Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Retro Video of the Week: "No Rain" by Blind Melon

Friday will mark the 25th anniversary of the release of Blind Melon's self-titled debut album.  Blind Melon was fronted by Shannon Hoon, whose sister was one of Axl Rose's high school friends in Lafayette, Indiana (although Hoon and Rose did not connect until they were both in LA in the early '90s).  Hoon sang backing vocals on two songs off of GNR's Use Your Illusion I album -- "Don't Cry" and "The Garden."

But he would make his biggest splash (rain pun intended) as the lead singer of Blind Melon.  Of course, the band's biggest (and only) hit was "No Rain," a happy-go-lucky song with a memorable video.  The song reached #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, but was also #1 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, #4 on the Billboard Top 40 Mainstream chart, #1 in Canada, #8 in Australia, and in the Top 40 in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK.  On the strength of "No Rain," the album reached as high as #3 on the Billboard album charts and went quadruple platinum in the U.S.  Sadly, Hoon died of a cocaine overdose in 1995, just a few weeks after he turned 28.

Here is the iconic "Bee Girl" video for "No Rain."  If realizing that this song is 25 years old doesn't make you feel old, then you should know that the "Bee Girl" from the video, Heather DeLoach, is 34 years old.

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