Songoftheday 2/2/17 - We had a quarrel and I let myself go, I said so many things things he didn't know...

"All Around The World" - Lisa Stansfield
from the album Affection (1989)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14 

Today's song of the day comes from British singer Lisa Stansfield, who got her start in the early 80s, appearing on various television shows in the UK and releasing a series of failed singles. Lisa's first big success was fronting a sophisti-pop band Blue Zone, which had a couple of minor hits in the UK was well as a song that reached the top-40 on the American dance chart and peaked at #54 on the Hot 100 in the U.S., "Jackie".  A collaboration with the remixing duo Coldcut followed, and from it "People Hold On" became a worldwide hit, hitting #11 in the UK and reaching the top-40 in Germany (#24), Belgium (#32), and the Netherlands (#37). It was a big success in American clubs, going to #6 on Billboard's dance chart, and established Stansfield's name in the minds of the mainstream radio and listening audience. So when Lisa and her Blue Zone bandmates Ian Devaney and Andy Morris came back together to record another album, it would be solely under Stansfield's name as a "solo" effort. In the UK, the upbeat HI-NRG-influenced "This Is The Right Time" was issued as the first single, and landed at #13 on the British chart. But it was the lush Soul-II-Soul-style R&B of "All Around The World" that came out in America first. Written by Stansfield with her old Blue Zone partners, the soulful track was sold by her convincing tale of regret and resolve...

"All Around The World" became Lisa's first hit in the U.S., and her sole top-10 pop single in April of 1990. The song spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard's R&B chart, while making it to #7 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. The 12" remix single went to #1 on the Dance Club Play chart for two weeks. Internationally, the record hit #1 in Spain, Austria, Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, and her native UK, where it topped the chart for two weeks. It would grab her a nomination for a Grammy for Pop Female Vocal in 1991, losing to Mariah Carey's debut "Vision Of Love", as well as a nod for Best New Artist, also losing to Mariah.

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Here's the remix from the 45 King that helped "All Around The World" top the dance chart for a couple of weeks...

...as well as the "Around The House Mix" that was on the European 12" single...

Lisa appeared on Live At The Apollo, and the crowd went apeshit over her...

...and after a short interview about recording, live in concert in 1990...

In 1992, Lisa re-recording the song as a duet with R&B icon Barry White as the B-side to her #14 British hit "Time To Make You Mine"...

Back to another concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London...

Rapper/record mogul Puff Daddy interpolated the record (as well as David Bowie's "Let's Dance") for his single "Been Around The World" in 1997 with the late Notorious B.I.G. riffing the chorus,  and spent two weeks at #2 on the pop chart and #7 R&B...

 In 2003, remixes from Norty Cotto put the song back on the American dance chart at #34...

Back to another stellar live performance with orchestra at one of the "Night at the Proms" performances in Europe...

Lisa appeared on Jools Holland's show in 2013 for an intimate take on the song...

 
Finally, since I can't get enough of her live, from her Live From Manchester CD/DVD in 2015...

Up tomorrow: A pop/rock goddess and a soul veteran spend their days on this duet.