Remember When: The Grateful Dead Scored Their First Top-10 Hit—20 Years Into Their Career

For so long the icons of the counterculture, the Grateful Dead seemed like they’d always run far afield from the popular tastes of Top-40 radio. And it didn’t seem like it bothered them one bit. Until one day, two decades into their recording career, they found one of their songs sitting in the Billboard Top 10.

That song was “Touch of Grey,” released in 1987, and it delivered the band a whole slew of new fans, many of whom knew little about their reputation as jam-band road warriors. Here’s how this song about getting by did a whole lot more than that for the Grateful Dead.

The Dead Come Back

In the first half of the ’80s, the Grateful Dead seemed content with the fact their career as studio record-makers was, if not completely kaput, at least indefinitely on the back burner. After a string of classics in the early ’70s, they seemed to lose interest in going for broke in the studio in the second half of the decade, a stretch that culminated with the poorly received 1980 record Go to Heaven.

Perhaps sensing it was futile to compete in that arena in the early ’80s when music was dominated by videos and synthetic sounds, the Dead simply concentrated on their tours. They tended to the flock of live fans who followed them from city to city, and took a seven-year break between studio records.

In 1986, Jerry Garcia, the band’s lead singer, guitarist, and chief songwriter, fell into a coma following a show. Garcia eventually recovered to the point he could play again. Perhaps sensing there might be a demand for them from fans feeling sentimental and concerned, the Dead decided it was time to deliver a new record. Luckily, they had a backlog of originals they’d been playing live for the past several years that hadn’t yet been laid down on wax. One of those was “Touch of Grey.”

The Right “Touch”

Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter worked up the words to “Touch of Grey” back in 1980. Garcia wrote the music, and the song joined the band’s set lists by 1982. It was a crowd-pleaser, what with its sing-along chorus that allowed the fans to get into the act.

The band made the interesting decision to record the bulk of the new album in an audience-free San Rafael, California, concert venue without any stage lighting. (Hence, the album title In the Dark). Band members felt the process eliminated the loitering and dawdling that usually took place in a recording studio, and it also helped them create a sound akin to what they managed in concert.

“Touch of Grey” was earmarked early in the process as the single that would introduce the album to the world. The song’s message of resilience in the face of all manner of life’s slings and arrows would certainly appeal to the band’s fans who knew their story, while the catchy refrain might just catch some ears on radio. But considering the band had never before had a Top-40 single in 20 years or so worth of albums, why would this unassuming little track change of that?

“Grey’s” Anatomy of a Hit

Several things conspired to make “Touch of Grey” a stunning success. The band made a video, and it was a good one, playing off their famous skeleton logo in amusing ways. In addition, the second half of the decade was somewhat kind to heritage rock acts as musical tastes shifted once again. Finally, Arista Records exec Clive Davis, wanting to give a band that he admired a boost, pushed the song hard.

All that said, “Touch of Grey” is a natural hit single. Hunter’s lyrics are accessible enough for casual listeners to get the message, while still throwing in enough quirks for diehard fans. That chorus is simple, yet rivetingly effective. And it’s a wonderful performance by Garcia, all lyrical lead guitar notes and twinkle-in-the-eye vocal presence.

When the dust cleared, “Touch of Grey” had reached No. 9 in the pop charts, and its success carried In the Dark to the band’s highest-ever album-chart position (No. 6). The Grateful Dead were the hottest band in modern rock radio for about a minute there, perhaps their biggest swerve in a career filled with gleefully defying the norm.

Photo by Larry Busacca/WireImage