Songoftheday 11/30/13 - Clothes are all made out of wood pricey show, worthy to mention...

Sam Harris - "Sugar Don't Bite"
from the album Sam Harris (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #36 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's song of the day is by singer/actor/stage star Sam Harris, who got his big break on the variety talent show Star Search back in 1983. A new concept at the time, where producers would tally weekly call-in votes for singers, comedians, and the ever-popular "spokesmodels" on the show, paving the way for the likes of American Idol and the like decades down the road. And the show did cultivate talent, and you'd be surprised at the people who have competed on the show: Alanis Morissette, Destiny's Child (under another name), Bill Engvall, even Sharon Stone (as a spokesmodel). Harris won 14 straight weeks, climaxed by his over-the-top rendition of "Over The Rainbow",  and took home the $100,000 prize. After that he was signed by Motown Records, where he recorded his self-titled debut album. The first single from the set was a campy new wave-style number called "Sugar Don't Bite", written by the team of Bruce Roberts and Donna Weiss...

"Sugar Don't Bite" became Sam's first and so far only top-40 pop hit in November of 1984, while also dancing up to #24 on Billboard's club play chart.

Harris' follow-up single "Hearts On Fire" was his biggest dance hit, beating "Sugar" out by a notch. The year after he released his second Motown album, and had one more minor pop and dance hit with "I'd Do It All Again". After that record he left Motown, but in the 90s he had a fruitful career on stage, most notably in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat's touring cast, as well as award-winning turns in Grease and The Life. He's also been on television in shows like The Class in the 2000s. Sam came out of the closet during that time, and lives a wonderful life with husband Danny and their kid Cooper, who show up on Sam's YouTube vlog from time to time (he was one of the first to embrace the site, and one of the first I subscribed to). With that, his shows, and his outreach work, he's done a lot with AIDS relief and LGBT activism.

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...and here's Sam "working it" for American Bandstand in 1984...

Up tomorrow: A singer, songwriter, and producer I would've loved to have had Sam work with, exalting his youth.