Songoftheday 4/18/15 - Sometimes in our lives we all have pain we all have sorrow...

"Lean On Me" - Club Nouveau
from the album Life, Love & Pain (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's Song of the Day comes from the R&B group Club Nouveau, who were put together when the Timex Social Club fell apart after their top-10 pop hit "Rumors". Led by producer Jay King, who hired a new band after the guys in the Social Club deserted King as his label for another, ended up with an even more talented group, including the future producing superstars of Foster and McElroy and singers Samuelle Prater and Valerie Watson English. They put together a debut album, Life, Love & Pain that was a much tighter collection than the haphazard set supporting the "Rumors" hit. King and the folks came out of the box with a carbon-copy remake of "Rumors" called "Jealousy", directed at his old proteges, which made the top-10 on the R&B chart and top-40 dance, but didn't even nick the Hot 100. The same went for their next single, the straight-forward soul of "Situation #9". It was looking like the set would be one of those overlooked R&B albums that pop radio would overlook, but in the bag was a cover of an R&B/pop standard, "Lean On Me", which came at just the right time with the right sound. The song originally went to #1 for three weeks in the U.S. in the summer of 1972...

With a backbeat that highlighted the remake and ushered in the "new jack swing" style, Club Nouveau's amped-up tempo made up for the lazy delivery of the verses (until Samuelle kicks in with the "lean on me..." chorus...

Club Nouveau took "Lean On Me" to the top of the American pop chart for the song's second time in March of 1987. The record also climbed to #2 on the R&B chart, and topped the Dance Club Play list in Billboard. Internationally, the single was a #1 hit in Canada and New Zealand, stopped at #3 in the UK, and made the top-10 in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, and the Netherlands. And not only did it give Withers a nice royalty check, it earned him a Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1987.

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Here's the 12" version that topped the dance charts in April of '87...

Besides the Club, many, many artists have recorded the classic, including Johnny Mathis in 1972...

Another one of the better versions was from the Edwin Hawkins Singers in 1974...

In 1976,  British glam-rock band Mud took their cover of "Lean On Me" to #7 on the UK charts...

The German hip-hop group 2-4 Family had a top-10 hit in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with their take on the song in 1998...


2-4 Family - Lean On Me by eurorap

Glee covered "Lean On Me" in 2009, and the song returned to the American pop chart at #50...

A year later, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, and Keith Urban performed the song for the Hope For Haiti album/TV telethon, and the result went to #47 on the Hot 100...

Up tomorrow: a trio of Antipodeans possibly sing about Freddy Kreuger?