Songoftheday 9/10/16 - So how was I to know I didn't even have a clue, just didn't see it comin' no no no...

"Hey Baby" - Henry Lee Summer
from the album I've Got Everything (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's song of the day comes from Indiana-born rock singer Henry Lee Summer, who had landed himself his first top-40 pop hit in the spring of 1988 with "I Wish I Had A Girl". A follow-up single, "Darlin' Danielle Don't", also made the rock radio top-10 at #9, but stalled out in the lower half of the pop chart, as did third release "Hands On The Radio". A year later, Summer put out his next album, I've Got Everything, and the first single, "Hey Baby", was another self-written ode to a fine heartland woman that again caught radio's ear (now that Mellencamp was straying away from pure pop fare). (Sadly, the video is only on VEVO's on website not Youtube, which you can see by clicking here)

Hey Baby became Summer's second and last top-forty pop hit in August of 1989. The single also reached #6 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart. However, no other songs from the album were able to make a dent at either pop or rock radio.

In 1991, Henry released Way Past Midnight, and lead singer "Till Somebody Loves You" stalled right under the halfway mark on the pop chart, while the album cut "Turn It Up" nicked the rock radio list at #47. Though his style of rock had lost favor on radio stations nationwide, he continued to record through the 90s, and still performs locally these days.

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Here's Henry performing on the Arsenio Hall show, apparently making a big impression on Brooke Shields...

Up tomorrow: A soul singer is on the down low.