October 26, 1996
- STAYED AT #1:3 Weeks
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. The column is now biweekly, alternating with The Number Ones on Mondays.
When Bradley Nowell died in May 1996, the world didn't really notice. I don't even remember exactly when I learned about the Sublime frontman's death, and I was a fan. I'd been a fan for months.
Sublime were apparently a huge deal in California before Nowell's passing, but that was not the case on the East Coast, where I lived. My entry point was that I heard a ska song called "Date Rape" on the radio once or twice. That song has aged in some really fucked up ways, and we'll get into it below, but I liked it. I knew that it was by a band called Sublime, and I knew nothing else about it. When my family went to Florida for Thanksgiving 1995, I found a cassette copy of Sublime's album 40 Oz. To Freedom at a mall record store; I bought that and the Misfits' Collection II at the same time. 40 Oz. To Freedom was a weird, fascinating record, and I kept listening to it until the tape warped, or maybe the tape just always sounded warped. With Sublime, it was hard to tell.