The Wallflowers 20th Anniversary of 'Bringing Down the Horse' With Vinyl Reissue

UMe is celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Wallflowers' second album, Bringing Down the Horse, which released on Interscope Records, May 21, 1996, with a Two-LP Vinyl Reissue in May 2016.

Band leader Jakob Dylan transformed overnight from the scion of one of rock's living legends to a presence in his own right (or write, as the case may be, as the chief songwriter).

The album went quadruple-platinum, selling more than 4 million copies, and produced four multi-format hits in "One Headlight," "6th Avenue Heartache," "Three Marlenas" and "The Difference," earning a total of five Grammy nominations and two Grammy Awards (for "One Headlight") over two years.

To help mark the album's 20th anniversary next month, Universal Music Enterprises is reissuing the album for the first time on vinyl in a two-LP set on May 13.

Dylan's songs, written over the course of five years, reflected his frustration at trying to succeed on his own terms in the music business.

"Every song, fortunately, or unfortunately, is about that feeling of defeat and struggle to overcome that," he said at the time.

The release of Bringing Down the Horse changed all that. The album eventually peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200 and topped the Heatseekers chart.

The first single, "6th Avenue Heartache," went to #8 at Modern Rock Tracks, #10 at Mainstream Rock Tracks, #25 at Top 40 Mainstream, #26 at Adult Top 40 and #33 at Hot 100 Airplay.

"One Headlight" scored a triple play, going #1 at Mainstream and Modern Rock Tracks as well as Adult Top 40, #2 at Top 40 Mainstream and a year later, #7 at Hot 100 Recurrent Airplay.

"Three Marlenas" peaked at #17 at Modern Rock Tracks and #21 at Mainstream Rock Tracks, while "The Difference" went to #3 at Mainstream Rock Tracks, #5 at Modern Rock Tracks, #14 at Adult Top 40 and #19 at Top 40 Mainstream.

The album garnered five Grammy nominations and two wins over two years, including Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Song nominations for "6th Avenue Heartache" in 1997, followed by two Grammy Awards in the same categories for "One Headlight" as well as one nomination in the latter for "The Difference" in 1998.

Looking back on the album in 2012, Dylan told American Songwriter:

"Yes, I think it has stood up well. I hear those songs and I'm surprised too. I think T Bone said to me at the time that it was a hyper-modern folk record. And he was kind of right.

I do remember being aware that we were using a lot of these organic instruments... At that point we were catching everybody, including the songs, at their peak.

It was a perfect storm of characters that really made it all happen. I think we did capture lightning in a bottle. We could feel something special was happening at the time."

Bringing Down the Horse Album Track List:

1. One Headlight
2. 6th Avenue Heartache
3. Bleeders
4. Three Marlenas
5. The Difference
6. Invisible City
7. Laughing Out Loud
8. Josephine
9. God Don't Make Lonely Girls
10. Angel on My Bike
11. I Wish I Felt Nothing