“Long Day” by Matchbox 20

"Long Day" was the song Matchbox 20 chose to introduce themselves with: the first single from their 1996 Atlantic debut, Yourself or Someone Like You, where it sits second in the running order. Rob Thomas wrote it alone and sings it, Kyle Cook and Adam Gaynor handle guitars and backing vocals, Brian Yale plays bass and Paul Doucette drums, and Matt Serletic produced, mixing it with Greg Archilla.

It's post-grunge with the edges filed down for the radio, all grit in the guitars and ache in the voice, and rock radio bit: number eight on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks, with seven weeks in the top 10. The single sleeve spoofed a Diamond Matches box, and Roger Pistole's video cut the band together with black-and-white clips from an old film, Thomas short-haired in a suit and shades.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.