Modern Rock Tracks No. 1s - Siouxsie And The Banshees and "Kiss Them For Me"
The very first Modern Rock Tracks chart-topping band comes back for an encore performance with "Kiss Them For Me," the beginning of the end of British dominance on the U.S. alternative charts
Siouxsie And The Banshees - “Kiss Them For Me”
Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart: 5 weeks (July 6 to August 3, 1991)
Previous Modern Rock #1 hit: Electronic - “Get The Message”
Next Modern Rock #1 hit: Big Audio Dynamite II - “Rush”
Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:
Paula Abdul - “Rush Rush” (7/6/91 and 7/13/91 - 5 total weeks)
EMF - “Unbelievable” (7/20/91)
Bryan Adams - “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” (7/27/91 and 8/3/91)
If you’re going to go out, best to go out with a bang.
We’re not there yet, but two years after the release of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ final Modern Rock Tracks chart topper, “Kiss Them For Me,” the MRT chart will undergo a seismic shift regarding the country of origin of its hit-making acts. Up to this point, of the 38 acts to reach the peak of the MRT chart, a staggering 23 of them call Great Britain home. American acts would still find room on the chart, but generally not among the biggest hitmakers, and groups from Ireland, Scotland and Australia also contributed to this outsized international presence on the U.S. modern rock and alternative charts.
I sometimes wonder how different my musical tastes would be today if this dominance continued into the mid and late 1990s. Would I have embraced the singular greatness of The Cure, World Party, and Electronic? Would my formative teenage music years been shaped by Madchester acts like Happy Mondays and Britpop groups like Pulp? Hard to say in retrospect, but for American audiences, the zeitgeist shifted in a different direction, and the charts followed accordingly.
But for British acts, the party wasn’t over on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in 1991, and in an interesting coincidence of timing, the first three bands to top the MRT chart at its inception each managed one more #1 hit on the chart, and they arrived in the very same order they did when the chart launched in 1988. That sequence begins with Siouxsie Sue and her Banshees, who hit the top of the MRT chart again with their most commercially successful single in America: “Kiss Them For Me.”
The Banshees topped the charts with a single about Jayne Mansfield, the American actress who rose to fame as an actress, singer, and Playboy Playmate in the ‘50s and ‘60s. In an homage to her transfixing beauty and extroversion, Siouxsie Sue sings about the life and times of this fascinating public figure:
It glittered and it gleamed
For the arriving beauty queen
A ring and a car
Now you're the prettiest by far
No party she'd not attend
No invitation she wouldn't send
The song title itself, “Kiss Them For Me,” is a direct link to a 1957 film of the same name starring Mansfield and Cary Grant. I’ve never seen the movie (though it’s available in full on YouTube if you so desire), but it’s clear Mansfield has a certain charisma and energy in the role, and I’m certain she attracted lots of attention during her relatively brief time in the spotlight.
And, let’s be honest: She’s very, very attractive. She initially rose to stardom due to an appearance in one of the earliest editions of Playboy magazine, becoming “Playmate of the Month” for February 1955. She was suspected of having romantic trysts with famous men at the time, and was in the same rarified air as Marilyn Monroe when it came to discussing the most beautiful blondes of the era (though Mansfield was a natural brunette).
And sadly, the song also references the tragic end of Mansfield’s life. En route to New Orleans in 1967, she was killed in a car crash along with two other adults, though three of her children traveling with the party in the back seat all survived. She was 34 at the time of her death, and Siouxsie and the Banshees recall that moment in detail:
On the road to New Orleans
A spray of stars hit the screen
As the tenth impact shimmered
The forbidden candles beamed, oh
All of this to say that, as a tribute to Jayne Mansfield, this song succeeds completely. But it’s the song itself that helped catapult Siouxsie and the Banshees into the mainstream, and helped the band attain their highest accolades on the U.S. charts.
“Kiss Them For Me,” in addition to becoming the band’s second and final MRT chart topper, became their highest charting Hot 100 single, peaking at #23. That this song became a top-30 mainstream pop hit speaks to the band’s ability to navigate the changing landscape of modern music, so much so that their noted eclecticism over the years finally paid off with this track, as mainstream pop music finally caught up with them. As dance-pop tracks go, “Kiss Them For Me” is a solid contender for one of the best of the early ‘90s, and it’s peak position of #8 on the Billboard Dance Songs chart speaks to that success.
The groove is slow- to mid-tempo, with Siouxsie Sue gliding effortlessly over the bouncing track with her signature voice. It’s much more subdued than their previous #1 hit “Peek-a-Boo,” showing a maturation that likely comes from nearly two decades in the music business, but is also active enough to find a home in the dance-club scene.
