We're eleven years into this blog - more than! - and we've never, as far as I can see, posted a song written by Diane Warren. I'm not quite sure how that's possible - she was a huge hitmaker, especially during the 1980's and 1990's, and still writes for top pop artists to this day.
As much as we usually talk about the artists - and we'll get there - the songwriter is the hitmaker in this case. She's written 32 top 10 US hits, been nominated for 14(!) Academy Awards (winning none but finally recieving an honorary one in 2022, during a year she was also nominated for an award), 15 Grammys (winning one), and two Emmys (winning one).
She's a well-respected songwriter who has written a lot of hit songs you know well. This is one of them. Originally intended for Stevie Nicks, it was given to Belinda Carlisle, who took it all the way to #2 on the US charts, only being kept from that top spot by one of the most enduring songs of all time.
The video was directed by Diane Keaton. Yes, that Diane Keaton.
I've mentioned the worst show I ever saw - September 10, 1995, Hartford, CT. Live, with special guests PJ Harvey and Veruca Salt. I didn't have high expectations of the headliner - I was there for the two openers. Veruca Salt were truly disappointing.
I had high expectations of PJ Harvey, and Polly Jean let me down. I'm sure it was an off night, because she had already released three great albums of material and has consistently done so since.
And the show wasn't all bad. She did perform this song and it was the highlight of the show.
This song, her third single ever, came from her second album Rid of Me. It was a huge hit in the UK, but she never got the commercial success stateside that she had enjoyed in Europe. Is it her best song? No. It is a rockabilly punk masterpiece, but she's got better songs lyrically and musically. But it's a FUN song. It's an in-your-face, dick-measuring masterpiece by a woman who previously wrote a song about her childbreaing hips.
I KNOW I caught her on an off night, because this performance, and other songs from this performance, rocks. From 2003, you can see the song isn't hard to play on guitar, but it is simplicity that makes it a masterpiece.
Someday, I am going to stop being surprised at musicians who are still touring 30 years into their careers. This is from 2016, and it STILL rocks. Polly Jean has given up the guitar, but that makes for a more dynamic performance.
The Pandoras were an all-girl garage band that got their start in LA in 1982 and had a great run until 1991, when front woman Paula Pierce passed away. The band didn't break up (they're STILL together, despite also losing bassist and background vocalist Kim Shattuck in 1991 to The Muffs (Melanie Vammen also went to The Muffs) and again in 2018 to ALS), but their glory days were behind them.
This performance, from 1990, was probably their pinnacle. They were a garage band and a good one at that, with a bunch of great musicians who all happened to be women making great music.
Oh, they also made a video for the song. I just wanted to feature something that WASN'T such obvious 1980s record label objectification right up front.
The second you saw the name "Luis Buñuel" in yesterday's post, you should have known this was coming.
"I am un chien andalusia" is literally a line in this song.
"Slicing up eyeballs" is literally a different line in the song.
Can we look at the title of the film, though? Un chien andalou is a mishmash of French and Spanish already. The film is really about nothing. It's a surrealist collaboration between Buñuel and Salvador Dalí. It was, at points, stomach-turning, debasing the standards of art and morality.
Ahhhh, there it is. The title. That last sentence paraphrases Black Francis a.k.a. Charles Thompson IV, the writer of this song and leader of the Pixies, the Boston-based post-punk band that broke through the US consciousness with their 2nd full length album, Doolittle, which opened with this bombastic song.
Never released as a single in the US, this song hit #23 on the UK charts. More personally, it's possibly my favorite song by a band that I count among my favorites.
The Pixies did break up in the mid 90s but reformed about a decade later, and are still together and still making music. Kim Deal did leave the band in 2013 to devote herself to The Breeders full-time, and was replaced on their 2013 tour by Muffs frontwoman Kim Shattuck - who was amazing as a fill-in.
Shattuck was replaced the next year - by most accounts, because her personality (which had been very frontwoman-y and outgoing) didn't mesh with what was a mostly introverted band, which is a shame because she was incredible. She was replaced by Paz Lenchantin, who, to be fair, is also incredible.
Jyoti Prakash Mishra, White Town's sole member, famous music producer, and a guy, wrote this song as kind of a methaphor for all sorts of relations, that could be adaptable to all sorts of points of view. He recorded the song using a sample from an old Lew Stone song (the muted trumpet), free MIDI software and a cheap tape recorder, releasing it in 1997.
He created a worldwide sensation.
