Song of the Day 3/10: Red Hot Chili Peppers, “Soul to Squeeze”

Anthony Keidas doesn’t articulate what was squeezing his soul – he descends into babbling actual nonsense in the last verse – but if you read the news these days you know how he felt.

Recorded for 1991’s “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” but left off the album because they thought it would be one ballad too many, RHCP released it as a B-side to “Give It Away,” their first No. 1 hit on Billboard’s Alternative chart, and again on the B-side of “Under the Bridge.” They dusted it off once more in 1993 for the soundtrack of “Coneheads,” the movie developed from a series of SNL skits. That prompted its release as an A-side, and it soon became their second Alternative No. 1. They went on to have a dozen more.

The circus sideshow-themed video has little to do with the film except for a cone-headed human cannonball and the cameo of SNL legend Chris Farley as a cigar-chomping truck driver, but you can tell they had fun filming it. Guitarist John Frusciante plays on the track but doesn’t appear in the video because he had already quit the band for the first time the year before.