Songoftheday 4/22/13 - People out there searchin' for action, daytime distraction slippin' right on by...

Manhattan Transfer - "Spice Of Life"
from the album Bodies And Souls (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #40 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2

Today's Song of the Day is by the jazz-pop vocal quartet Manhattan Transfer, whose popularity can be seen as a precursor to the whole "Glee" and Sing-off craze over the last few years. The group started in New York (natch) as a five piece, releasing their debut album Jukin' in 1971. But not long after that, the band shed all its members save original Tim Hauser, while recruiting local singer Alan Paul, Laurel Masse', and Janis Siegel. Releasing a self-titled second album in 1975, they hit the charts with their first American top-40 hit, "Operator", along with a summer-season variety show on television. The follow-up, the swing standard "Tuxedo Junction", put them on the top-40 in Britain for the first time.

With their next album, Coming Out, their overseas exposure grew, as they topped the British pop chart and and a hit around the world with a cover of the 50s hit "Chanson D'Amour". However, shortly after its success, the lead on that single, Masse', was sidelined by a crippling car accident in 1978 that left the group searching again for another member. Cheryl Bentyne joined in, and they started the 80s with a disco-fied track "Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone" that was a huge club hit, reaching #4 on the dance chart and staying on the list for half the year, while also becoming their second top-40 hit.

They returned to their oldies wheelhouse on their next release, and scored their biggest hit ever in 1981 with the version of the Ad Libs'  "Boy From New York City", which reached the top-10 on the pop and adult-contemporary charts. Their sixth studio album, Bodies And Souls, came out a couple years later, and pushed them into a more smooth R&B style. Rod Temperton, former member of disco group Heatwave and writer of part of Michael Jackson's classic Thriller album, co-wrote the first single, "Spice Of Life", with fellow Heatwave member Derek Bramble, while Stevie Wonder provided a harmonica solo to the record...

"Spice Of Life" became the Transfer's fourth and most recent top-40 pop hit, while also reaching the top-40 on the R&B and dance charts. It's biggest success was on the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) format, where the single peaked at #5. It's followup, "Mystery" (also written by Temperton), also made the top-10 on that chart, and eventually wound up on Anita Baker's classic Rapture album. They would continue to have a few more soft-rock hits, the latest being 1995's cover of "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby" with Phil Collins. Since then, although their radio presence has dwindled except for soft-jazz stations, they continue to record and accumulate Grammys (ten in all) and reign as jazz vocal royalty.

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Here's the 12" version that made the top-40 of the Billboard club play chart...

Up tomorrow: Chicago funk legends get grammatically incorrect for a classic R&B hit.