Throwback Thursday “The Freshmen” by The Verve Pipe (1997)

Last week's Throwback song was The Verve with "Bitter Sweet Symphony" and it reminded me of another band with a similar name!

The Verve Pipe is a band out of Michigan and their biggest claim to fame is 1997's "The Freshmen."

The song deals with some pretty heavy stuff. The Verve Pipe frontman, Brian Vander Ark, at first said the song was about him dealing with an ex-girlfriend's suicide. Later he said that the song was actually about an ex-girlfriend getting an abortion. Whichever one is true, the song is still haunting and sad, yet beautiful.

According to Wikipedia, the song was recorded a few times, "The song was first featured, in acoustic style, on their 1992 album I've Suffered a Head Injury. It was recorded a second time and released on the band's 1996 album Villains. Later that year, the band recorded the song again, this time with producer Jack Joseph Puig,^[3] for release as a single. The single was released on January 27, 1997"

Third time is a charm, I guess.

"The Freshmen" went to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, #7 on both the Mainstream Top 40 and Adult Top 40, and all the way to #1 on the Alternative Songs chart.

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