"Susan's House" is a song by American rock band
Eels
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
. It was released as the third single from their 1996 debut album, ''
Beautiful Freak
''Beautiful Freak'' is the debut album by American rock band Eels. It was released on 13 August 1996 and is the first album released by record label DreamWorks.
Background
''Beautiful Freak'' is largely the solo work of musician Mark Oliver Ev ...
''.
Content
In his autobiography,
Mark Oliver Everett
Mark Oliver Everett (born April 10, 1963) is the American lead singer, songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist and sometimes drummer of the rock band Eels. Also known as E, he is known for writing songs tackling subjects such as death, loneliness, d ...
states that Susan "wasn't a crazy girl, a rare exception at the time". Her house was in
Pasadena
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
, not a walkable distance from where Everett lived at the time. The song focuses on the problems in the area he walks through as he goes over to visit her. By the time of recording the song, he and Susan had already been apart a few years. Susan is also the subject of the song "Beautiful Freak" from the same album.
The song samples the piano introduction from the 1974
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & the Pips were an American R&B, soul and funk family music group from Atlanta, Georgia, that remained active on the music charts and performing circuit for over three decades starting from the early 1950s.
Starting out as simply ...
track "
Love Finds Its Own Way", written by
Jim Weatherly
James Dexter Weatherly (March 17, 1943 – February 3, 2021) was an American singer-songwriter who wrote mostly pop and country music. He played quarterback at the University of Mississippi while also writing music with his own bands. He subseq ...
, who, along with Jim Jacobsen, is credited as co-writing ''Susan's House'' on both the original single and the album.
Release
"Susan's House" reached number 9 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
, the group's highest-charting single in the country to date.
Track listing
Charts
References
Eels (band) songs
1997 singles
Song recordings produced by Mark Oliver Everett
Songs written by Mark Oliver Everett
Songs written by Jim Weatherly
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