Retro Video of the Week: "The Difference" by The Wallflowers

Before getting to this week's Retro Video of the Week, I have to return to the age-old question posited two weeks ago in my Retro Video of the Week post:  Which Hanson song is better: "MMMBop" or "Where's The Love"?  According to the very scientific poll conducted on this here blog (open for a week after the aforementioned post), "MMMBop" is the hands-down winner, garnering a near-perfect 100% of the votes (margin of error is 0%).  So there you have it, Gregerson.

Now onto this week's video.  Saturday is the 20th anniversary of the release of The Wallflowers' multiplatinum album Bringing Down the Horse -- a prominent fixture in dorm rooms across Indiana University's campus that next fall (my freshman year) and presumably across many other campuses.  Of course, the kitsch of The Wallflowers was that Bob Dylan's son, Jakob, was the lead singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist.  But don't think that Jakob rested on his family name.  Produced by T Bone Burnett, Bringing Down the Horse was a great alt rock album that charted in the Top 5 of the Billboard album charts and eventually went quadruple platinum in the US.  The album spawned four radio hits:  "6th Avenue Heartache" (featuring Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz on backing vocals and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' Mike Campbell on slide guitar), "One Headlight," "Three Marlenas," and "The Difference."  All but "Three Marlenas" were nominated for a Grammy, and "One Headlight" took home two Grammy Awards.

I'm going to go with "The Difference" as this week's Retro Video of the Week because it's my favorite song off the album.  It's a driving, uptempo, pretty straightforward rock song.  While it didn't have the success of "One Headlight" or "6th Avenue Heartache," "The Difference" still did pretty well, cracking the Top 20 of the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart (#19), Mainstream Rock Tracks chart (#3), Modern Rock Tracks chart (#5), and Adult Top 40 chart (#14).  The video is a nice homage to '60s psychedelic concert posters.