This song was a worldwide hit - top 30 in the US, top 10 elsewhere. What's more, it carried Mishra's self-described mediocre voice and pretty good keyboard work to one hit wonder status.
“I feel so privileged [because] to be 100 percent honest with you — I’m a mediocre singer, I’m a terrible guitarist, I’m a pretty good keyboardist, I’m a good producer, not amazing, but good.”
The video was partially inspired by Luis Buñuel's Un chien andalou - thankfully without slicing up any eyeballs - and other surrealist artists, and has the same 20's feel that the Lew Stone sample gives to the song.
In 1985, British band - from Bradford, West Yorkshire, if we're being precise - The Cult would release what would ultimately be their best known and most widely recognized single. It wasn't their biggest hit - although close to it in the UK - and didn't even chart in the US, although its success and endurance paved the way for their future worldwide success.
Written by Ian Astbury - the lead vocalist - and Billy Duffy - the guitarist..... I didn't need to tell you that. The song shows that. Astbury's haunting vocals lend an air of enigmatic charisma to the lyrics that are tuned for his voice. His raw, soulful delivery infuses the lyrics with passion and depth, drawing the listener into a realm of introspection and introspective longing. Add that to Duffy's distinctive guitar work, which merges elements of psychedelic rock with a touch of new wave, and you've got a Cult classic.
Weirdly, the song was also a club hit - so much so that in 1993, it got some remixes and a rerelease, which ended up being a hit in its own right.
It's weird, though.
The Cult, believe it or not, are still together. There have absolutely been some lineup changes, but it has always been, unceasingly, the Billy and Ian show throughout. This performance from 2022 shows that the song has changed a little to accomodate for the changes age brings to vocalists, but not much - and the energy is still there.
In 1969, feeling feelings of alientation - his career was taking a nose dive - and having seen Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey, David Bowie wrote and recorded this classic song.
It was an initial bomb but enventually because a UK hit, his only until 1973.
It remained a bomb in the US for three years, until it was released in 1972. THEN it hit #15 on the pop charts and became a big deal.
In July, 1990, I was getting ready to go to college. I was 18, and visiting family in Niagara Falls and Buffalo. Coincidentally, and not visiting my family, David Bowie was playing at the Niagara Falls Convention Center in what he said would be his last tour playing his classic songs, such as "Space Oddity".
Naturally, I wanted to go, but I was only allowed to go if I went with my Aunt Martha, who, to be fair, wasn't terribly old herself and so was cool enough to actually enjoy the show. We had a great time and it was a great show.
My younger sister was pissed because she wanted to go. Sorry, Dawn.
This is from Santiago, Chile, on the same tour. I can tell you that this is exactly how it sounded.
By the way, David Bowie lied, because here he is, performing the song in 1997. David Bowie taught me not to believe that farewell tours are real.
This top 20 hit was released in 1983 by German artist Peter Schilling. The titular Major Tom is, at least officially, not the same Major Tom who happens to be an astronaut in the David Bowie classic "Space Oddity:.
But c'mon.
Yes it is.
The synth-heavy song is right in place in 1983 - and it remains a really cool song to this day. It was Schilling's first English language single, and it ended up being a worldwide hit.
Ready for the other shoe? Well, the title of this post should have given it away.
This was a rerecorded version of a German song - and a hit song at that - by Schilling in 1982. Titled "Major Tom (Völlig losgelöst)", it was hit in Europe and the German-speaking world. Specifically, it was a #1 hit in Germany.
This song was commissioned for the 1984 hit movie Beverly Hills Cop. Most of you probably knew that. I mean, it's Harold Faltermeyer's best known song.
"Alex F" was named for the character Axel Foley, portrayed by Eddie Murphy in the movie. What you may not know is that it was composed in the key of F minor, continuing the F theme. Faltermeyer wrote the song, and performs all the instruments, which are all electronic. He also appears in the video, strangly wearing an overcoat, sunglasses and a hat while pounding away on what was probably state-of-the-art computer equipment in 1984.
Before you all go running off to the Wikipedia page for this song and tell me that I'm wrong and that the song was written by Hans Faltermeier, you should know that his full name is Hans Hugo Harold Faltermeier.... and he anglicized his name for single release (mostly because Americans are more likely to listen to a Harold than a Hans, to be frank and sad about it).
Anyway, it was a worldwide instrumental hit, and you should just listen to it.
Well, Happy Independence Day to all our US readers.
We decided it was appropriate to go with a 40-year-old motivational song that started off as something very different than that.
