Robbed hit of the week 12/2/24 - Velvet Revolver's "Slither"...

 

 

"Slither" - Velvet Revolver

from the album Contraband (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #56 (three weeks)

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the rock "supergroup" Velvet Revolver, who originally came about after the implosion of Guns N' Roses in the mid 1990's. After triumphing with their top ten epic "November Rain",  the band took a complete left turn with the unpromoted covers album The Spaghetti Incident?. After another cover for the Interview With A Vampire movie broke the relationship between singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash, the latter finally leaving them in 1996. Slash initially formed Slash's Snakepit with Eric Dover singing lead, releasing two albums in 1995 and 2000, with the former (It's Five O'Clock Somewhere) going to #70 on Billboard magazine's Billboard 200 sales tally (a surprisingly low showing for such a high-profile act). A song from the set, "Beggars & Hangers On", stalled at #21 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart.

At the start of the 2000s, after reuniting for a charity concert, GNR alums Slash, bass player Duff McKagan, and drummer Matt Sorum came together to for a new group with guitarist Dave Kushner from one of Dave Navarro's projects. After a publicized audition spectacle that went nowhere, eventually one of their picks who didn't appear on that show, came in after his band broke up. Scott Weiland had been the frontman for the post-grunge band Stone Temple Pilots since the beginning of the 90s, and had a string of big rock radio hits that sometimes appeared on Billboard's Hot 100 airplay chart but not on the main list because they were never released as commercial "singles", including "Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart", which did the trick in the summer of 1996. But after five albums and a greatest hits set, the Pilots splintered in 2003. It was then Weiland agreed to join the fledgling Velvet Revolver.

After a tumultous recording process that already had Weiland jailed for drugs, Velvet Revolver released their debut single "Set Me Free" in the summer of 2003 for the soundtrack to that year's incarnation of the Hulk movie. The song went to #17 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and #32 on the Alternative counterpart. In the spring of the following year, they followed up with "Slither". Written by the five bandmates, the song has Weiland singing about a toxic relationship where the partner is dominating and abusing him, but he's getting a little kick out of it. The snake-like name isn't uttered in the lyrics, but is inferred in the nasty demonic description of his mate and their supposedly evil (but nondescript) ways. The production from Josh Abraham, who had helmed sets for the likes of Linkin Park, Staind, and Limp Bizkit, is pure dirty blues metal, with the guitar work between Slash and Kushner doing their jobs. Weiland snarls through the track and in the video, shows off that body deceivingly made from heroin....

While "Slither" became a huge rock radio hit, spending nine weeks at #1 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart and four on the Alternative list, it was simply much too hard for pop radio, and stalled under the halfway mark on the Hot 100 in July of 2004. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in Norway (#12), Finland (#17), Australia (#26), the United Kingdom (#35), and Italy (#38). Their debut album Contraband, released in June of 2004, topped the Billboard 200 sales tally for a week, going on to sell over two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, "Slither" won the award for Best Hard Rock Performance. The Contraband album was also up for Best Rock Album, losing to Green Day for their American Idiot opus. (rightfully so)

 

The next single from the group was "Fall To Pieces", which dramatized Scott's addiction issues. That song became an even bigger success on rock radio, topping the Mainstream list for eleven weeks while taking a week at #2 on the Alternative side.  However even the gentler tone of the song wouldn't get pop stations onboard, and it stalled at #67 on the Hot 100, but it did place on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format at #25. Nevertheless, it was also nominated for a Grammy that same year for Best Rock Song, which U2 took home for "Vertigo". Lastly, the track "Dirty Little Thing", another propulsive blues-rock number, hit #8 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #18 on the Alternative counterpart. 

 

Velvet Revolver's next step was a reset with another soundtrack cut with "Come On, Come In" for the Fantastic 4 franchise movie as the opening track on the album.  It was a modest hit, peaking at #14 on the Mainstream Rock chart in 2005. Also that year, they appeared on the charity single cover of the Beatles' "Across The Universe" from that year's Grammy broadcast, which went to #22 on the Hot 100 (technically giving them their sole "top-40 hit").

After a tour that had most of the band back on the drugs, they cleaned up just enough to record a second album, Libertad, which arrived in the summer of 2007. The first single, "She Builds Quick Machines", took two weeks at #2 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and got to #14 on the Alternative list, but only managed to "bubble under" the Hot 100 at #104. Two more songs made the Mainstream Rock chart, with "Get Out The Door" being their last at #34.  But another disastrous tour found Weiland booted for his unpredictability and legal troubles over his addictions.

Weiland would go and reunite with the Stone Temple Pilots for an eponymous comeback album, which went to #2 on the Billboard 200 and spun off a #1 Mainstream Rock radio hit with "Between The Lines" in 2010. He kept trying to get back with Velvet Revolver to no avail, and in 2015, his life ended by the drug that controlled his life.

As for Slash, he released a self-titled solo album in 2010, which went to #3 on the Billboard 200 and spun off a pair of minor rock radio hits. He then brought in singer Myles Kennedy (who had been a contender for the original Velvet Revolver) to form Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. That configuration released four albums so far, with the first two, Apocalyptic Love and World On Fire reaching the top ten. Both produced a #1 Mainstream Rock radio hit in "You're A Lie" and "World On Fire" respectively. Most recently, Slash put out a blues-rock solo album, Orgy Of The Damned, in the spring of 2024.

In 2020, Slash and McKagan got back together with Axl Rose to tour for Guns N' Roses and possibly record new material. Kushner has worked in music as well, and was nominated for an Emmy for his theme for Sons Of Anarchy, "This Life". Matt Sorum released a solo album in 2014, Stratosphere, and McKagan has put out two solo set as well. 

(7/10)

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Here's the band appearing on Dave Letterman...

Next up, the group at the Live 8 charity megaconcert in 2005 at the London show...

 

 and lastly, an acoustic take for the Howard Stern Show...