Happy Anniversary: Collective Soul, Dosage

17 years ago today, Collective Soul released their fourth studio album, an effort which featured a song that was a #1 hit on the Mainstream Rock chart for an unbelievable 15 weeks.

When Collective Soul made their full-length debut with Hints, Allegations & Things Left Unsaid in 1993, there was no particular reason to expect the band to do more than thrive in the grunge era and then struggle to survive in the subsequent years. That's not to say anything against the band or their music, only to say that you never can predict the lifespan of any band that arrives just in time to fit into the latest trend on the pop charts. Collective Soul defied the odds, however, and in a ridiculously big way: they've earned a staggering seven #1 Mainstream Rock hits over the course of their career to date.

Dosage may have been the last album issued by Collective Soul to earn them one of those #1 Mainstream Rock singles, but in its defense, it's hard to feel too bad when that particular #1 ends up being a record setter for the band. “Heavy” was the second single released from Dosage, following in the footsteps of “Run,” but you would've thought that “Run” was standing still based on the way “Heavy” eclipsed its success: it sat atop the Mainstream Rock chart for a staggering 15 weeks, easily beating the performance of any of the band's preceding six #1 singles on the chart.

Collective Soul continued to hit the upper reaches of the chart for the next few years, with “Why, Pt. 2” hitting #2 in 2000 and “Counting the Days” hitting #8 in 2004, but as musical fashions changed, the band's successes weren't quite as startling. Still, the band just released a new album last year (See What You Started), and it hit #1 on the Alternative chart only a few weeks after hitting record store shelves. As such, even this far down the line, it still premature to count out Collective Soul just yet.