Blessid Union of Souls
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use mdy dates Template:Refimprove Template:Infobox musical artist Blessid Union of Souls (sometimes abbreviated to Blessid Union or BUOS) is an American alternative rock band from Cincinnati, Ohio, that was formed in 1990 by friends Jeff Pence and Eliot Sloan.
The band's first studio album, Home, had some success due to its lead single, "I Believe". The song popularized the band with local-area DJs<ref>TNT Booking's summary Template:Webarchive of the band's career. Retrieved October 23, 2008.</ref> and became the group's most successful song.<ref>Home track listing Template:Webarchive on Blessid Union of Souls' official website. "I Believe" is the most played song.</ref>Template:Better source Their second album, the self-titled Blessid Union of Souls, did not reach the same level of success as Home, but the band's third album, Walking Off the Buzz, spawned the hit single "Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me)".<ref>CD Baby's review Template:Webarchive of Perception, which also describes the history of the band. Retrieved October 23, 2008.</ref>
History
[edit]Blessid Union of Souls formed in 1990 with guitarist Jeff Pence (Morrow, Ohio), vocalist/pianist Eliot Sloan (Cincinnati, Ohio), keyboardist C.P. Roth (who had been in Ozzy Osbourne's touring band), and drummer Eddie Hedges. Sloan and Hedges had previously played together in a band in the 1980s called The Movies (not to be confused with the British pub rock band of the same name). The band's name originated from an episode of the TV series M*A*S*H.<ref name="awaited">Template:Cite web</ref>
The band was heavily influenced by the cowpunk scene that was burgeoning around the time it formed.<ref name="crossrhytms">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1992, the band sent a demo to EMI Records, which immediately offered them a contract and spread the word about them.Template:Cn
The band released its debut album, Home, in March 1995. Later that year, the album was certified gold by the RIAA. The album's most popular song was the aforementioned "I Believe", with reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 on the magazine's Mainstream Top 40 chart, and #1 on the CHR/Pop survey from Radio & Records.Template:Cn It also spawned the Top 40 hit and "Let Me Be the One", which was featured in the soap opera All My Children.Template:Cn
Also in 1995, the band covered the song 'Way Over Yonder' by Carole King for the tribute album Tapestry Revisited: A Tribute to Carole King.Template:Cn
After EMI Records collapsed in 1996, the band signed with Capitol Records and added bassist Tony Clark.Template:Cn
The band released its second album, Blessid Union of Souls in 1997. This album was not as popular as Home but contained the Top 40 hit "I Wanna Be There" as well as "Light in Your Eyes."
The band's third album, Walking Off the Buzz, was released in 1999. This album was moderately popular due to "Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me)", a single from the album that reached No. 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top ten on both the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart (No. 8) and the CHR/Pop chart (No. 7).Template:Cn
Between 2001 and 2005, Blessid Union of Souls stayed away from the studio. The band released Blessid Union of Souls: The Singles, a greatest hits album, in 2001.Template:Cn Roth and Hedges left the band in 2002 and were replaced by Kyle Robinson, and then by Shaun Schaefer on drums and Bryan Billhimer on guitar.<ref>Blessid Union of Souls biography on Yahoo! Music Template:Webarchive</ref>
In 2003, the band released Blessid Union of Souls: Play Ball, an album about the Cincinnati Reds. The title track was used to promote the team in their first season in Great American Ballpark. This album did not receive much attention outside of Cincinnati. In 2006, Jeff Pence headed a project in which the band contributed two tracks for Clutch Hits, a CD that featured a variety of artists who contributed songs about the Cincinnati Reds. The songs were entitled "Play Ball" and "Me, Marty, Joe, Ted & Louise". The project was a fundraiser for the Reds Community Fund.
