Like most bands that have been going for four decades, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have undergone serious evolution in sound and style...yet you can always identify their tunes. These days, the boys have mellowed out considerably and their innovative funk and garage rock rap are largely a distant memory. But the trade off was hits. The band scored their biggest in 1992 with the ballad, "Under The Bridge," which nearly hit #1 but had to settle for #2. Their two other top 10 hits were also ballads: "Scar Tissue" reached #9 in 1999 and "Dani California" #6 in 2006. Other notable radio-friendly tunes included "Soul To Squeeze" (#22, from the movie Coneheads), "Otherside" (#14), and "Snow (Hey Oh)" (#22). Why the excellent "Tear" from the 2002 album "By The Way" didn't hit the charts is a mystery - it contains one of their greatest choruses. Going back to their early days in the 80s, "Knock Me Down" is the song that turned me onto the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It comes from their breakthrough 1989 record, "Mother's Milk." While it didn't produce a charting single, tunes like "Knock Me Down" and their insanely good cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" got them a lot of airplay and attracted fans like me to their quirky style.
Most know Tommy Lee as the theatrical drummer for glam band Motley Crue, but during their downtime he's put out a couple solo records. In 2005, he released his sophomore album, "Tommyland: The Ride," which accompanied his book of the same title and his reality TV show, Tommy Lee Goes To College. "Good Times" was the lead off track to this album, and also the theme song for his TV show. The tune gave Lee his one and only chart appearance, making at showing at #95 that year. It is a fun song to play with the top down, thanks to a killer chorus that was taken up a notch by Butch Walker (SouthGang, Marvelous 3). Other guests on this solid effort range from Chad Kroeger (Nickelback) to Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys) to Dave Navarro (Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers).
