Songoftheday 12/10/15 - Well they tempt you man with silver and they tempt you sir with gold, and they tempt you with the pleasures that flesh does surely hold...

"Pink Cadillac" - Natalie Cole
from the album Everlasting (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's song of the day comes from R&B singer Natalie Cole, who had gone from a promising start in the 70s with Grammys and gold records to match the legacy of her father Nat "King" Cole, to a rocky period hampered by drugs in the early 80s. In 1987 after dealing with her addiction she staged a comeback with the album Everlasting, which brought her back to radio with two hit singles, the club jam "Jump Start" and the ballad "I Live For Your Love", both peaking at #13. The third single pulled from the record was a campy remake of a Bruce Springsteen cut that would end up becoming her highest-charting single of her career.

"Pink Cadillac" was written by New Jersey's treasure Bruce Springsteen, who released it as the "B-side" (for you kiddies, the other side of those 7 inch vinyl singles) of the first hit from his classic Born In The U.S.A. album, "Dancing In The Dark". Originally conceived in the recordings for his acoustic Nebraska record, then also missing the final track-list for the Born album, the rockabilly-style record was a rock radio and concert fave, peaking at #14 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart...

With producer Dennis Lambert at the helm, who was responsible for such sugary soul as Five Star and Tavares, Natalie's cover of "Pink Cadillac" was beyond slick, with all the guitars absent and jittery synths creating a wall of funky cheese as a bed for her to lay her vocals onto, though it was weird to hear a woman proclaim the love of her man's pink car...

"Pink Cadillac" drove all the way to the top 5 of the American pop chart in May of 1988. The single also went up to #9 on Billboard's R&B chart, and #16 on their adult contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. But the biggest success of the track was from the 12" remix done by future C+C Music Factory hitmakers Robert Clivilles and David Cole, which topped the Dance Club Play chart for two weeks. It was also her biggest international hit, reaching the top ten in Switzerland (#2), Canada (#4), Ireland (#4), New Zealand (#4), Australia (#6), the UK (#5), and Germany (#5).

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The house remix of the song helped make this remake Natalie's biggest of the 80s, with dance radio stations playing and clubs filling their floors with it, and no wonder, it's the best version of her version out there, bringing "house music" to a more mainstream audience...

She appeared on the Tonight Show to promote the single...

Cole wasn't actually the first woman to tackle the song; Bette Midler included it in her 1982 tour, but Bruce nixed her adding it to her studio album...

Melissa Etheridge also performed "Pink Cadillac" in concert, much more faithfully to the original...

and finally, here's Natalie performing the song live in 1988 at the Mandela concert at Wembley...

Up tomorrow: A jazz legend goes to war for a posthumous hit single.