High Enough Explained

High Enough
Cover:High Enough Cassingle.jpg
Caption:US commercial cassette single
Type:single
Artist:Damn Yankees
Album:Damn Yankees
B-Side:Piledriver
Released:September 22, 1990
Genre:Glam metal[1]
Length:
  • 4:45 (album version)
  • 4:17 (single version)
Label:Warner Bros.
Producer:Ron Nevison
Prev Title:Coming of Age
Prev Year:1990
Next Title:Come Again
Next Year:1991

"High Enough" is a song by American supergroup Damn Yankees from their self-titled debut album. A power ballad, it is their most successful single in terms of chart position and sales, rising to 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, the group's first (and only) top-ten pop single. It also reached No. 2 on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The success of "High Enough" helped send its parent album into the top 20 on the US albums chart.

Background

According to songwriter and co-lead vocalist Jack Blades:

Music video

The music video was filmed on location in River Ridge, Louisiana, and depicts a young drifter and his girlfriend who commit a series of robberies. However, their last one appears to have far more serious consequences as they become the targets of a manhunt by the local police. It is implied, but not specifically shown, that the drifter may have committed murder. The girlfriend is captured, but the drifter escapes and is cornered in his home by the police, who shoot the house full of bullets. The police invade the house, but the drifter's fate is unclear (possibly died during the gunfire). The girlfriend is given the death penalty and at the video's slowing end is being read her last rites by a priest while she is being led out of her cell to the execution chamber. As the video ends, the priest is revealed to be the perpetually-gum-chewing Ted Nugent.

Track listings

7-inch and cassette single[2] [3]

  1. "High Enough" (single version) – 4:17
  2. "Piledriver" (album version) – 4:18

12-inch and CD single[4] [5]

  1. "High Enough" (LP version) – 4:43
  2. "Piledriver" (LP version) – 4:18
  3. "Bonestripper" – 4:22

Personnel

Damn Yankees

Additional personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1990–1991)Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[6] 57
US Billboard Hot 100[7] 3
US Album Rock Tracks (Billboard)[8] 2

Year-end charts

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Best 20 Hair Metal Ballads of the '80s and '90s. Bowar. Chad. LiveAbout. February 24, 2021.
  2. High Enough. Damn Yankees. 1990. US 7-inch single vinyl disc. Warner Bros. Records. 7-19595.
  3. High Enough. Damn Yankees. 1990. US cassette single cassette notes. Warner Bros. Records. 4-19595.
  4. High Enough. Damn Yankees. 1990. German 12-inch single sleeve. Warner Bros. Records. W 006 T.
  5. High Enough. Damn Yankees. 1990. European CD single liner notes. Warner Bros. Records. W 006 CD, 7599-21839-2.
  6. Book: Ryan, Gavin. Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010. 2011. Moonlight Publishing. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia.
  7. Billboard Hot 100. Billboard. January 12, 1991. June 17, 2023.
  8. Mainstream Rock Airplay. Billboard. October 27, 1990. subscription. June 17, 2023.
  9. Web site: Billboard Top 100 – 1991. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20090707155835/http://longboredsurfer.com/charts.php?year=1991. July 7, 2009. September 15, 2009.