Songoftheday 11/29/18 - There's a pale moon in the sky, the kind you make your wishes on...
from the album What's Love Got To Do With It (Original Soundtrack) (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17
Today's song of the day comes from music legend Tina Turner, who was still riding the wave of her amazing comeback in the 1980s by the end of the decade, with her triumphant anthem "The Best" and followup "Steamy Windows" reaching the American top-40 in 1989. Tina began the 90s with a retrospective of mostly her work in the past decade, Simply The Best. But while she included new material, with four tracks reaching the top-40 in the UK (one of them, "Way of the World", peaked at #13), in the U.S. she had zilch such success with any of that, and the hits set itself didn't even make the top half of the albums chart here. But that year also saw her (along with ex-husband Ike) get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, and by 1993, she was peripherally involved with a film about her life. What's Love Got To Do With It, starring Angela Bassett as Turner, came out in the summer of that year, with Tina helping Bassett get into character, and recording a soundtrack for the project with new and re-recorded older material in it. One of the new tracks, "I Don't Wanna Fight", was released as the first single. Written by Scottish pop songstress of the 60s Lulu ("To Sir With Love"), along with her brother Billy Lawrie as well as Steve DuBerry, the title alone was a not-so-subtle allusion to her rough years with Ike that were portrayed in the movie. It ended up becoming her last big hit in the U.S...
"I Don't Wanna Fight" became Tina's fourteenth top-40 pop hit as a solo artist in America (and sixth to reach the top ten) in August of 1993. The single spent an amazing seven weeks at #7 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, the best in her career. On the other hand, the single stalled out at #51 on their R&B genre list, despite hanging on the chart for 18 weeks. Internationally, the single did pretty well, topping the Canadian chart for three weeks, and making the top ten in Iceland (#3), the UK (#7), New Zealand (#7), Italy (#8), Belgium (#8), and Norway (#8). It also reached the top-40 in Switzerland (#11), Ireland (#14), the Netherlands (#14), Austria (#29), Germany (#35), Australia (#39), and Sweden (#39). The song was nominated for two Grammy Awards: losing Female Pop Vocal Performance to Whitney Houston for "I Will Always Love You" and Song Written for Visual Media, which went to "A Whole New World" from Aladdin.
In the second single from the soundtrack would be a cover of the disco classic "Disco Inferno", which wasn't promoted in American, but in the UK climbed to a respectable #12, and hit the top ten (#10) in Belgium. That was followed by the adult pop gem "Why Must We Wait Until Tonight?", which got to #16 in Britain and #22 in Canada, but only slipped on to the American Hot 100 at #97. Finally, a revamp of "Proud Mary" scored her a minor hit in the UK at #62.
The soundtrack would also mark Tina's move to Virgin Records, from where she released her next studio album, Wildest Dreams. It came out in 1996, but first single and Bond theme "Goldeneye" was released in November of the previous year. While the single, written by U2's Bono and the Edge, missed the American pop chart (it "bubbled under" Billboard's Hot 100 at #102) and stalled at #89 on the R&B chart, it was a sizable hit overseas, reaching the top ten in the UK, France, Germany, and big chunk of Europe. Six songs from the album hit the British top-40 in total, while in America only a cover of John Waite's "Missing You" managed to slip on the pop chart, and in that only up to #84 (two other tracks, "Something Beautiful Remains" and Barry White duet "In Your Wildest Dreams", both hit #34 on Billboard's R&B list). And both "Goldeneye" (Dance #22) and Sting collab "On Silent Wings" (Dance #47) reached the Dance chart in the U.S., but otherwise this stellar album was completely promoted (and receieved) poorly here.
Turner turned in 1999 with what so far is her most recent studio effort, Twenty Four Seven. Lead single "When The Heartache Is Over" was a top ten hit in the UK (#10), but besides being a big club hit (#3 Dance), it again fell short of the pop Hot 100, even though it was produced by the team behind Cher's comeback hit "Believe". Four years later, on another hits set All The Best, Tina had her most recent British top-40 hit with "Open Arms" (UK #25). After a massive tour behind the album, Tina went into semi-retirement, relocating to Switzerland and marrying longtime boyfriend Erwin Bach. This year a musical based on her life, Tina, has been playing since the spring of 2018 in London and is expected to be on Broadway next year.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Tina went on the Late Show with David Letterman to sing "I Don't Wanna Fight" live to a loving audience...
Next up is songwriter Lulu performing the song on TV; supposedly it was offered to Sade, but I just can't see her being able to carry this type of song...
And here's Tina in concert the year this came out...
And finally, singing and accepting an award in Monte Carlo with Michael Jackson in the audience...
Up tomorrow: R&B vocal group gives themselves away.
Comments