The band's fourth studio album, Perception, was released in 2005.Template:Cn Its fifth studio album, Close to the Edge, was released on September 16, 2008, on Torque Records.Template:Cn
The band's debut Contemporary Christian album, The Mission Field, was released on Salvation Road Records through Sony/Provident in March 2011. The first single, "The Only Song", reached number 32 on the Nielsen BDS Christian AC chart. The video for "The Only Song" was also added to the Gospel Music Channel & JCTV. The second single, "Pray for You", was released on July 15, 2011.Template:Cn
In 2012, the band began Hear 2 Heal project.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20130506012749/http://hear2heal.net/</ref> Hear 2 Heal is an interactive performing arts project featuring Eliot Sloan along with the performing arts students of selected schools to give the students an opportunity to be heard and to heal through the process of expression. The project began with Brownsburg High School in Brownsburg, Indiana, on November 2 and sought to reach to other schools in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky.Template:Cn
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its debut album, the band released Home 25, a limited-edition vinyl album that included vintage live versions of Home classics and Home-era demo recordings, in 2021.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Discography
[edit]Studio albums
[edit]| Title | Album details | Peak positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US <ref name="USalbums">Template:Cite web</ref> |
US Heat <ref name="USalbums2">Template:Cite web</ref> | ||
| Home |
|
78 | 1 |
| Blessid Union of Souls |
|
127 | — |
| Walking Off the Buzz |
|
143 | — |
| Perception |
|
— | — |
| Close to the Edge |
|
— | — |
| The Mission Field |
|
— | — |
| Home 25 |
|
— | — |
Compilation albums
[edit]| Title | Album details | Peak positions |
|---|---|---|
| US <ref name="USalbums" /> | ||
| Blessid Union of Souls: The Singles |
|
178 |
| Almost Acoustic (Volume 1) |
|
— |
| Playlist: The Very Best of Blessid Union of Souls |
|
— |
Singles
[edit]| Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Album | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US <ref name="USsingles">Template:Cite web</ref> |
US Top40 Main. <ref name="USsingles"/> |
US Adult Pop <ref name="USsingles"/> |
US Adult Cont. <ref name="USsingles"/> |
AUS <ref>australian-charts.com - Blessid Union Of Souls</ref> |
CAN <ref>Results - RPM - Library and Archives Canada (search) - Blessid Union of Souls Template:Webarchive *For "Believe": Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada - Top Singles - Volume 61, No. 22, July 03 1995 Template:Webarchive *For "Let Me Be the One": Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada - Top Singles - Volume 62, No. 17, November 27 1995 Template:Webarchive *For "Oh Virginia": Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada - Top Singles - Volume 63, No. 11, April 29 1996 Template:Webarchive *For "All Along": Top Singles - Volume 64, No. 2, August 26 1996 *For "I Wanna Be There": Top Singles - Volume 65, No. 21, July 28 1997 Template:Webarchive *For "Hey Leonardo": Top Singles - Volume 69, No. 19, August 23, 1999 Template:Webarchive</ref> |
GER <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
NL <ref>dutchcharts.nl - Blessid Union Of Souls</ref> |
NZ <ref>New Zealand charts - Blessid Union Of Souls</ref> |
UK <ref>Blessid Union Of Souls - The Official Charts Company</ref> | |||||
| 1995 | "I Believe" | 8 | 2 | 24 | 5 | 18 | 6 | 56 | — | 7 | 29 | Home | ||
| "Let Me Be the One" | 29 | 14 | 24 | 24 | — | 48 | — | — | — | 74 | ||||
| 1996 | "Oh Virginia" | — | 23 | 27 | 30 | — | 16 | — | — | — | — | |||
| "All Along" | 70 | 26 | — | 27 | — | 58 | — | — | — | — | ||||
| 1997 | "I Wanna Be There" | 39 | 22 | 25 | — | — | 19 | — | — | — | — | Blessid Union of Souls | ||
| 1998 | "Light in Your Eyes" | 48 | 25 | 29 | 16 | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1999 | "Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me)" | 33 | 8 | 16 | — | 17 | 7 | — | 73 | 44 | — | Walking Off the Buzz | ||
| "Standing at the Edge of the Earth" | — | 35 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "Rev It Up (Nascar Rocks)" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Non-album single / Blessid Union of Souls: The Singles | |||
| 2000 | "That's the Girl I've Been Telling You About" | — | — | — | — | 100 | — | — | — | — | — | Walking Off the Buzz | ||
| 2001 | "Storybook Life" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Blessid Union of Souls: The Singles | ||
| 2008 | "Could've Been with You" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | Close to the Edge | ||
| 2011 | "The Only Song" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | The Mission Field | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart | ||||||||||||||
They also performed a track in Pokémon: The First Movie titled "Brother My Brother" and the main theme for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls titled "It's Alright".
Music videos
[edit]| Year | Video | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | "I Believe"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Michael Salomon |
| 1997 | "I Wanna Be There"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Bill Fishman |
| 1999 | "Hey Leonardo (She Likes Me for Me)"<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | Geoff Moore |
| 2011 | "The Only Song"<ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref> | Matt Rozzell |