Songoftheday 4/4/15 - If you don't give a heck 'bout the man with the bible in his hand, y'all just get out the way and let the gentleman do his thing...

"Respect Yourself" - Bruce Willis
from the album The Return Of Bruno (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's Song of hte Day comes from actor Bruce Willis, who "moonlighted" a singing career from his TV success on the comedy Moonlighting. Willis, who was born an "army brat" in Germany and moved to southern New Jersey as a child, Bruce trudged around Jersey and New York at a bunch of different jobs before landing the role on Moonlighting beside Cybill Shepherd in 1985. An immediate success, the show already nabbed him an Emmy nomination for Best Comedic Actor (which he'd win the following year) for playing David Addison, while releasing his first music album The Return Of Bruno at the beginning of 1987. And like Don Johnson the previous year, his popularity overcame his singing ability to take his first single into the pop top-5. But unlike Johnson, it was a cover of an R&B classic from the Staples Singers. "Respect Yourself", written by Luther Ingram and Mark Rice, went to #12 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart in 1971...

In order to compensate for his much less soulful vocals and total whitewashing of the lyrics in context, Bruce enlisted June Pointer and the Pointer Sisters to sing backup, which became so prominent that it could be considered a duet between Bruce and June.In fact, I'd love a Pointer Sisters-only version of this record 10x as much.  But at least he gave props to "Pops" Staples at the beginning of the clip...

Bruce's cover of "Respect Yourself" reached the top-5 on the American pop chart in March of 1987. The single also crossed over to both the R&B (#20) and Adult Contemporary (#22) genre charts in Billboard magazine. Internationally, the record hit #7 in Britain.

The Return Of Bruno would spin off a couple more minor hits, with his version of "Under The Boardwalk" reaching #20 on the adult contemporary chart and #2 in the UK. A TV film of The Return Of Bruno was even aired on HBO. After another album went nowhere, Willis' singing career was again put on the backburner while his film career took off with the Die Hard franchise, Death Becomes Her, Armageddon, and countless other popcorn flicks.

Up tomorrow: Another cover hits the pop chart, this time as a Canadian channels the King.