Songoftheday 9/15/13 - Tonight I'm falling where the peaceful waters flow, where the unicorn's the last one at the water hole...

Eddy Grant - "Romancing The Stone"
from the album Going For Broke (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #26 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's song of the day is by the Guyanese reggae musician Eddy Grant, who had a huge crossover hit in 1983 in both England and America with his electro-funk of "Electric Avenue". But while that record spent five weeks at #2, and the album it came from, Killer On The Rampage, was a top-10 success, it still failed to produce any more hits in the US. However, the exposure from the song allowed him to be hired for the title song of an upcoming Michael Douglas/Kathleen Turner adventure movie, Romancing The Stone. The single, written and produced by Grant, ended up not really appearing in the movie (save for a snippet) and didn't even make the soundtrack. However it did manage to bring Eddy back to the pop chart in the US...

"Romancing The Stone" became Eddy's second and so far latest top-40 hit in America in July of 1984, while also making #12 on the dance chart and #68 on the R&B chart in Billboard. In England, though, it was only a minor hit, stalling at #52. A few years later, the movie's sequel would score an even bigger hit for Billy Ocean ("When The Going Gets Tough").

As for Eddy, he continued to have hits in England, especially with his anti-apartheid single "Gimme Hope Jo'anna", which went to #7 in the UK and was a worldwide success (save the US). In 2001, a remix of his "Electric Avenue" topped out at #5 in Britain (and #16 on the US dance chart), and another oldie redone, "Walking On Sunshine", followed at #57 becoming his latest hit there. He now spends time recording and producing for others in his studio in Barbados.

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After his song was mostly cut from the movie, Eddy redid the video without the movie clips...

...and here he is live in 1986 performing "Romancing the Stone"...

Up tomorrow: a soft-soul singer goes to Santa Barbara for his first solo hit.