Modern Rock Tracks No. 1s - The Railway Children and "Every Beat Of The Heart"'
Every now and then, a song tops the charts and you look back and ask yourself, "How?" This week, we explore one of those songs.
The Railway Children - “Every Beat Of The Heart”
Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart: 1 week (September 8, 1990)
Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:
Bon Jovi - “Blaze Of Glory” (9/8/1990)
So here’s the thing: I’m not a very talented musician. Once upon a time, when I was young and I showed an interest in music, I played the piano and took lessons. I was OK at it, but hardly the kind of talent that could fill a concert hall (or middle-school multipurpose room). My attempts to join bands never amounted to much, and to date the closest I’ve come to organized music is coming up with goofy band names with my friends.
I’m not even a real music critic. I have a pretty diverse interest in music and I love to write about it, but my work as a “music critic” pales to most others who write for the music media. Even among the very talented group of writers who compose brilliant pieces about music here on Substack, there’s far more knowledge and depth to their reviews than I could hope to muster. (Shameless plugs for “The Lost Songs Project,” “Songs That Saved Your Life,” “The Buzz Files,” “Front Row & Backstage,” “LP,” and “On Repeat,” all of which are worth your time and attention and continue to inspire my efforts to get better.)
All of this is to say that, hey, if a band succeeded in producing a top-20 U.K. hit and a Modern Rock Tracks #1, who am I to tell you that the song really does not hold up? What aura of superiority gives me the right to say that I cannot fathom how The Railway Children managed to take a bland, treacly, otherwise unmemorable song to #1 on the MRT chart for one week in 1990? Well, I might not have the right, but I’m going to say it anyway: “Every Beat Of The Heart” is as meh as meh gets.
I put off writing this one as long as I could, using the 25th anniversary re-release of R.E.M.’s “Up” as an excuse to avoid writing about The Railway Children’s only alternative hit. What could I possibly say about this song that makes it worth the space? It’s kind of like they’re going for an XTC vibe similar to that band’s superlative hit “Mayor of Simpleton,” but it completely falls flat. If this is new wave, that wave crested long before it got to the shore.
The Railway Children kicked off their existence as part of the new-wave boom of the early 1980s, starting out in their native U.K. They had a couple of U.K. indie hits with “A Gentle Sound” and “Brighter,” neither of which came anywhere near the U.S. charts. These songs barely registered as an underground phenomenon in the U.S., and didn’t find much love in the mainstream British charts, either.
This was not an atypical pattern at this point in the MRT chart’s history. Plenty of bands charted low, or not at all, in the U.S., but their prestige across the Atlantic netted them at least a marginal cult following. Based on that following, radio programmers and producers in charge of the earliest alt-rock stations pushed the newest tracks from those bands into heavy rotation, netting those legacy bands big U.S. alt-rock hits. But with The Railway Children, there doesn’t appear to be any sustained chart success anywhere, even in their native U.K.
This makes their ascendancy to the top spot on the MRT chart baffling just because they seem to lack that prestige spark that pushed other bands to the peak. Before they hit #1 in America, their highest-charting hit on any mainstream chart came with “In The Meantime,” which peaked at #95 on the U.K. charts in 1988. And yet, even though I’m pooh-poohing their biggest British hit of the ‘80s, there’s a devoted fanbase that clearly loves the song and the band. The very first comment on the YouTube link I posted for “In The Meantime” reads thusly:
“I remember hearing this song on college radio back in the late 80s... I cannot begin to tell you how much this song and your albums meant to me back then. The combination of jangly pop and amazing singing was everything that struck straight to my heart.” - hisnamewasSam, YouTube commenter
So yeah, people love these guys, which is fine. Music is subjective like that. But for me, “Every Beat Of The Heart” just doesn’t hold up and really feels out of place with the music of this time period.
