Songoftheday 2/3/16 - I'd wash the sand off the shore give you the world if it was mine, blow you right to my door feels fine...

"Paradise" - Sade
from the album Stronger Than Pride (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's song of the day comes from the Nigerian-born soul songstress and her band Sade, who was the biggest "quiet storm" artist of the 80s, with two massive-selling albums already behind her. Her last, Promise, had netted her a top-5 pop hit in the U.S. with "The Sweetest Taboo", along with the silky top-20 follow-up "Never As Good As The First Time". Not changing a thing for the third disc, her first single from the set was the breezy "Paradise". Written and produced by Sade and her bandmates Paul Denman, Andrew Hale, and Stewart Matthewman, the song was the most joyous of her radio singles...

"Paradise" became Sade's fourth top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in July of 1988. The single was her only one so far to reach the top of Billboard's R&B chart, while it stopped up at #3 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. The 12" single went to #21 on the Dance Club Play chart in that mag as well. Internationally, the song went to #29 in the band's home of the UK, and also made the top-40 in France (#38) and the Netherlands (#33). It also was a minor hit in Australia (#86)

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Here's the band performing live in 1994...

...and again in 2001 for her Lovers Live album/video...

... and finally, Sade in 2011 on the Bring Me Home show (my favorite)....

Up tomorrow: a big-haired pop singer/songwriter demands to go nuts.