Touch, Peel and Stand is a song by Days of the New and the lead single from their self-titled debut album. It was released in December 20, 1997 and remains arguably the band’s most popular and well known song.
The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and retained the spot for a then-record sixteen weeks. Shortly after this success, the song rose to #6 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, becoming their first Top 10 hit on the chart.
Touch, Peel and Stand is known for its raw, acoustic feel and maintains considerable radio play to this day. Despite the fact that Travis Meeks writes the majority of the songs by Days of the New, and considers it his own personal project, he has praised Matt Taul‘s cymbal-heavy percussion in the song. In a 2008 interview, Meeks noted, “As far as I’m concerned, he owns the track.”
The cover art of the Touch, Peel and Stand CD single borrows a photograph from the band’s debut album liner notes. This depicts the Wrestling Superstars figure of George “The Animal” Steele. The rubber figure is heavily battered with both his head and left arm torn off.
The music video for Touch, Peel and Stand, directed by Frank W. Ockenfels, has a disgruntled young man (Lead Singer Travis Meeks‘ friend Levi Sulivan) watching TV in a filthy, rundown house. On the TV screen, the band is performing the song in a gray, open-spaced room and appears to acknowledge the man through the screen.
He eventually becomes enraged and tosses furniture around the room before entering the bathroom and cutting off his long hair and shaving his head bald. Photos of the band are seen throughout his house. The man is eventually seen, with clothes neatly tucked in, facing a closed curtain while the band continues to perform in the TV screen.
Tracklist:
- Touch, Peel and Stand
- Touch, Peel and Stand (LP version)
Days of the New
Travis Meeks: lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Todd Whitener: lead guitar, backing vocals
Jesse Vest: bass
Matt Taul: drums
