Robbed Hit of the Week 4/7/14 - Gino Vannelli's "Black Cars"...

Gino Vannelli - "Black Cars"
from the album Black Cars (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #42

This week's "robbed hit" comes from Canadian singer/songwriter Gino Vannelli, who came to the U.S. following his musical dream, and after being signed by A&M Records, released his debut album in 1973. However it took until his second to get his break with his first top-30 hit in both Canada and America with "People Gotta Move". Four years later, Gino's biggest song, "I Just Wanna Stop", was issued, and topped the Canadian charts and went to #4 on both the American pop and adult contemporary chart.

Gino started the 80's with another top-10 pop single, "Living Inside Myself", that would prove to be his last on the American top-40. Four years later, he released his Black Cars album, with a title track that ramped up the tempo to compete with the new wave domination of American pop radio...

"Black Cars" did put him back in the limelight in Canada, where the single went to #4, but south of that border the record stopped at #42. Its ballad follow-up, "Hurts To Be In Love", did manage to go to #6 on the adult contemporary chart, but peaked in the lower half of the Hot 100. In 1987, Vannelli returned to the Canadian top-ten with "Wild Horses", which at #55 was his most recent pop hit, while reaching #33 on the AC radio list. On the latter chart he reappeared in 1991 with "If I Should Lose This Love", his final American chart placing. And lastly, in 1995, his "I Die A Little More Each Day" went to #60, the last time Canadians saw him on the chart so far.