"Joey" is the ninth track from American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

Concrete Blonde Concrete Blonde was an American alternative rock band from Hollywood, California. They were initially active from 1982 to 1995, and reunited twice: first from 2001 to 2004, and again from 2010 to 2012. They were best known for their album ''Bloo ...

's third studio album, ''

Bloodletting Bloodletting (or blood-letting) is the withdrawal of blood from a patient to prevent or cure illness and disease. Bloodletting, whether by a physician or by leeches, was based on an ancient system of medicine in which blood and other bodily flu ...

'' (1990). The song was released in 1990 and was written and sung by the band's frontwoman,

Johnette Napolitano Johnette Napolitano (born Jonette L. Napolitano; September 22, 1957) is an American singer, songwriter and bassist best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and bassist for the alternative rock group Concrete Blonde. Early life Johnette Nap ...

. The song was written in a cab on the way to a photo studio in Philadelphia; it was the last vocal recorded on the album due to Napolitano's reluctance to record the lyrics, which were hard for her to deal with. The song became the group's biggest hit, spending four weeks atop the US ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart and crossing over to pop radio, reaching number 19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100; it remains their only charting song on the latter listing. The song also reached number two in Australia and ended 1990 as Australia's sixteenth best-selling single. In Canada, "Joey" reached number four on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Top Singles chart and was ranked number 53 on the magazine's year-end chart for 1990.

Lyrics

Napolitano mentioned in her book ''Rough Mix'' that the song was written about her relationship with

Marc Moreland Marc Moreland (January 8, 1958 – March 13, 2002) was an American rock musician. He was the former guitarist for rock band Wall of Voodoo, punk band The Skulls, and rock bands Pretty and Twisted and Department of Crooks. He also released a solo ...

of the band

Wall of Voodoo Wall of Voodoo was an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, United States. Though largely an underground act for the majority of its existence, the band came to prominence when its 1982 single "Mexican Radio" became a hit on MTV an ...

. In a 2013 interview with

SongFacts Songfacts is a music-oriented website that has articles about songs, detailing the meaning behind the lyrics, how and when they were recorded, and any other info that can be found. The journalists who work for the site have interviewed thousa ...

' Dan MacIntosh, Napolitano described the process for writing "Joey" as starting with a wordless melody, to which lyrics were eventually added. According to Napolitano, she avoided writing the lyrics to "Joey" until the last possible moment due to the difficult nature of the subject matter. In her words,

"I knew what I wanted to say, but I wasn't looking forward to saying it. So it was the last vocal that I recorded. And I remember Chris every day, "Do we have vocals to 'Joey' yet? Do we have words to 'Joey' yet?" And I'm like, "Not yet." So I literally wrote them in a cab. I knew what I was going to say, it's just a matter of like a cloud's forming and then it rains. The lines are forming in my head and they're all in my head, and I know the chorus, and I know what I'm going to say. It's just a matter of fine tuning the details and how I'm going to lug it out. And then it rains. The clouds all formed and it rained. And then it happened. And that was it. And it was just there."

Music video

The music video for "Joey" was directed by Jane Simpson.

The Recording Academy The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy A ...

has described the video as " llustratingthis love triangle in the truest sense, spotlighting frontwoman Johnette Napolitano performing for an audience of one in a dark, dungeonesque bar. The lone member of the crowd could only be Napolitano's lovesick lover... who's only sick for the bottle of alcohol from which he can't avert his eyes." The video for "Joey" achieved

Buzz Bin MTV's Buzz Bin was a select group of music videos by up and coming artists and bands that the network deemed "buzz worthy", " cutting edge", or "the next big thing". As such, the selected videos received heavy rotation on the channel, and were al ...

status on MTV in 1990. A digitally remastered version of the video was uploaded to YouTube on March 12, 2009.

Track listings

US and Canadian cassette single :A. "Joey" – 4:07 :B. "I Want You" – 3:28 UK CD single # "Joey" – 4:07 # "I Want You" – 3:28 # "I Don't Need a Hero" – 4:25 European maxi-CD single # "Joey" – 4:07 # "I Want You" – 3:28 # "The Beast" – 3:52

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 1990 singles 1990 songs Concrete Blonde songs I.R.S. Records singles Songs about alcohol Songs written by Johnette Napolitano