By Your Side (The Black Crowes Song) - Promotion and Release

Promotion and Release

The Black Crowes began promoting By Your Side in September 1998 when they performed at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City for an episode of the VH1 show Hard Rock Live; the episode aired on December 12. The first noticeable instance of promotion was Columbia's release of "Kickin' My Heart Around" as the album's first single on November 2, 1998. The track spent ten weeks at its peak position of number 3 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart starting on November 28; it also charted in Canada and the UK. The band's next promotional event was a performance and interview for a live album premiere radio broadcast on January 6. On January 11, the Crowes performed "Kickin' My Heart Around" on the Late Show with David Letterman.

By Your Side was released on January 12, 1999. The album's cover art is a blue-tinted nighttime photograph of the band, all dressed in white and standing in front of a lake. The band name is rendered in tiny white lights above their heads, and other small white lights are scattered at their feet. In keeping with the tiny lights theme, the back of the booklet shows a satellite image of the United States at night, in which densely populated areas can be discerned by light pollution, and the booklet contains drawings of constellations.

On the day the album was released, the band appeared at a Tower Records store in Manhattan to sign autographs and give away 1,000 tickets to that night's private show at Irving Plaza. By Your Side debuted at its peak position of number 26 on the Billboard 200 on January 30. The album has sold 271,000 copies in the US as of January 2002. The next two weeks were filled with radio and television appearances in Canada, Belgium, France, Sweden, and Italy. The Black Crowes returned to the US to perform during pre-game festivities at Joe Robbie Stadium before Super Bowl XXXIII on January 31. While on tour in support of the album in February, the band performed the second single, "Only a Fool", on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The single was released in mid-February and peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The accompanying promotional video was directed by "Weird Al" Yankovic. After an early April stop at an Atlanta radio station where the band played a half-hour acoustic set, The Black Crowes made a third late night television appearance at the end of that month, playing the album's third single, "Go Faster", on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "Go Faster" peaked at number 24 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in July. Also in late April, Chris Robinson promoted By Your Side in an interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

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