Songoftheday 9/22/17 - Across the street the river runs down in the gutter life is slipping away, let me still exist in another place...
from the album Vagabond Heart (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day is from rock icon Rod Stewart, who had recapped his long and illustrious career at the turn of the decade with a four-disc box set that still produced two more top ten pop hits with "Downtown Train" and "This Old Heart Of Mine". At the end of 1990, Rod hooked up with Tina Turner for a duet remake of Marvin Gaye's classic "It Takes Two" which went to #5 in the UK; it would find its way on to Rod's next studio album, Vagabond Heart. It wasn't released as a single in America - that honor went to the mainstream rock track "Rhythm Of My Heart". Written by Marc Jordan and John Capek, the song originally was recorded and released in 1986 by Dutch artist Rene' Shuman. Stewart version, which included Scottish touches in the production and in the melody, way overshadowed that to become the definitive version...
"Rhythm Of My Heart" became Rod's thirteenth top-10 pop hit in the U.S. in May of 1991. The single spent two weeks at #2 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") chart, and peaked at #13 on their Mainstream Rock radio list. Internationally, the song topped the chart in Canada for two weeks, hit #1 in Ireland for a week, and reached the top ten in Australia (#2), his native UK (#3), Germany (#4), Austria (#5), New Zealand (#6), and Switzerland (#9).
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the original from Rene' Shuman from Holland from 1986...
Back to Rod performing live around the time of the album...
In 1996, Scottish rock band Runrig released a cover of the song which climbed to #24 on the British singles chart...
Here's Rod in 2003 for an intimate TV appearance promoting his It Had To Be You retro album...
Local Scots hero Amy Macdonald took to the streets of Glasgow to perform the song for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 (with a little Rod at the end)...
Lastly, here's Rod in concert in 2004...
Up tomorrow: A band from Down Under has a hit, well, going down under.
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