You see, Eddie Van Halen wrote the synth part first - and the rest of the hard-rockin' band rejected it. When David Lee Roth was finally convinced to give it another shot, he recalled a news story of a person who was threatening to commit suicide by jumping off a building... and, well, there's always that asshole who has to yell "C'mon, Jump!"
Well, since encouraging suicide isn't really something that record labels are going to get behind, the lyrics the band wrote ended up being a bit more motivational and less... well, death-y.
What the end result turned into was the biggest hit of Van Halen's career, by a lot. Deservedly so, too - it was a great, energetic song that brought rock to the masses.
Famously, David Lee Roth left Van Halen and was replaced by Sammy Hagar - which really begat a different band. This live version of the song from 1993 is a lot less synth-y, which tracks with the harder rocking feel of the band.
Funny enough, this live version was released as a single in Europe and ended up being a bit of a minor hit, too.
Perhaps not so famously, Sammy Hagar left Van Halen and was replaced by Gary Cherone from Extreme. Not surprisingly, he needed to perform David Lee Roth's songs, too.
This version was not released as a single and was not a hit because no one liked Gary Cherone as the lead vocalist of Van Halen.
Because this is a blog post, we are very much oversimplifying the history of Van Halen, but the short version is, David Lee Roth came back and the band, of course, performed this song. It is very much a fusion of the rock and synth styles - and that's Wolfgang Van Halen on bass.
There was supposed to be a "kitchen sink" reuinion with Hagar, Cherone, and Michael Anthony rejoinign the band - but, sadly, Eddie Van Halen passed away before that could happen. So, this post ends here.
We want July 2023 to be the coolest month on Wicked Guilty Pleasures ever. This is why we opened it with the absolute coolest song ever recorded.
The song was released as the debut single from the Digable Planets's debut album, and it was a Top 20 hit in the US and elsewhere. It remains their biggest hit to this day. More to the point, it is a Grammy-winning song and is considered to be the pinacle of the fusion genre known as jazz-rap. You hear the jazz, right? Well, that's "Stretching" by Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, which they sampled for this track.
The Cleveland-based trio formed in 1987, and broke up for a bit in the late 90's, but they're back together and still together. All three of them have remained - no lineup changes.
And, as you can see from this 2016 live performance, they're still way cooler than I am.
Madonna wanted to use the commercial to launch her song, before its release to MTV and radio as a single. She had somewhat stepped back from music for a couple of years, but in 1989, she was ready to make a splash.
The commercial was a hit.
The next day, she released this video to MTV.
Because of the controversial use of religous imagery, an immediate boycott of Pepsi, including their brands like KFC and Taco Bell, was called by Christian groups. Pepsi resonded by dropping Madonna.
MTV responded by playing the video even more.
The song is widely regarded as one of Madonna's best, and its chart performance supports that - it was a #1 song in the US for three weeks and a huge hit worldwide.
As huge a hit as it was, the song itself was also huge, and never is that more apparent than when performed live - like this performance in Miami. The song employs the use of a choir, and having that choir in the room, live, just adds to the depth and majesty of the song.
(Update: 13 September 2023) Pepsi has now reversed course and do recognize the genius of the commercial - with an updated commercial.
On the 20th of March in 1993, the second of two bomb attacks happened in Warrington, Cheshire, England. The Irish Republican Army, a group who was trying to pressure the UK into pulling out of Northern Ireland, claimed responsibilty for the attack, which killed Johnathan Ball, aged 3, and Tim Parry, aged 12.
Why am I opening this post like this?
Because "Zombie" was written in response to that attack,
You see, Irish band The Cranberries were on a tour bus near the explosion. so it really hit home for Dolores O'Riordan. She wrote this song very quickly and the band immediately started performing it live, also adding it to their second album. In fact, here they are, performing the song in January 1994, a full nine months before the song was on any album.
While all this was going on, the band's first album was blowing up (figuratively) and they were becoming the band of the moment, with videos in heavy rotation on MTV and hits on the pop charts - so their second album was hotly anticipated. When it was released, it became a smash hit, topping charts worldwide and bringing the band's second album, No Need To Argue, with it.
The song, a grungy departure from the band's style, was loaded with political overtones that were largely lost on the US audience. They were NOT lost on the UK audience, and the band was heavily criticized by some for them in the press. Who did NOT criticize the band were the families of Johnathan Ball and Tim Parry, who thanked the band for their song and for its magesty and real lyrics.
