Songoftheday 2/13/14 - When it feels like the world is on your shoulders and all of the madness has got you goin' crazy...

DeBarge - "Rhythm Of The Night"
from the albums Rhythm Of The Night and The Last Dragon (Original Soundtrack) (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is by the Motown family vocal group DeBarge, who had placed a top-20 pop single on the chart with both their second and third albums, with "Time Will Reveal" their first to top the R&B chart in 1983. The following year, brother James eloped with Janet Jackson, while the group toured opening for Luther Vandross. They recorded a song for the martial arts film The Last Dragon, produced by Motown head Berry Gordy, and "Rhythm Of The Night" also became the title track from their fourth album together. Written by Diane Warren and produced by Richard Perry, who helmed the Pointer Sisters' massive Break Out album, the song was much much more bubblegum pop than their earlier work....

"Rhythm Of The Night" did the trick, landing DeBarge in the top 3 on the pop chart in April of 1985, while becoming their second #1 hit on both the R&B and the Adult Contemporary chart. Straying from their normal balladry gave them their first club hit as it peaked at #3 on the dance play chart in Billboard. Internationally, the single was their only big hit in the UK, climbing to #4, while also going top-10 in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

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British "boyband" 911 covered the song for their first album in 1997..

Puerto Rican singer Sophy translated the calypso-tinged song to "Al Ritmo De La Noche" in 1985..

Up tomorrow: A jazz-fusion turned pop band happens upon a female.