An Album A Day #10: Collective Soul's DOSAGE [1999]

HERC has a couple of decent memories from the one time he listened to the film Varsity Blues at work: the inclusion of Foo Fighters' impassioned rocker "My Hero" and Collective Soul's haunting ballad "Run". It was the first time he had heard the latter song and both remain among his favorites to this day. Regular Hideaway viewers know HERC's modus operandi – hear it, like it, buy it. The problem was that "Run" was not on any of the first three Collective Soul albums but it was on the movie's soundtrack disc so HERC plunked down too much money and had his song.

Less than a month later, Collective Soul released their fourth album, Dosage, which contains "Run" among its eleven tracks and HERC picked it up. It's been a favorite in his collection ever since then. It is a state-of-the-art rock riff production with an abundance of sweeping almost orchestral ballads. The album instantly made HERC a fan of the group's sound and thanks to a sweet score at a used CD shop later that Summer, he became the owner of the rest of Collective Soul's catalog.

The haunting "Run" would turn out to be the first single released from Dosage. The song would peak at Number One on the AAA chart for three weeks thought would stall on the Hot 100 at number 76.

"Heavy", the second single from Dosage is the album's second track, a guitar-drenched scorcher they released in January 1999. Although it barely pierced the Top 75 on the Hot 100 singles chart, "Heavy" went straight to the top of Mainstream Rock charts and stayed there for an insane fifteen-week marathon run.

The third single "No More, No Less" went Top 10 on the Rock chart but failed to dent the Hot 100 after its release in June 1999.

The fourth single from Dosage was the album's opening track "Tremble For My Beloved" which has a mysterious-sounding intro before erupting into a guitar explosion. The track didn't set the charts afire upon its release in October 1999 though it was later included in the movie adaptation of Collective Soul fan Stephanie Meyer's Twilight and found new popularity among a younger generation.

A fifth and final single "Needs" was also released to radio stations in a shortened version of the more than five-minute album track. Oddly enough, this is the only song from Dosage HERC ever heard on the radio. The album and especially its first two tracks do make for great listening in the car.

Which is where HERC stumbled onto the hidden track at the end of the album. In 1998, "She Said" was included on the soundtrack to Scream 2 and made the Top 20 on the Rock chart. Although it is not listed on the Dosage track list, "She Said" begins a minute after the final listed song, "Crown" ends. Such Easter eggs were common practice in the late 90s and early 00s.