The Alternative Number Ones: 10,000 Maniacs’ “These Are Days”

In The Alternative Number Ones, I'm reviewing every #1 single in the history of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks/Alternative Songs, starting with the moment that the chart launched in 1988. This column is a companion piece to The Number Ones, and it's for members only. Thank you to everyone who's helping to keep Stereogum afloat.

They were Chelsea Clinton's favorite band. That kept coming up, again and again, in every article about Chelsea Clinton. I read a bunch of articles about Chelsea Clinton in the fall of 1992. I'm almost exactly the same age as her, and the idea of a kid like me living in the White House was fun to think about. But Chelsea Clinton was not like me. I was 13 years old, and I could not imagine telling a magazine journalist that 10,000 Maniacs were my favorite band. The entire idea was just alien to me.

When I was a kid, I felt like people were trying to push 10,000 Maniacs on me. I wasn't interested. 10,000 Maniacs had a fun name, but they did not make fun music -- not to me, anyway. They made stately, jangly folk-rock about serious subjects. They made VH1 music, adult contemporary music, grown-up music. I didn't know the word "middlebrow" yet, but I knew the vibe. When 10,000 Maniacs came on the radio, I usually didn't rush to switch stations, but I kind of glazed over. They were simply there. But "These Are Days," the band's only #1 hit on the Billboard Modern Rock charts, tickled a weird little thing in the back of my mind. That song stuck with me. Maybe these really were days that I would remember.