Songoftheday 7/7/16 - I know it seems like I'm a million miles away, at times you feel like you don't even know me...

"Room To Move" - Animotion
from the albums Animotion (Room To Move) and My Stepmother Is An Alien (Original Soundtrack) (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's song of the day comes from the new wave band Animotion, whose debut album had scored them a pair of hits with the top-10 "Obsession" and top-40 follow-up "Let Him Go". Keyboardist Greg Smith joined in as an official member for their sophomore effort, Strange Behavior, but besides having international success with single "I Engineer", which climbed as high as #2 in Germany and #6 in Switzerland, stalled down at #76 in the U.S. The fallout from that had both Bill Wadhams and Astrid Plane departing the band, along with bass player Charles Ottavio, leaving only Smith and guitarist Don Kirkpatrick. Hiring Dirty Dancing actress and Mrs. Richard Marx Cynthia Rhodes along with Paul Engemann (formerly of the band Device who scored a top-40 hit with "Hanging On A Heart Attack"), along with studio hacks to fill in the spaces, a revamped "Animotion" released their third album in 1989, preceded by a song giving first to the Kim Basinger/Dan Akyroyd movie My Stepmother Is An Alien. "Room To Move", written by the sophistipop duo Climie Fisher (who had released the song on their Everything album) along with Dennis Morgan, was also co-produced by the Carpenters' guitarist Tony Peluso. It had the glee typical of soundtrack fare of the late 80s as well...

"Room To Move" became the second and final top-40 pop hit for Animotion, reaching the #9 spot in May of 1989. The song also crossed over to #46 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally the record was a top-40 hit in Canada (#11) and New Zealand (#34), but just a minor blip in England (#87).

Their second single from the album, "Calling It Love", reached just about the halfway mark on the chart (#53). Splitting up shortly after that, it took over a decade for Animotion to re-animate with the original lineup including Plane and Wadhams, who continue to tour.

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Here's the original release of "Room To Move" from Climie Fisher's Everything album...

..and finally, a cover done by the children's musical skit show Kids Incorporated with a young Stacey Ferguson, aka "Fergie" from the Black Eyed Peas...

Up tomorrow: Some Jersey Boys are available.