Songoftheday 2/15/17 - When you hold me in your arms you rock my body with your charms, and I just don't give a darn...
from the album Nothing Matters Without Love (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day belongs to the dance-pop trio Seduction, who had came on to the pop charts nefariously "Milli Vanilli"-style with their Martha Wash-sung debut single "(You're My One And Only) True Love", followed by their own voices on the #2 pop hit "Two To Make It Right" in the winter of 1990. The third single from their first (and only) album with their original lineup, which included future RuPauls Drag Race diva supreme Michelle Visage and MTV VJ Idalis Deleon, Nothing Matters Without Love, was a cover of a big R&B/dance track that never had mainstream pop success before. "Heartbeat", written by New Yorker Kenton Nix and sung by Newark native Taana Gardner, was released in 1981, and climbed to #10 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the club remix done by disco legend Larry Levan landed her at #6 on their dance club play list...
Seduction's take on the song didn't stray, though the drumming was changed to the "Soul II Soul" mid-tempo style, with chunkier instrumentation that foretold the C&C Music Factory sound the producers (Rob Clivilles and David Cole) would go on to. April Harris sang lead on the track...
Their "Heartbeat" became their third top-40 pop hit in April of 1990. The single also climbed to #21 on Billboard's R&B chart. The 12" single, which was double-billed with the non-album track "Free Your Body", spent a week at #2 on their Dance Club Play list as well. Internationally, the song made the top-40 in New Zealand (#23), almost made the top-40 in Canada (#47), and was a minor hit in the UK (#75).
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Here's the trio performing at Live At The Apollo in 1990...
...and the Clivilles and Cole club mix that reached #2 on the dance chart....
...as well as the non-album "Free Your Body", which featured future C&C Music Factory rapper Freedom Williams (though the girls were hard to find on this)...
And finally as a bonus, the "club version" of Taana Gardner's original of "Heartbeat" mixed by the late legend Larry Levan...
Up tomorrow: Smooth soul singer goes a little 50 Shades on you.
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