Songoftheday 2/26/14 - Diamond life lover boy we move in space with minimum waste and maximum joy...

Sade - "Smooth Operator"
from the album Diamond Life (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by the jazz-soul band named for its strikingly beautiful and talented leader and vocalist, Sade. Born Helen Folasade Adu in western Nigeria, then moved to England as a toddler after her parents split up. Her singing career started in a band originally named Pride, but when signed to Portrait Records as a solo artist, she brought on three of Pride's members into her band. They released their first single, "Your Love Is King", at the start of 1984, and became their first top-10 hit in the UK. Sade's first single in the US, "Hang On To Your Love", almost made the Hot 100 around the same time, peaking at #102 on the "bubbling under" chart. 

For its follow-up Sade released the seductive lite jazz of "Smooth Operator", written by Adu with former Pride bandmate Ray St. John (it was a staple of her previous group), and the single took off in America, giving them their big break on these shores. It was a delightful success, something different than all the pop and new wave on the radio at the time...

"Smooth Operator" became Sade's first top-5 pop and R&B hit in May of 1985, while going all the way to #1 on the Adult-Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart in Billboard. The record even came one rung from being a top-ten hit on the dance club play chart as well. As the fourth single from her Diamond Life album, it peaked at #19 in England, while becoming a top-ten hit in France, and top-20 in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland. Although this would be the sole top-40 pop hit from the album, it would go on to sell over four million copies in the U.S.

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Here's Sade right when they were getting started in 1984 in Montreux...

..and again in concert from the early 90s...

Other artist have also covered the song, including Polish singer Basia..

...as well as R&B singer Pru...

Up tomorrow: Slow Hand talks about an eternal guy.