Songoftheday 5/10/14 - I've got a chip on my shoulder with your name on it knock it off, so don't just stand there foolin' If you don't want it knock it off...


The Pointer Sisters - "Dare Me"
from the album Contact (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the pop/soul sibling trio the Pointer Sisters, whose 1983 album Break Out truly lived up to its title, spinning off four top ten pop hits in the U.S. with "Automatic", "Jump (For My Love)", the re-issued "I'm So Excited", and the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack jam "The Neutron Dance".In 1985, they released their follow-up eleventh album Contact, with a bubbly pop/dance nugget as the first single. "Dare Me" But the songs roots belie its origins, being written by two guys more entrenched in the country milieu - Dave Innis of the country band Restless Heart, and Sam Lorber, who has written hits for Wynonna and the Oak Ridge Boys. But of course it was Richard Perry's production and the ladies' voices led by June Pointer that made the record...


"Dare Me" stopped one rung short of the pop top-10 in America in September of 1985, while becoming their first and only song to top the dance club play chart in America. The record did make the top-10 on the R&B chart, peaking at #6, while even popping on to the adult contemporary radio chart at #32 in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the single went to the top ten in Australia and Ireland, as well as hitting the top-20 in England, Canada, and Sweden.

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In 2004, two dance acts interpolated "Dare Me" into singles that would both become big dance club hits. First, Canadian producer Dave Armstrong grabbed the chorus for "Make Your Move", which was released twice and hit again in 2010..


Then Italian Eurohouse act Junior Jack put the song in his "Stupidisco" which topped the American dance club chart, and went top-40 in Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands. He re-recorded the song as "Dare Me" with vocalist Shena and went to #20 in the UK in 2007...


..and lastly, here's the Sisters from a TV appearance...


Up tomorrow: a very quick aging process for a British new waver.



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