Songoftheday 6/11/16 - I don't want you to come round here no more I beg you for mercy, you don't know how strong my weakness is or how much it hurts me...

"My Heart Can't Tell You No" - Rod Stewart
from the album Out Of Order (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from Scottish rocker Rod Stewart, whose 1988 album Out Of Order had already scored him a pair of top-20 pop hits in the U.S. with "Lost In You" and "Forever Young". The third single released from the record was the mid-tempo "My Heart Can't Tell You No". Written by Simon Climie (of the sophisti-pop duo Climie Fisher) and Dennis Morgan (who wrote many country crossover hits in the early 80s such as Sylvia's "Nobody"), the song showed a softer side of Rod, and ended up being the highest-charting hit from the album. Maybe the universal theme of pining for a love that not only won't happen, but you can't let go off, rang a bell...

"My Heart Can't Tell You No" became Rod's fifth American top-10 pop hit in the 80s in April of 1989. The song also spent a week at #3 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, and even slipped on to their Mainstream Rock list for a week at #50. Internationally, the record topped the chart in New Zealand, and made it to #1 in Ireland, but missed the top-40 in his native Britain at #49.

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In 2011, Sara Evans released a country-styled cover of the song, and went to #21 on the country airplay chart...

Up tomorrow: Gritty rockers reach urban nirvana.