Songoftheday 12/14/12 - Excuse me if I sing, my heart has found its wings, searchin' high & low & now at last I know...

Al Jarreau - "Mornin'"
from the album Jarreau (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (two weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is by one of the biggest jazz vocal singers ever, Al Jarreau, who grew up in Milwaukee before moving to California to pursue a career in music. He released his debut album in 1975, His second effort, Glow, was his first successful one in the US, and gave Al his first minor R&B hit with "Rainbow In Your Eyes". From that exposure, his albums became even more successful, with his fourth LP This Time topping the Jazz Album chart and first Grammy nomination (he would go on to win seven awards). The song that was nominated, "Never Givin' Up",  scored him a top-40 R&B single as well.

In 1981, Jarreau released Breakin' Away, which came at the right time when radio was going all soft-rock and adult soul, and the result was the biggest hit of his career "We're In This Love Together". The valentine's anthem  reached the top-10 on the R&B and adult-contemporary (soft-rock) chart as well as the #15 on the pop chart. A year later, Al received three nominations for the album, including Album of the Year, and won for best male pop vocal and jazz vocal.

After a two-year break, the singer released his sixth studio album, simply titled and credited to "Jarreau". The first single from the set was the extra-bright and sunny "Mornin'", written by Al with David Foster and soft-rock superproducer Jay Graydon (Air Supply, Christopher Cross)...

The song, sounding not unlike Michael Jackson's "The Girl Is Mine", became Jarreau's second top-40 hit, peaking just under the top-20. It also reached #6 on the R&B chart (matching "We're In This.."), and doing ever better on "easy-pop" radio, holding at #2 for three weeks on the adult-contemporary chart. And I don't know how this song can't make you smile.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


...and here's Al performing the song live in 1985...

Up Tomorrow: Blind country singer senses something's afoot.