Songoftheday 1/13/13 - The things that you say to me, the look on your face brings out the man in me, I see a trace in your eyes of love...

Alabama - "The Closer You Get"
from the album The Closer You Get (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #38 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's Song of the Day is by Country Hall of Fame band Alabama, who scored their third top-20 hit in 1982 with "Take Me Down" from their third RCA album Mountain Music. They released their fourth RCA disc The Closer You Get the following year, and already had their ninth straight country #1 hit with the first single, "Dixieland Delight".

For the second release, the band put out the title track, which like "Take Me Down" was originally written and released by the cosmopolitan country group Exile (the ones who did "Kiss You All Over") in 1980..

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Shortly after, singer Don King recorded the track and had a top-30 hit with the song....

Alabama took the song, updated the production to modulate the guitars, add electronic drums, and processed the vocals to give the song a little more of a soft-pop sheen...

While "The Closer You Get" continued the quartet's #1 streak on the country chart, the single also returned them to the Top-40 on the pop chart, as well as reaching #9 on the adult-contemporary (soft-rock or "easy") format chart.

The same year Alabama won the Academy of Country Music award for Entertainer of the Year and Top Vocal Group (the former for the third straight year), the American Music Award for favorite country album and group, the Country Music Association album of the year, and most importantly, "The Closer You Get" won the group their second Grammy for Country Group Performance.

Up tomorrow: Whatever Happened To "*** the Mod",,,