Hot 100 First-Timers: Jack Black Scores First Solo Hit With ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Ballad ‘Peaches’
Written by djfrosty on April 17, 2023
Jack Black, actor, comedian and musician, notches his first solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100 as his song “Peaches,” from the new Super Mario Bros. Movie, debuts at No. 83 on the chart dated April 22.
Black voices Bowser in the video-game film adaption, and the song serves as the character’s loving ode to Princess Peach (voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy).
“Peaches,” released April 7 via Illumination/Nintendo/Back Lot Music (a subsidiary of Universal Pictures), tallied 5.8 million U.S. streams and 6,000 downloads in its first week, through April 13, according to Luminate. The track also debuts at No. 6 on Digital Song Sales.
The song’s profile has been boosted by an accompanying music video directed by Lyrical Lemonade’s Cole Bennett, in which Black, decked out in a Bowser-green suit, delivers a performance of the song alone in a tower. A framed photo of Peach sits on a piano, along with a bowl of peaches.
The film claimed a historic premiere at the box office, scoring the top opening ever for an animated film with $375.6 million in worldwide ticket sales, according to final numbers. The five-day domestic haul was $204.6 million, including $146.4 million for the three-day weekend, while the overseas tally stands at $171 million from 70 markets, according to final numbers released Monday.
Black previously appeared on the Hot 100 as half of Tenacious D. Along with Kyle Gass, the comedy-rock duo’s seminal hit “The Pick of Destiny” debuted and peaked at No. 78 in November 2006.
Tenacious D has also charted four albums on the Billboard 200: Tenacious D (No. 33 in 2001), The Pick of Destiny soundtrack (No. 8, 2006), Rize of the Fenix (No. 4, 2012) and Post-Apocalypto (No. 93, 2018). The Pick of Destiny and Rize of the Fenix also both hit No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums chart.
Black and Gass formed Tenacious D in 1994 when they were both members of The Actors’ Gang theater company in Culver City, Calif. Their Spicy Meatball world tour resumes May 6 at the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta and runs through June 18.
Tenacious D won a Grammy Award in 2015 for best metal performance for “The Last in Line,” from the tribute album Ronnie James Dio, This Is Your Life. Black had previously been Grammy-nominated for best compilation soundtrack album for a motion picture, television or other visual media for School of Rock and best comedy album for Tenacious D’s Rize of the Fenix.
Before this week, Black had tallied one solo entry on Billboard’s charts: “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy,” with Jason Segel, reached No. 45 on the Holiday Digital Song Sales chart in 2010.
Black has starred in numerous blockbuster films, including The Holiday (2006), King Kong (2005), School of Rock (2003), High Fidelity (2000) and the Kung Fu Panda and Jumanji franchises.