Modern Rock Tracks No.1s - Hoodoo Gurus and "Come Anytime”

On Australian alt-rock royalty, how sometimes being in the right place at the right time gets you to #1, and Hoodoo Gurus’ only MRT chart topper, a smooth R.E.M.-flavored summertime jam

Hoodoo Gurus - “Come Anytime”

Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart: 3 (8/26/89 - 9/9/89)

Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:

• Richard Marx - “Right Here Waiting” (8/26/89)

• Paula Abdul - “Cold Hearted” (9/2/89)

• New Kids On The Block - “Hangin’ Tough” (9/9/89)

You may have heard of a band from the late 1960s called Creedence Clearwater Revival. This is not a huge surprise; CCR, as they’re colloquially known, produced some of the most iconic songs of the era. You can’t get 20 minutes into a Vietnam-era movie without hearing “Fortunate Son,” or listen to any classic rock station and avoid “Proud Mary” for more than an hour or two.

One thing I learned about this band is that, for all its successes and its radio ubiquity, CCR never had a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. (Once again, another plug for Chris Molanphy’s “Hit Parade” podcast, which breaks down CCR’s lack of a #1 hit in the “Bad Moon Rising” edition.) They had five hits that stopped at #2, and even the aforementioned “Fortunate Son” only peaked at #3. There are plenty of acts who followed CCR who reached #2 without hitting the top spot (the most recent example I can think of is Dua Lipa’s terrific “Levitating,” though there are many others), even though in a good number of cases, those #2 songs are generally more popular or better remembered over the course of music history than the ones which charted higher.

I preface this discussion to point out that I’m not throwing shade at Hoodoo Gurus by mentioning this. Hoodoo Gurus, though less well known in the United States, are basically Australian rock royalty. They were 2007 inductees into the Australia Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame, they have five albums that charted in the top 10 in Australia, including their 2022 release “Chariot of the God,” and eight top-40 singles on the Australian music charts. But if you would have told me that Hoodoo Gurus would be the band to keep The Cure’s iconic “Love Song” out of the top spot on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the U.S., I wouldn’t have believed you. And I would have said, “Who are the Hoodoo Gurus? And what song could possibly have kept The Cure out of the top spot?”

That song: “Come Anytime.”

And here’s the thing about “Come Anytime”: It’s actually a decent summertime jam. If anything, it rolled into the alternative rock zeitgeist at the perfect moment, riding a wave of upbeat summer hits and sounding adjacent to U.S. alt rockers R.E.M. and last week’s chart topper, the B-52’s. There’s even a hint of XTC in there, with some occasional harmonizing that evokes a generally playful and light aesthetic.

The song itself features a narrator looking to convince a potential love interest (or at least a very close friend) to feel free to join him in his adventures no matter what else is going on in their lives. It’s an open invitation to hang out, to be together, to be a “heart’s desire” or “wildest dream,” but without the pressure of having to act on that feeling right away:

Come anytime, I won´t give you pressure
Come anytime - I can wait forever
And if you can´t make up your mind
We could make it up together.

It’s an upbeat contrast to the comparably themed “Love Song,” where the narrator professes their love for their muse, but with a slightly more obsessive and dour tone. It’s not that The Cure’s narrator is completely obsessed, but it does feel like that person finds their happiness in the other person so much that they seem incomplete without that person. Not quite co-dependent, but not quite “I can wait forever” territory, either.

So maybe that’s what propelled “Come Anytime” past “Love Song” in that moment, dooming the former to perpetual runner-up status on the MRT chart. Upbeat dance songs and cheery testimonials were all the rage at that point. The B-52’s eruption on the scene with “Channel Z” presaged their even bigger success with their next #1 hit; XTC and FYC both dominated their respective charts in the summer of ‘89 with upbeat tracks; and on the Hot 100, Paula Abdul, Prince, Milli Vanilli, and New Kids On The Block were dominating. Richard Marx appears to be the biggest exception to this rule, with his eloquent but decidedly dramatic “Waiting For You” commanding the main chart for three weeks, but overall, the charts belonged to bands looking to have fun. Hoodoo Gurus fit that bill.

There’s not much more to say, though, about Hoodoo Gurus as they relate to the U.S. music charts. While they continued to put together hits in their native Australia, success remained an underground pursuit in the U.S. and elsewhere. After three weeks topping the MRT chart in 1989 with the lead single from “Magnum Cum Louder,” the Gurus managed one more top-five effort on the MRT chart, the #3 hit “Miss Freelove ‘69” off their “Kinky” album. They never charted in the U.S. again.

So here’s to the Hoodoo Gurus and to being in the right place at the right time, the CCR of the late 1980s Modern Rock Tracks chart, the blocker of all things Cure, and the bridge between “Channel Z” and the next chart topper.

Rating: 5/10

Chart notes: Not a lot going on during these three weeks, but some decent jams made it near the top of the charts. We also see our first appearance by the Beasties on the MRT chart.

• “Love Song” by The Cure: Have I talked about this one enough? It seems worth mentioning this song here, not just because it peaked at #2 behind “Come Anytime,” but that it also reached #2 on the Hot 100 in 1989. It came very close to topping both charts, a feat that will happen pretty soon to another artist.

• “Look Who’s Dancing” by Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers: The top of the MRT charts at this time was an odd mish-mash of genres and styles, as evidenced by this reggae-infused dance jam from the progeny of Bob Marley. “Look Who’s Dancing” peaked at #2 behind “Come Anytime,” offering an alternative to the lovelorn tracks by Richard Marx, The Cure, and Hoodoo Gurus, while offering a reggae-flavored change of pace from Paula Abdul and NKOTB.

• “Don’t Crash the Car Tonight” by Mary’s Danish: Give me a female-fronted punk-adjacent rock band any time, and I’ll find room for it in the chart notes. This debut effort from Mary’s Danish was a solid start to a career that didn’t get too far off the ground due to what appears to be difficulties with record labels, but this KROC-promoted single managed a solid MRT peak of #7 behind “Come Anytime.”

• “Hey Ladies” by Beastie Boys: If there was a Modern Rock Tracks chart during the Beastie Boys’ “License to Ill” days, odds are good it would have contained a Beastie chart topper or two, even though they’re really not “modern rock” in the traditional sense. But it’s hard to imagine anyone trying to follow up a modern classic like “License to Ill” and generate big hits; indeed, it would have taken a Herculean effort to hit those highs, and the lead single from “Paul’s Boutique” wasn’t that effort. It peaked at #18 behind “Come Anytime,” which is charitable. Don’t fret for the Beasties, though; we’ll see them here again, and eventually they’ll even top this chart.