The Cranberries are no more, ending with the 2018 death of Dolores O'Riordan, but she didn't lose a bit of passion right up until the moment she died (which was during a recording session). Here's the band in 2016, more than 20 years after the song was written, performing the song with equal passion as the day it was first performed.
This is a week of a lot of firsts for us. Here's another: our first Metallica post.
We chose a well-known and relatively not-metal song for this first post, for reasons. But it's a song with a story.
Written by James Hetfield (who also gave Lars Ulrich a credit for insisting upon bringing it to the band), it wasn't intended to be for Metallica - and in fact, Hetfield was hesitant to bring it forward, as it's a love song (about his girlfriend at the time). On the recording, Hetfield gave lead guitarist Kirk Hammett a break and took the guitaring duties himself (of course, by the time they hit the tour, Hammett had to learn the song).
The song ended up being released as the 3rd single from Metallica's eponymous fifth album that featured a very black cover. It was a huge hit for the band, nearly making the US Top 10 (unheard of for such a heavy band).
The song was rerecorded by the band in 1999 with an orchestral accompanyment by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. This version ended up being a European Top 10 hit. This version, in my opinion, does a better job at building - but there were 100 more instruments used in this version, so I guess that's a reason why.
As part of a celebration of the 30th anniversary of what was commonly called The Black Album, Metallica recorded this song with Miley Cyrus, who had famously covered it, on Howard Stern's show.
It was incredible.
We like to highlight when bands are still performing their songs - and thanks to YouTube, we have a video from literally this month of the band performing it in Göteborg, Sweden - and not missing a beat.
I know some of you are seeing the title of this post and having one and only one reaction: We know. There's plenty of precedent here, though.
Ashley O was the biggest star on the planet - a huge pop star that people could not get enough of, including Rachel, her biggest fan (although Rachel's sister, Jack, wasn't really on board), so much so that there was a toy marketed that mimic's Ashley's personality. Ashley's success was orchestated by her controling aunt, who didn't pay attention to Ashley's desire to perform in a different style. Tragically, Ashley fell into a coma and her fans worldwide mourned her.
If this sounds like an episode of Black Mirror, that's because it is. And when I first heard "On A Roll" in the episode titled "Rachel, Jack, and Ashley Too", I sat right up and said "That is "Head Like A Hole"' without hesitation.
Three things immediately came to mind.
1) It was way better than I expected it to be. Miley Cyrus, who played Ashley O in the episode, also recorded singles as the character, which she had never ever done before, She freaking nailed it. And, since the song was a worldwide hit, it's clear that I'm not the only one who thought so. Were the lyrics ridiculous? I mean, the song is full of ambition and verve, but they read like a motivational poster. It's still a bop.
2) There's no way Trent Reznor was OK with this. I was wrong about that. Not only was he on board with the lyrical and stylistic rewrite of arguably his best song - by Black Mirror creator and showrunner Charlie Booker and Cyrus - he released Black Mirror-themed merchandise for sale himself.
Ashley O made an appearance at the 2019 Glastonbury music festival - complete with glitter and A hat. Not gonna like - we're here for this. It's really a solid performance of what was supposed to be a vapid song.
This far in, and this is the first NIN we post. Wow. Looks like we have a long way to go here.
(We have posts scheduled into 2026 (so far), so I wouldn't sweat us leaving anytime soon).
This song was the 2nd single from the Nine Inch Nails (which, let's face it, is Trent Reznor) debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. It was industrial, it was metal, and yet it was unlike anything else released in 1989. Radio didn't QUITE know what to do with so much angry, accessible energy, but it was still a US and UK alternative hit.
Its popularity has grown over the years, of course - it is their most covered song, and it's beloved by Rachels, Jacks and Ashleys everywhere.
This song remains popular today, and is usually the closing song at live shows. This is the performance from the Woodstock '94 festival, and it is a doozy. Yes, there is a full band - Trent cannot do everything live. All he can do is embody the angry, muddy angst of the crowd,
I mean, after we posted what we did yesterday, you had to know we'd post this well-known song by Elvis Costello & The Attractions today. A great man once said that he was OK with it and that's how rock and roll works.
This is fine by me, Billy. It’s how rock and roll works. You take the broken pieces of another thrill and make a brand new toy. That’s what I did. #subterreaneanhomesickblues#toomuchmonkeybusiness
This song was released in 1978, so more than 2 Olivia Rodrigos ago, but is still really well-known today. There's a good reason for that - it's a great song. Costello's hashtags are in reference to two songs HE himself used to influence this song.
Costello, of course, still performs this song live. Here he is, teamed up on an unusual live performance with Juanes, giving this timeless song a biligual refresh.
