I'm currently vacationing in a part of the country where, if you're lucky, you can pick up two or three radio stations at a time that are both 1) English language and 2) not trying to convince you that you're on the sinful path (which in my case was old news). I was in the car for a big chunk of yesterday and had the radio on the same station most of the time; and during my drive I heard Pink's "U + Ur Hand" about every couple of hours. It turns out that even though the song title hits uncomfortably close to home, it's a great summer single. But what's weird about "U + Ur Hand" is that it could have been a great single last summer too. Over a year after the release of Pink's I'm Not Dead, the record company finally came up with a song from the CD that radio was interested in, even though the disc got generally good reviews at the time of its release. Looking back on it, it appears obvious that "U + Ur Hand" was the best potential single off I'm Not Dead, but a lot of smart people must not have thought so. The album's first single, "Stupid Girls," got a lot of attention for its message and perceived targets, but purely as a song it was a mite lacking. Is it my imagination, or are we seeing more of this sort of thing lately? Traditionally, singles are released in rough order of what their perceived commercial potential is. There are deliberate exceptions that usually have to do with re-establishing an artist with their base before releasing a single with wider appeal. We used to see this sort of thing back in the heyday of hair metal, where the first single would usually be a screamer for the core audience (i.e. guys), and then the second single would be the radio-ready power ballad for the girls. Even back then, record companies didn't always know what they had--Def Leppard's biggest-ever hit, "Pour Some Sugar On Me," was the fourth single from Hysteria. But some of the biggest singles of the last few years came along relatively late in the life cycle of the albums they came from. The biggest hit of the past 12 months, Beyonce's "Irreplaceable," was the third single from B'Day even though its commercial potential was almost comically obvious, especially compared with the eccentric jazz-like first single "Deja Vu." And Gwen Stefani's first solo album was almost killed in the cradle by leadoff single "What You Waiting For"--which I actually like a lot, but was probably too out there for pop radio (come to think of it, I'm not sure I've ever heard it on the radio). The second single was the hookier "Rich Girl" before the CD really kicked into the stratosphere with "Hollaback Girl," the biggest hit Stefani has ever been associated with. I've learned that "Hollaback Girl" is a real argument-starter; a lot of people still think it's absolutely idiotic. But to me, it's clearly the most commercial song on the record, so you wonder why it took several months to get it on the radio. The latest example of this phenomenon, on a smaller scale, has come from Amy Winehouse. "Rehab" was the big hit in the U.K., but Island tried to push "You Know I'm No Good" as the first single stateside off Back to Black. That probably would have been my choice too, but radio said no no no and has jumped on "Rehab" instead, possibly because its title gives it a certain novelty element. Now I'm thinking that the Kevin Federline CD might not be dead, but only hibernating till its hidden gem of a single is discovered.
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