sweden (#8), Greece (#8), Norway (#9), and Latvia (#10). It also peaked at #12 in the United Kingdom and #15 in Germany. The Reason album, released in December of 2003, spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending over a year on the list and selling over two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, "The Reason" was nominated for Best Duo/Group Pop Performance with Vocals, losing to the Lonely Boys for "Heaven", while the album was up for Best Rock Album, which went to Green Day for American Idiot. 

The music video for their next single from The Reason, "Same Direction", attempted to continue the plot, but while rock radio made it a moderate hit, making both the Alternative (#14) and Mainstream (#20) lists, it was again a bit to hard for pop stations, and it didn't make the Hot 100. They toned things down for the final single, "Disappear", but while it reached #16 on the Adult Top-40 radio chart, #24 on the Alternative Rock list, and #30 on the Mainstream Top-40 tally, it only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #101. 

Hoobastank came back in 2006 (after losing original bassist Markku Lappalainen) with their next album Every Man For Himself. The lead single from the set, "If I Were You", tried for the same solemnity as "The Reason" but flipped the script as a bitter screed, got to #40 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #18 on the Adult Top-40 list, and #23 on the Alternative Rock format, but again just "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #117. The album came in at #12 on the Billboard 200, selling over a half million copies.

A fourth and final disc on Island Records, For(N)ever, made it to #26 on the Billboard 200 in 2009. The first single "My Turn" were modest hits on the Mainstream (#23) and Alternative (#24) rock chart, while the second, "So Close, So Far", reached the Adult Top-40 list at #24. A special collaborate with Australian singer Vanessa Amorosi on "The Letter" was released as a single and made the Aussie top-40 at #39. 

After leaving Island, Hoobastank released Fight Or Flight on the indie label Open E in 2012, which spend a single week on the Billboard 200 at #66. The big single from the record, "This Is Gonna Hurt", is their most recent radio chart appearance at #28 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

Their most recent album, 2018's Push Pull on Napalm Records, put the band into a new sonic direction, as shown by the Maroon 5-like lead single "More Beautiful".  

(7/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the band performing on MTV

Next up, in concert for AT&T...

And lastly, an acoustic take....

Up tomorrrow: Aussie country star predicts recognition.