Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Top 100 Songs From the 1990s (No. 90)

90. "Into Your Arms"
Artist: The Lemonheads
Year: 1993

When I think of the Lemonheads, minus frontman Evan Dando's personal problems, boyish good looks and mysterious relationship with Juliana Hatfield, the three songs that come to my mind are "Luka," "Mrs. Robinson" and "Into Your Arms." All three are covers, and perhaps that's why I never really got too deep into the band. Having said that, it doesn't really matter who wrote this one. It's a simple and quite moving piece of power pop that will always hold up. It's one of the most successful songs ever to grace Billboard's somewhat irrelevant Modern Rock Tracks chart, holding on to the top spot for nine weeks. I hope it brought untold riches to Aussie artist Robyn St. Clare. What's her connection to Dando? She was one half of the duo Love Positions. The other half was Nic Dalton, and he played bass for the Lemonheads during the band's most successful years. Find "Into Your Arms" on the album 'Come on Feel the Lemonheads.' Oh, and here is the original version. Kind of sounds like the Vaselines.

5 comments:

McPop said...

Brian, thanks for posting this great song and the original too. Wasn't Robyn St. Clare also in the Hummingbirds? I love their loveBuzz album from the late 80's.

Brian said...

Hey, McPop. Yep. The Hummingbirds was her main band. I think the duo with Nic was more of a side project. So much great music from that corner of the world.

The Swede said...

Terrific. And thanks for all the background info - very interesting. I used to quite like a couple of songs by The Hummingbirds - I never knew all the connections!

Scott said...

Not a huge fan of The Lemonheads but Into Your Arms is fantastic song. Did not realise that it was a cover until today.

Brian said...

Swede,
In all of these years I don't think I ever had a post on the hummingbirds. Need to rectify that soon.

Scott,
I think we are in the same boat on the Lemonheads, but I'm trying to be as honest as I can on these choices. This was Dando's one moment with me. There are bands I liked a whole lot more sitting on the sidelines. That's the slippery slope with these picks near the bottom of the list. I'll come clean with the near misses when it's all over.