Considering the Grateful Dead is one of the most beloved rock bands in history, newer fans might assume the group had plenty of top 10 hits over the course of their decades-long career. But in actual fact, only one Grateful Dead song ever got close to the top of the charts…and it came out over 20 years after the band first formed.
Released on the Grateful Dead’s 1987 album In the Dark, “Touch of Grey” peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. (Their biggest hit prior to that point was “Truckin,'” which peaked at #64 in 1971.)
This belated success came at a price, however. “Touch of Grey” catapulted the Grateful Dead to a level of success they didn’t expect, weren’t prepared for, and didn’t even necessarily want.
in a 2022 interview with Esquire, Dennis McNally, who was the Dead’s publicist when “Touch of Grey” came out, called the hit “a song that almost killed the Grateful Dead.”
McNally recalled the moment he told the band that “Touch of Grey” was climbing the charts, backstage at Madison Square Garden.
“I said, ‘I have some imposing news to tell you’,” he recalled. “And they sort of looked up at me and I said, ‘You’ve made the Top 10.'”
Jerry Garcia seemed less than thrilled, according to McNally, replying, “I am appalled.”
“And he was only somewhat joking,” McNally quipped.
The demand for concert tickets was so huge that the band was forced to start playing stadiums.
“There simply were too many people,” McNally said, “and this led, among other things, to, say you’re at a big arena, and it’s got a parking lot, and the first 3,000 people that come in don’t have tickets. That means there’s 3,000 people that get there late, but that can’t park there. So then they start parking down the road, which does not make them popular with the neighborhood, or frankly with the venue.”
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Still, for all the new challenges “Touch of Grey” brought the Grateful Dead, it also became a sort of defining anthem for the band (not to mention Deadheads everywhere), especially considering Garcia’s prior health struggles (he slipped into a diabetic coma in 1986). When Garcia at last started playing live again months later, the band kicked off their first set at the Oakland Coliseum with “Touch of Grey,” broadcasting a fitting sentiment for the occasion: “We will get by / We will survive”
“Man, being in that room with 15,000 people, when Jerry stepped back on that stage and they played ‘Touch of Grey’—f—king amen! That place went nuts,” said David Gans, co-host of the Tales from the Golden Road call-in show on SiriusXM’s Grateful Dead channel, in the same interview with Esquire.
Years later, “Touch of Grey” is still an inspiring song to countless fans, and with good reason.
“It’s an excellent song,” McNally said. “I mean, one of the reasons it was a hit is that it’s a really, really, good song.”
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