Songoftheday 4/18/17 - How I wonder why you just put my love aside, you threw me in the gutter and you left me there to lie...

"Bad Of The Heart" - George Lamond
from the album Bad Of The Heart (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's song of the day comes from George LaMond, a freestyle dance music singer who grew up in Puerto Rico and the Bronx as George Garcia, before changing his name for his recording career. He released a single "Bad Of The Heart" independently in the New York area, but the massive popularity of the track on local dance radio and clubs caused Columbia Records, eager to jump on the freestyle train, to pick him up for distribution and a proper album. But first, they released a new recording, the frenetic "Without You", which climbed to #4 on the Dance Club Play chart in Billboard, but radio hadn't caught on yet.  "Bad Of The Heart", written by Phillip Andreula and Marilyn Rodriguez, was the right mixture of romantic drama, and swaying synth beats, but slowed down just a little to get that hip-swaying groove on, and the single became a mainstream success when re-released in the spring of 1990...

"Bad Of The Heart" became LaMond's sole top-40 pop hit in July of 1990. The remixes of the track climbed to #5 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. A similar-sounding club jam, "Look Into My Eyes" (also co-written by Andreula) came out next, and reached #4 on the dance chart while being a minor pop hit at #63. As the fourth single from the set, they paired him up with female freestyle siren Brenda K. Starr on the love ballad "No Matter What", which nearly made the top-40 at #49.

Two years later, LaMond released his sophomore effort, In My Life. The first single from the record, "Where Does That Leave Love", was a freestyle classic, but by that time, the genre had been overshadowed on pop radio by R&B and rap as well as alternative rock, and while it spent five months on the chart, it stalled at #59. A follow-up single, the midtempo love jam "Baby, I Believe In You", tried to fit in, and was a minor hit at #66. The album also had George covering the Jackson Five's "I Want You Back", which became a top-40 dance hit at #33. He was let go by Columbia, and for a bit in 1995, dance/rap label Tommy Boy had him, almost making the pop hot 100 with "It's Always You" (#122 on the "Bubbling Under the Hot 100" chart). But starting around that time, his work in Latin music was getting more and more attention, and he's had a bit of success, reaching #23 on the Latin Songs chart in 1999 with "Que Te Vas". His most recent chart appearance came in 2008 with a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'", which went to #20 on the Dance Airplay radio chart.

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Here's George performing on Live At The Apollo in 1990...

Next up, the club mix that sent the song to the top five on the dance chart...

...and appearing on Rick Dees' late night show to promote the single - one of his dancers was his cousin Joey Kidd, who also had a few regional hits in New York and hit the Hot 100 with "Counting The Days" (#70)...

Finally, I'll leave you George performing in New York City in 2008...

Up tomorrow: R&B singer is in a calorie-burning mood.