They’re noted to be influential because of their jangly pop, but unlike jangly-pop acts like R.E.M. or even Hoodoo Gurus, there’s really not a lot of substance to the jangle. It just persists on the track, trying to provide some flavor but coming across like a really bad version of vanilla. Like coconut-milk vanilla; sure, it’s vanilla, but it’s made of coconut milk, so it’s barely palatable.
In the context of the alt-rock charts, this just doesn’t seem to fit. I’m big on new-wave hits and I appreciate the soft touch as a counterbalance to the knock-your-socks-off rock of Jane’s Addiction’s first MRT chart topper, but this isn’t new-wavy enough to be a late-breaking new-wave hit, and it feels more at home on the pop charts than the alt-rock charts. Alas, this song never found that crossover audience, either, failing to break onto the Hot 100 but finishing with a respectable #24 peak on the mainstream British charts.
The Railway Children’s run at the top of the MRT charts was brief. They took the top spot away from Jane’s Addiction before JA promptly took it back a week later. Three weeks after holding the top spot, “Every Beat Of The Heart” was completely off the MRT chart, what I believe to be the fastest drop from #1 to nothing up to that point in the chart’s history. The band had two more top-70 hits on the U.K. charts: “Music Stop” and “So Right.” I’d argue that “Music Stop” is probably their best track, and “So Right” actually has a decent alt-rock vibe to it. But neither of those songs made the MRT chart, and as such are lost to history.
The band broke up in 1991 and reunited a few years later, and they are apparently still together and performing, which is really great. I’m happy that they continue to make music and still have a fan base that supports them, and again, credit to them for being better at making music than I will ever be. But I’m happy to leave “Every Beat Of The Heart” in the dustbin of U.S. alt-rock history, and am even happier that I get to move past this song and write about others that I think are far better.
Rating: 1/10
Chart Check: A look at other notable MRT chart songs from this time period
As luck would have it, this week’s “Chart Check” features bands I’m certain you know more about than The Railway Children. That doesn’t mean they’re all great tracks, though they are, arguably, far better than “Every Beat Of The Heart.”
“Velouria” by The Pixies: The Pixies are one of those born-and-bred U.S. acts that helped pave the way for the alternative boom of the 1990s, and “Velouria” was one of the tracks that put The Pixies on the map. This track, which has a softer punk-rock edge and unique instrumental breaks, managed to peak at #4 behind The Railway Children. This feels wrong, as The Pixies never managed a U.S. alt-rock chart topper, and I feel like this would have been a good week to get there. Ah well.
“Violence of Summer” by Duran Duran: These crazy kids from Great Britain, Duran Duran, managed to create something that sounds nothing like their biggest ‘80s hits, and seemingly drifted on name recognition alone into the top 15 of the MRT charts. Italians really liked it, because it peaked at #2 on the Italian music charts, but managed a less-than-stellar #64 on the Hot 100 and peaked at #13 at modern rock. It’s a fine song but will likely be remembered historically as the stuff that came between their ‘80s peak and ‘90s pop standard “Ordinary World.”
“Sense of Purpose” by Pretenders: Speaking of bands bridging the gap from their ‘80s heyday to their ‘90s resurgence, Pretenders managed to rustle up a #23 MRT peak with this middling rock hit “Sense of Purpose.” It’ll be a couple of years before Chrissie Hynde’s band strikes it big on the Hot 100 with their mid-decade tear-jerker “I’ll Stand By You,” but enough people connected with this track to make it a modest hit.
Thank you for the kind words! You've got me in great company here.
As for the song, I'm not sure I'd ever heard it before today? Seems criminal that it kept 'Velouria' from making a run to the top.
Thank you for your acknowledgement of my writing. Too kind! I’m not a musician either (my teenage attempts to learn guitar and write songs went nowhere). I’m increasingly interested in how music works emotionally, and enjoy @Jude Rogers on here - she has written a great book about this.
We’re all seeking to get better at music writing. I have a long way to go, and reading your work as inspiration.