As a dance track, this song pops, but as a song that I will routinely play on my drive to work or while shuffling through my news feed, I don’t see it having much staying power. That said, it’s been a real pleasure digging into this band’s backstory and learning more about how their sound helped set the stage for so many acts that came after them. In just about every song of theirs, I hear echoes of future acts, and I have to think their influence is deserving of more attention than it gets currently.
In addition to the chart accolades mentioned above for the single, Siouxsie and the Banshees also recorded their highest album chart position with its album “Superstition,” which peaked at a modest but impressive #65 on the Billboard 200 Album chart. Plenty of other songs from the band have done better over the years in terms of Spotify plays, but at 16 million unique hits and counting, “Kiss Them For Me” still has a relatively broad appeal, and “Superstition” still ranks as the band’s biggest seller in the U.S.
Siouxsie and the Banshees hold a very special place in this chart’s history, not only being front and center in the chart’s first iteration in September 1988, but also playing an important role in the formation of a sound that defined the first five years of the chart’s history. Even though these early British modern rock tracks hits would eventually give way to more American acts as alternative audiences shifted toward grunge and post-grunge, I’ve found this portion of my chart review to be revelatory. There wouldn’t be a movement toward alternative rock in the mainstream without bands like Siouxsie and the Banshees, and I think all music fans would benefit from a review of these early pioneers of “modern rock.” We won’t see them again at the top of the chart, and the band would cease to exist in 1996 after 11 albums and nearly 20 years together, but the Banshees will be back around again with some more hits before the decade concludes.
Rating: 7/10
Chart Check: A look at other notable MRT chart songs from this time period
Chocolate cake, nacho cheese, people who are both shiny and happy, and seals grace the charts during this stretch of time in 1991. It’s an eclectic mix of songs, to be sure, but covers a decent cross-section of alternative music at the time.
“Chocolate Cake” by Crowded House: Crowded House made big waves with their first album, notching two top-10 Hot 100 singles with “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (#2) and Something So Strong” (#7) in 1986 and 1987, respectively. Their second album did not perform nearly as well, but they made a solid comeback with “Chocolate Cake,” the lead single off 1991’s “Woodface” album. This track is pretty solid, actually, even though it’s effectively poking fun at the emerging obesity epidemic in the U.S. The track performed strongly on alternative rock radio and peaked at #2 on the MRT chart behind “Kiss Them For Me.”
“Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M.: Music critics, and indeed many R.E.M. fans, are divided over this song’s legacy. Originally intended to be the band’s first single off the album “Out of Time,” this one was relegated to the second release and it performed well on both alternative and mainstream radio. In addition to its #3 peak on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, it also became the band’s second Hot 100 top-10 hit, topping out at #10 in the summer of ‘91. Personally, I loved the song then, and still love it today. It was one of my gateways into R.E.M.’s catalog, and watching the video brings back shiny happy memories of that time in my life. Bill Berry and Mike Mills are especially fun to watch in this video, while Peter Buck pretty much assumes the same monotone facial pose he had in “Losing My Religion.” Bonus points for the lovely Kate Pierson of B-52’s fame joining in the fun.
“Crazy” by Seal: Seal exploded on the music scene immediately with the release of his first single, “Crazy,” which peaked at a surprisingly high #5 on the MRT chart. I didn’t see this one as an alternative hit as much as a mainstream one, but apparently it struck a chord across genres and throughout the world. It was a top-10 hit in 18 countries and peaked at #7 on the U.S. Hot 100 in 1991. The track holds up well more than 30 years after its release.
“Sex On Wheelz” by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult: Chicago-based industrial rock pioneers My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult scored a modest MRT hit with “Sex on Wheelz,” which peaked at #23 on the charts behind Siouxsie and the Banshees. It’s … interesting. With lyrics like “I'll turn you on like a tiger, baby” and “Be my little human sacrifice,” it likely wasn’t scoring a lot of points with folks like Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center, but maybe that’s what they were going for.
“Jerry Was A Race Car Driver” by Primus: Nobody sounds quite like Primus, and they broke through with alternative radio for the first time in 1991 with “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver,” which peaked at #23 on the MRT chart behind “Kiss Them For Me.” This video is likely the best mix of nacho cheese and stop-motion clay animation I’ve ever seen.
Loving both 'Kiss The For Me' and "Shadowtime' were unpopular takes in my crowd growing up--everyone thought this record was too polished for Siouxsie. But I did, and I still do.