Songoftheday 1/15/16 - I'll love you more in the rain or shine, and makin' love in the rain is fine...

"Nite and Day" - Al B. Sure
from the album In Effect Mode (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day is by soul singer Al B. Sure! (aka Albert Brown), who was mentored by producer Quincy Jones which led to his being signed by the Warner Brothers label. He released his debut album In Effect Mode, in 1988. The first single from the record, "Nite and Day", written and produced by the artist with Kyle West, was a slow jam amidst all the new jack swing that was starting to dominate R&B radio, and gliding atop an infectious bassline, American audiences were properly wooed...

"Nite and Day" became Al B Sure!'s first and so-far only top-40 pop hit, reaching the top ten in July of 1988. The song went all the way to #1 on Billboard's R&B chart for three weeks, and earned him a Grammy nomination for male R&B vocal performance. It also crossed over to the adult contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart at #19. Internationally, the single just missed the top-40 in the UK at #44, and was a minor hit in the Netherlands.

There were four more big R&B hits from In Effect Mode, with follow-up "Off On Your Own (Girl)" also reaching the top of that chart, but missing out on the pop top 40 by a few notches. In 1990, Al released his sophomore album, Private Times...and the Whole 9, and while lead-off track "Misunderstanding" landed him another #1 R&B hit, it stopped short at #42 on the Hot 100. That same year, he did reach the top 40 as one of the four featured vocalists on Quincy Jones' "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)" jam. His third album, Sexy Versus, was put out in 1992, and the first single "Right Now" suffered the same fate as his last album, topping the soul chart while stalling in the 40s on the pop list. The following year, Al duetted with David Bowie on his single "Black Tie, White Noise", which gave him a top-40 hit in the UK.  His last foray on to the Hot 100 came in 1994 with his contribution to the soundtrack to the Tupac Shakur movie Above The Rim, "I'm Still In Love With You" (#57 pop/#9 R&B). He took a backseat for a while concentrating on producing and writing, emerging once in 2009 with "I Love It (Papi Aye Aye Aye)", which peaked at #72 R&B.

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Here's Al getting his groove on live in 1988...

In 1995, alt-soul gurus PM Dawn interpolated "Nite and Day" in their single "Sometimes I Miss You So Much", which went to #95 on the American pop chart, and #58 in Britain...

Two years later, LL Cool J also knicked "Nite and Day" to insert into his single "Loungin'", which peaked at #3 on the pop and #4 on the R&B chart...

...and finally here's Al more recently in 2013...

Up tomorrow: A "go-go" band hits it big, in the back.