The Replacements “I’ll Be You” b/w “Date to Church” 1989. Today, October 6th, is Minnepolis-based alt-rockers Replacements’ bassist and co-founder Tommy Stinson’s 50th birthday (b. 1966). “I’ll Be You” appears on the band’s 7th studio album Don’t Tell a Soul and was their only single to chart, reaching #51 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and hitting #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and Album Rock Tracks chart. It is the kind of watered-down power pop that I never have really cared for, far preferring edgier and harder rocking releases. Allmusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine agrees with me, writing this about Don’t Tell a Soul: [it is] a highly lacquered dilution of the ‘Mats that is as misguided a crossover attempt as can be imagined. Matt Wallace’s enormous, bottomless production – as fathomless and dull as a muddy lake – is merely a symptom of the illness that infected the Replacements during the making of Don’t Tell a Soul, an illness that left the bandmembers with little sense of themselves… What’s really missed here is any sense that this is the work of a band: this is a record that’s been assembled track to track, lacking any spark or spontaneity… the saddest thing about Don’t Tell a Soul: it’s a transparent sellout that failed to sell.

The b-side to the single, “Date to Church,” is a swinging little number, interesting because of the appearance of Tom Waits. Paul Westerberg in an interview for Magnet Real Music Alternative said about the song, “Tom Waits is on ‘Date To Church.’ He had a whole sermonette in there, but we had to edit it down because it was too much Tom Waits for his label’s taste. We spent an infamous night together in the studio (in 1988). The drunkest men in the world, me singing ‘Ol’ 55’ and him singing ‘If Only You Were Lonely.’ Pretty ragged.”