Wow, did Olivia Rodrigo have a couple of great years, and to her, we say "good for you!" Her debut album, Sour, won a Grammy (Best Pop Vocal Album) and, somehow for an American artist, a Juno (there's an award for International Album of the Year given yearly).
This song, the fifth and final single from the album, is not a pop song at all. It's more grnuge than pop, and actually got a lot of rock and alternative radio airplay. Because it is an Olivia Rodrigo song, it was STILL a top 20 pop hit, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Written by Rodrigo and producer Dan Nigro, the song is simply dripping with teen angst (almost as if she was in some sort of misery business) and frustration. The guitar riff sounds like something straight out of an Elvis Costello song - specifically, "Pump It Up" - but don't worry. He doesn't care (and is on record saying that). At any rate, the song is not what one would expect out of a 17-year-old songwriter, who is mature beyond her years and is destined for a long and acclaimed career (we hope).
The video is a Gen Z surreal masterpiece. Just.... watch.
In 2022, Rodrigo recorded a documentary, recorded on a road trip from Salt Lake City, called Olivia Rodrigo: Driving Home 2 U, for Disney+. As part of this, she recorded new versions of several songs with her live band, including this one. We think this performance is a true masterpiece, and shows better than the video the raw angst that the song is trying to capture.
We probably should have ended the post there, but instead, here's a 2021 performance of the song showing Rodrigo showing the exact opposite of angst - she clearly enjoys performing this song.
Martina Stoessel was an Argentine child star who got her start on a show called Patito Feo, which translates to "ugly duckling".
At some point, she moved from TV to music. She was an instant hit in Argentina and the Spanish-speaking world.
With her fourth album, Cupido, released in 2023, Tini, as she is known professionally, has hit an international audience. This was the NINTH single from the album..... which was released a month after the single. No, I'm not kidding.
Tini teamed with La Joaqui on the song, which is a women's empowerment anthem specifically tied to the dance floor, which is appropriate, because Steve Aoki's beats make this an absolute banger. The song was a hit in the Spanish-speaking world but also on Hulu, where ads for the song were EVERYWHERE.
I stumbled across this album by Heavenly, called Tragic Tiger's Sad Meltdown, which is really just a few songs and a lot of sonic experimentation. This song itself is part of an 11 minute long track that includes a recording of the ocean, which is absolutely amazing. I've supported Heavenly on Bandcamp, and you can as well.
The whole album, including this song, is luscious and minimalish ambient folk music with a hint of spoken word.
But who is Heavenly?
Looking at the credits on the track (courtesy of Spotify) gives us some clues.
Heavenly is Heavenly Hirani Tiger Lily Hutchence-Geldof, the daughter of the late Michael Hutchence of WGP Hall of Fame inductee INXS and British television personality Paula Yates. Her father passed away when she was 1, and her mother when she was 4. At that time, the father of Paula Yates's three elder children, Bob Geldof, took foster and eventually adoptive custody of Heavenly - hence the hyphenate.
Given the deaths of her parents (as well as her half sister Peaches), that makes that album title hit a little harder (I presume she's the titular tragic Tiger).
Anyway, she's made some beautiful music and we hope to hear more.
This may very well be one of the strangest songs we've ever posted on here.
In 1987, influential British label 4AD Records released a compilation album containing a bunch of songs their artists had recorded. That alsum was called Lonely Is An Eyesore, and it is a classic. The vision of label head Ivo Watts-Russell, it was intended to introduce the small label to the masses, and included a videocassette version of the album, with a music video to accompany each song. Put a pin in that, because it's important later.
4AD had featured mostly British and European artists (before you go there, yes, Dead Can Dance was Australian) but had not signed an American band until soon before this compilation was released. In 1986, they signed a four-piece minimalist pop-rock band from Newport, Rhode Island and broke that streak.
Let's rewind now, to 1985. Throwing Muses had released a cassette called The Doghouse Cassette, with a lot of their early songs, many of which the band ended up rerecording for a number of albums for years to come. One of the songs on this album was called "Fish", and it was a surreal masterpiece. As the story goes, it quickly became Ivo Watts-Russell's favorite song, and he couldn't get enough of the song.... so much so, that he made a lyric from the song the title of his prized cornerstone of a compilation album.
