Mention Matchbox 20 and the band is usually greeted with an “Oh, I love them.” It is entirely fair to say they are beloved, not least thanks to charismatic frontman Rob Thomas and not just by women (my wife included). A few years ago, Thomas, performing solo, blew the audience away at the annual IPW U.S. travel trade show.

At their peak for about a decade after debuting in 1995 and interspersed with frontman Rob Thomas’s solo career, which included the smash Latin-flavoured “Smooth” with Carlos Santana, MB20 somewhat surprisingly has only released five albums, the last one just coming out in May.

Last week, we featured a song by Nashville songwriter Jimmy Robbins to celebrate his performance at the Little Tennessee tourism event in Toronto; this week, we acknowledge equally celebrated artist Eric Arjes, who shared a stage with Robbins.

And – you guessed it – has a Matchbox 20 connection, having cowrote the band’s current single (and our video of the week) “Queen of New York City” with Thomas, whose wife inspired the song, Arjes revealed.

And it’s certainly a song that inspires us, proving that, even after all these years, Matchbox still has what it takes.

Lyrics

There’s a rhythm to her heart
and a world inside her head.
She’ll tell you from the start.
Boy, you don’t know her yet.
She’s like a constellation
of stars that don’t connect.

And she’s dancing on the sidewalk,
just like all the neon signs are spotlights, she says,

‘Ain’t I the queen of New York City?
I’ll take ’em all down with me
’cause I’m gonna run this town’.
She’s got some kind of way about her.
One look and you don’t doubt her,
seeing’s believing now.
Don’t you believe her now?

She says, ‘Man, I’m gonna leave this town
’cause I got wings under my feet’.
Then she tells you she gets vertigo
when she goes above 14th Street.

And then she smiles at you the way that people smile
when they’re trying not to cry, and she says,

‘Ain’t I the queen of New York City?
I’ll drag ’em all down with me
’cause I’m gonna run this town’.
She’s got some kind of way about her.
One look and you don’t doubt her,
seeing’s believing now.
Don’t you believe her now?

‘Well, ain’t I the queen of New York City?
I’ll take ’em all down with me
’cause I’m gonna run this town’.

‘Hey, I’m the queen of New York City,
I’ll drag ’em all down with me
’cause I’m gonna run this town’.
She’s got some kind of way about her.
One look and you don’t doubt her,
seeing’s believing now.
Don’t you believe her now?

(Don’t you believe her now…?)
Yeah, don’t you believe her now?
(Don’t you believe her now…?)
Hell, I believe her now, yeah.
(Don’t you believe her now…?)
Queen of New York City.