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The Grateful Dead had ONE #1 hit single, and even that was somewhat of a fluke.
Their legendary status as one of America's best loved bands came from their mind-bending music and incredible live jams. They were, first and foremost, an underground cult band...and proud of it...with a fanbase of Deadheads" who not only loved their music...but who sometimes literally followed them from concert to concert, town to town, for years on end.
By the 1980s, the group had found it increasingly difficult to "age gracefully." This bummed them out...until...Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia, penned today's Great Song of 1987: "Touch of Grey," for their album, "In the Dark."
The line, "I will get by, I will survive" became a mantra for both the group, and their fans, who were aging right along with them.
The Dead were never a singles band, nor did they ever set out to be a radio-friendly Top 40 group...but with "Touch of Grey," they touched a whole new market and gained a countless number of NEW fans, who retroactively started getting into their entire catalog of music.
The song was released as a single, and topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart, and reached #9 on the Hot 100.
They even made a video that was played heavily on MTV.
Overall, it was quite a tonic for the "Dead" to be so "Alive" and popular at this stage of their career.
So, in essence, "Touch of Grey" gave them a touch of "youthfulness they didn't know they needed. It was a "Great Song of 1987.
Tomorrow: An Olympic Moment.
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