Songoftheday 2/1/17 - I remember the rain on our skin, and his kisses hotter than the Santa Ana winds...

"Summer Rain" - Belinda Carlisle
from the album Runaway Horses (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5

Today's song of the day comes from former Go-Go's lead singer Belinda Carlisle, whose third solo album Runaway Horses had sent its lead single "Leave A Light On" right at the front door of the pop top ten at #11 in the winter of 1989. While in certain countries of the world the Latin-tinged "La Luna" was released as the second single, America got served the synth-pop track "Summer Rain". Written by Maria Vidal (who had a hit of her own in the 80s with "Body Rock") with Robbie Seidman, the moody mid-tempo number rolled along like a train, until you get to that California-style chorus...

"Summer Rain" became Belinda's sixth and final top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in March of 1990. The song also climbed to #29 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally, the record was a big hit Down Under, hitting #6 in Australia, and reached the top-40 in Sweden (#15), Canada (#22), the UK (#23), Italy (#25), and Ireland (#26).

The title track from Runaway Horses was released as the next international single, and went Top-40 in the UK (#40) and Sweden (#13). In Britain, "Vision Of You" just missed that level at #41. But the sixth and final single from the record, "(We Want) The Same Thing", ended up reviving her international career, going to #6 in the UK and starting a streak of hit singles in that country. After touring with the Go-Go's on a successful reunion which also spun off a couple new studio recordings, Carlisle released her next album, the stellar Live Your Life Be Free in 1991. While that set sent four singles into the British top-40, with "Live Your Life Be Free" going to #12, in American it struggled, with "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" only managing to make it to #73. In 1996, Belinda scored two top ten hits in the UK off her A Woman And A Man album with "In Too Deep" (#6) and "Always Breaking My Heart" (#8). She has since toured with the Go-Go's as well as solo, stopping in 2007 for her most recent solo studio set Voila. Her son, James Duke Mason, has grown to be a major activist for LGBT causes after coming out as a teen, with his mother's full support and promotion.

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Here's Belinda promoting the single on the Arsenio Hall show in 1989..

..and again on tour behind the Runaway Horses album in 1990...

In 2004, Australian trio Slinkee Minx covered "Summer Rain", and in the land where the track had its biggest success, they climbed to #5 on the singles chart...

Finally, back to Belinda at a live show last year...

Up tomorrow: It's better to travel with this soulful British singer.