Songoftheday 5/16/17 - She was a Jezebel this burstin' queen, livin' her life like a bad sweet dream..
from the album Bonafide (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17
Today's song of the day comes from British reggae-soul singer Maxi Priest, who after a half-decade of success in his homeland, scored a top-40 pop hit in the States with his cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" in the winter of 1989. A year later, Priest released his fourth studio album, Bonafide. The first single from the record was a breezy concoction, "Close To You". Written by the artist (as Max Elliot) along with Gary Benson and Winston Sela, the track sported a beat not far off from Soul II Soul's "Keep On Movin'", and found a welcome home with mature mainstream pop stations...
"Close To You" became Maxi Priest biggest American success, going all the way to the top of the pop chart in October of 1990. The single also spent a week at #2 on Billboard's R&B chart, while going to #15 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. The 12" remix single was his sole Dance hit, peaking at #12 on the Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the song reached the top ten in Australia (#2), New Zealand (#2), Sweden (#2), Germany (#4), the Netherlands (#4), Canada (#6), Austria (#8), Belgium (#9), Switzerland (#10), and his native Britain (#7).
The second single from Bonafide released in America, the more traditional reggae of "Just A Little Bit Longer", got to #30 on the R&B chart, but stalled down at #62 on the pop Hot 100. That was followed by the love ballad "Space In My Heart", which made it to #76. Over in England, the follow-up to "Close To You" was "Peace Throughout The World", which just missed the top-40 at #41.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
There was an alternate version of the video that had Maxi in an Egyptian setting...
Priest performed the song on Live At The Apollo, and the audience is completely into it, singing along...
Finally, here he is in concert...
Up tomorrow: There's some religious pilferers around.
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