Songoftheday 1/29/13 - Oh baby I'm aware of where ya go each time you leave my door...

The Hollies - "Stop! In The Name Of Love"
from the album What Goes Around... (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day was the return of the veteran British Invasion rock group the Hollies, who came together under singers Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, who originally performed as a duo before recruiting members and properly becoming the Hollies in 1962. They released their first single, a cover of the Coasters' "Ain't That Just Like Me", which made the top-40 in England the following year. Two 45s later, their version of Otis Williams' "Stay", reached #8 on the British charts. The follow-up, another cover (natch) of Doris Troy's "Just One Look", went up to #2 in the UK and became their first minor US hit as it scraped the chart at #98 in 1964.

In 1965 they scored their first British #1 single with a song that wasn't a cover, "I'm Alive", before finally reaching the top-40 in the States with "Look Through Any Window" right after. The following year the group got their big break in America as the rainy-day "Bus Stop" went to #5. They managed a couple more top-10 hits in the States, but were more successful by far in England, where they totaled 15 hits in that country's top ten (one of those, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", went on to go to #1 in 1988 on re-release in the UK).

In the 70s, when most of the British Invasion pop bands died out like dinosaurs,  the Hollies evolved into a rock outfit as both Nash and Clarke left the group, though their record company revived a Clarke-sung track that became their biggest American success, "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" (which sounded down-right Creedence-ish), in 1972. Two years later, after Clarke rejoined the band, they released their most recent top-10 US single, "The Air That I Breathe", at the height of the soft-rock era.

After 1975, the band had been absent from the US charts until eight years later, when the original members reunited for their What Goes Around... album, and in true cyclical form, released another cover record, this time the Supremes' "Stop In The Name Of Love", which they co-opted for their recent streak of anti-war efforts, highlighted by the B-reel video clip....

The single reached the top-40 on the pop chart in the States, as well as going to #8 on the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) chart, and their last chart appearance so far in the US. Surprisingly for such a high-profile veteran band, the album nor the single are available even digitally, and the rare CD is overexpensive.

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Of course, the song was a remake of the classic Diana Ross & The Supremes record that topped the US charts in 1965 (during the Hollies' heyday)...

 In 1971, sassy soul singer Margie Joseph covered the song, and reached #96 on the pop chart and #38 on the R&B list...

...and in 1976 Roni Hill had a top-40 dance hit with a medley of "Stop...." with "You Keep Me Hangin' On"...

And recently, Glee redid the song inexplicably as an "apology" to belittled coach Beiste. It was a "mashup" with the En Vogue song "Free Your Mind", and went to #38 in the US in 2010.

Up tomorrow: Nothing redeems.