“Touch of Grey” by The Grateful Dead

"Touch of Grey" was the first single from In the Dark, the Grateful Dead's 1987 album, but the band had been playing it for years: its live debut came as an encore at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, on September 15, 1982. Jerry Garcia wrote the music and Robert Hunter the words, and Garcia co-produced it with John Cutler.

It's a sly trick of a song, gloomy verses set to a bright, bouncing pop arrangement, with a chorus that shrugs off the grim stuff and vows to survive, then swaps "I" for "we" at the very end, turning a private promise into a shared one. For the week of June 26, 1987, it was the most added song on album rock stations. It became the Dead's only top 10 hit on the Hot 100 and went to number one on the Mainstream Rock chart.

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