Songoftheday 3/24/17 - Cry come to me and cry, I know it's not easy your heart is aching but so is mine...

"Cruising For Bruising" - Basia
from the album London Warsaw New York (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4

Today's song of the day comes from Polish jazz-pop singer/songwriter Basia, who had gone solo in the mid-80's from her old band Matt Bianco to find success in the U.S. with her single "Time and Time" in the fall of 1988. A year later, she released her second album, London Warsaw New York, name-checking the capital of her birth country as well as that of her adopted home at the start of her success. The first single from the record was "Cruising For Bruising", written by the singer about the falling out of her romantic relationship with Danny White, who was also her producer and former Matt Bianco bandmate. But the lush mid-tempo number classed up the tears to almost make break-ups seem downright seductive...


"Cruising For Bruising" became Basia's second and so-far most recent American top-40 pop hit in June of 1990. The single also climbed to #5 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally, the song went to #21 in Canada, and just missed the top-40 in France at #46, but in the UK, where she had done well with Matt Bianco, the single stalled down at #86. The second single from the album, "Baby You're Mine", went to #18 on the American adult contemporary chart (and #84 in the UK), while a third release, a remake of Aretha Franklin's "Until You Come Back To Me", came in at #33 on that former list.

Three years later, Basia put out her third solo album, The Sweetest Illusion. One of the tracks from the set, "Drunk On Love", was remixed and became a #1 Dance Club hit in the States, and was her best showing in the UK solo at #41. She slipped off the map after, going into almost a retirement status for a while, until reuniting with White and Matt Bianco for an album in 2004, then another solo album It's That Girl Again in 2009.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's Basia performing the song live in concert...


...and lastly, a show from 2011...


Up tomorrow: This dance diva provides housing.

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