Robbed Hit of the Week 8/12/13 - Shannon's "Give Me Tonight"....

Shannon - "Give Me Tonight"
from the album Let The Music Play (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #46

This week's "robbed hit" is by Shannon (surname Greene), who brought dance music back on the charts in a big way in 1984 with her top-10 freestyle classic "Let The Music Play". With the release of her album, the singer and production team of Chris Barbosa and Mark Liggett put together a follow-up single with the same level of drama and seduction that made the previous single a hit, and "Give Me Tonight", written by Barbosa and Ed Chisholm, took Shannon back to the top of the dance chart...

While the record topped the club chart and went to #6 on the R&B format, and was played all over stations in the tri-state area I lived, "Give Me Tonight" stalled out at #46 on the pop chart. Overseas, though, the single became Shannon's second top-40 hit in both England and Germany.

It remains as one of the biggest pure dance anthems of the first half of the decade, and way outlived its lack of chart success. And I like it even better than "Let The Music Play"...

Shannon would have one more big club hit that will be an upcoming "robbed hit"...

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


In 2000, there was a re-release of the track, remixed by Hex Hector, that went to #3 on the dance chart in Billboard....

Here she is on the oh-so-delightfully Krush Groove-ish TV show from New York Graffiti Rock in 1984...

Also, Swedish singer Leila K. ("Got To Get") interpolated "Give Me Tonight" in her single "Electric", which went top-10 in her home country and neighboring Finland in 1996...

The year before, German act Toostrong sampled the melody in their same-titled record...


Up next week: the rise of the codpiece.