So, for its inclusion on Lonely Is An Eyesore, a video for this song was recorded in a loft in Boston and also at the New England Aquarium (that's where the fish came from). It shows the song and band in all its glory: David Narcizo with his military drumming (note the lack of cymbals), Leslie Langston's heavier-than-expected bassline, Tanya Donelly's ringing guitar and perfect harmonies that almost don't sound like harmonies.....
I can't just put Kristin Hersh in a list. Hersh's haunting vocals weave through the verses paint a vivid picture of vulnerability and introspection. The lyrics are poetic and enigmatic, to say the least. Her (and Donelly's) guitar to open the song and throughout are both delicate and relentless, and are a lot more complex than they sound. The most noteworthy thing about this completely surreal song is that she wrote the whole thing. It all started off with a hand-made Jesus on a crucifix on the wall of an apartment Hersh crashed in. Apparently, ir looked like a fish to her.
That speaks directly to her unparallel songwriting genius. Who else could turn I remember this quote someone once wrote about her.
"Kristin wrote the song... She is one of the most overlooked songwriters of her generation (which also happens to be my generation)". - Me, 4 March 2012
Is it hard to pick a favorite song by my favorite band? Absolutely it is. This song floats to the top - for all the reasons I've mentioned and so much more. It is a song that encapsulates the band - the minimalist yet technically tricky style, the surreal lyrics open to broad intrepretation, the award-winning video.
As I've said before, Throwing Muses were the first band I saw live, in 1989, and this song was absolutely on their setlist. I saw them in Hartford, indoors, in September, and not at a summer outdoor music festival in Glastonbury, but the song and performance were the same.
This is our 1,400th post, and for that, I wanted to share a story with y'all.
I was a DJ at WSBU, the Saint Bonaventure University college radio station, from 1990 until 1993.
Now, we were a classic rock formatted station - not the so-called "alternative" or "college music" format you saw at most university radio stations of that time period. The classic rock format was underrepresented in the rural Southern Tier of New York state - we literally had a country station on the university's front lawn - and so that decision was made. However, as a concession to all us punks, the late night hours - 11PM until 7AM - were dedicated to that fringe music that wasn't so popular on rock radio in the early 90's.
We used to get all the best fringe music from all the record labels, including all the Warner Bros. imprints. I already talked about the greatest thing we ever got from Elektra Records (apologies to Jonathan Falls, who was kind enough to hand me our station's copy of the "Counting Backwards" single by Throwing Muses (who were signed to Sire Records, which was also a Warner imprint) so I could debut it on my show (and lent me his copy of Lonely Is An Eyesore which I'm going to have to write about someday soon)).
As I came back to school for my second year, in the fall of 1991, the album Abort by a band from Boston called Tribe that I had never heard of showed up at the station. I don't know that I was the first to play this album, but when I did, I played the very first track, which was not the single, but rather a song called "Here At The Home." This was a band with harmonzied vocals that still managed to rock really hard.
I was blown away, needless to say, and played that song a lot for the next couple of years. And, well, we're still talking about it now, so I guess I'm still playing it.
What I didn't know then was that this was their 2nd album - mostly made up of songs from their self-produced first album. The title of that album? Here At The Home.
Here they are at Boston College performing the song in 1993.
Anyone who answered anything besides "Santa Monica" can sit down. It legitimately was.
You've probably heard their 2nd biggest hit, and might be surprised to know that that song - this song - was really not that far behind "Santa Monica" in airplay - Santa Monica popped into the top 30 on pop radio, whereas this song bubbled just under - and actually did BETTER on alternative music charts.
The song was written by the band and co-producted by Neal Avron (this was something of a breakthrough for him) and lead vocalist Art Alexakis, whose last name I had to literally look at three times to make sure I spelled it correctly (I did). Alexakis was the primary lyricist here, and he wrote this as a romantic song - which it is. Released in 1997, it became a fan favorite in a hurry.
Because it's a great song.
The West Hills he is referencing in this song are the Southwest Hills neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, which happens to be in the Tualatin Mountains, also known as the West Hills. We hear it's a really nice neighborhood.
Everclear is a band that is still touring and still making music. This video is from a show in Harrisburg, PA, recorded in March 2023. Two things of note:
1) Art makes it very clear this song is about love, and it is. It absolutely is.
2) Art was disagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2016 - that's a disease that statistically hits women more but hits men much harder. It likely took a lot of energy to perform, and he did so without compromise, which I greatly respect.
More impressively, they performed the song twice that day. Here's an acoustic performance of the same song during a meet and greet on the SAME DAY. I've always loved acoustic versions of this song, because I think its strength is in the raw and loving emotion of its lyrics, and they shine more here.
