Songoftheday 11/27/24 - There's a place on the corner of Cherry Street, we would walk on the beach in our bare feet we were both 18 and it felt so right...
"Ocean Avenue" - Yellowcard
from the album Ocean Avenue (2003)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #37 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5
Today's song comes from the band Yellowcard, who originally came together as a punk band by Florida college students in the late 1990s. Lead singer Ben Dobson, guitarist Ben Harper, guitarist/vocalist Todd Clary, drummer Longineau Parsons, violinist Sean Mackin, and bass player Warren Cooke released an indie album Midget Tossing in 1997, followed by Where We Stand two years later. However, shortly thereafter Dobson and Clary were booted as the group veered towards the pop-punk radio-friendly sound that was gaining traction at the time, adding Ryan Key as his replacement for their third disc on California indie Lobster Records, One For The Kids, in 2001. After an EP on the pop-punk giant Fueled By Ramen label (who would eventually break Fall Out Boy) a year later, Cooke also departed, but with gaining fan buzz Yellowcard were signed to Capitol Records.
Adding Alex Lewis to sub in for Cooke, Yellowcard released their major-label debut album Ocean Avenue in the summer of 2003. The lead single from the set, "Way Down", which became a modest rock radio hit, peaking at #25 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock chart that autumn (a year later, it would be a minor British hit at #63).
The group's followup would be the title track "Ocean Avenue", written by the band's Harper, Key, Lewis, Macklin, and Parsons, along with producer Sean Avron (who had helmed sets from pop-punk stars Everclear and New Found Glory). The lyrics have Key waxing nostalgic of the hometown he would leave behind for finding fame in California, name-checking a similarly-named street on the coastal area of northeast Florida. The wistfulness could be pulled to either a place or a person that they know they would be missing, to grab the mind of more listeners. The production from Avron is simple and punchy and immediately an earworm with tight harmonies in the chorus, though for the life of me I cannot pick out the electric violin Mackin is sporting in the Memento-style music video...
"Ocean Avenue" became Yellowcard's biggest success, reaching the top-40 on Billboard's Hot 100 in June of 2004. On the radio, the song peaked at #13 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #27 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format, and #21 on the Alternative Rock list. Internationally, the single rose to #34 in New Zealand, and was again a minor hit in the United Kingdom at #65. The Ocean Avenue album, released in July of 2003, eventually would top out at #23 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to spend a hefty 81 weeks on the chart and sell over a million copies.
Yellowcard's next single, "Only One", was released after Lewis left, with the band bringing in Pete Mosely for the video. Despite it going to #28 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 radio chart, and even doing better on Alternative Rock stations peaking at #15, the song only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #122 (it deserved better).
The long two years before their next release saw them touring then amidst recording saw Harper leave the band to be replaced by Ryan Mendez. Yellowcard re-emerged with Lights And Sounds which became their first disc to make the top ten on the Billboard 200 at #5, though selling about half as much in the long run. "Lights And Sounds" from the set landed the band's biggest hit on rock radio, hitting #4 on the Alternative Rock chart, but lack of pop airplay caused it to stop at #50 on the Hot 100 (it did give the group their biggest British hit at #56). That was followed by "Rough Landing, Holly", which is their most recent Alternative rock radio hit at #27.
In 2007 the band delivered their third and last album in Capitol (and third with Neal Avron producing), Paper Walls. The big single from the record, "Light Up The Sky", went to #32 on the Adult Top-40 chart, and the album went to #13 on the Billboard 200.
After a stunted tour and a break, Key, Mackin, Parsons, and Mendez reunited and took in new bass player Sean O'Donnell before hitching on to the California indie label Hopeless Records. Their seventh album When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes arrived in 2011, which peaked at #19 on the Billboard 200. That was followed by Southern Air the following year, which came in at #10 on that sales tally. By then, the revolving door swung again with O'Donnell being replaced by Josh Portman (who stayed on to this day). Parsons also exited before their next release, Lift A Sail in 2014, which took a week at #26 on the Billboard 200. They've borrowed drummers from other bands since then, and their most recent full length album Yellowcard came out in 2016, still making it to the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #28. But with the exit of Parsons, it's violinist Sean Mackin that remains the sole original member of the group.
More recently, they put out the EP (Extended play single) Childhood Eyes, in 2023. A new single, a cover of Jimmy Eat World's "Hear You Me", arrived this summer.
(6/10)
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In 2013, the band put out Ocean Avenue Acoustic, a rework of their album on Hopeless Records, which went to #53 on the Billboard 200. Of course it included their biggest hit...
At the end of 2023, DJ/remixer Steve Aoki had the band redo "Ocean Avenue" for the clubs...
And lastly on Good Morning America in 2024...
Up tomorrow: This R&B singer thought you were smarter.
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