Songoftheday 7/23/17 - I don't need no negative outlook I don't need nobody putting me down, don't they know that talk is useless nothing's gonna keep my feet on the ground....
from the album I Am (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6
Today's song of the day comes from dance-pop singer Elisa Fiorillo, who after winning the Star Search TV talent show, had first had success as the featured vocalist on DJ/remixer Jellybean Benitez' top-40 pop hit "Who Found Who" in the fall of 1987. About a year later, the Philadelphia native almost reached that level with her solo single "Forgive Me For Dreaming". She also became a back-up singer for Prince, appearing on his soundtracks for Batman and Graffiti Bridge, so when it was time to record her second album, I Am, she was able to use the Purple One's Paisley Park studios, with Prince co-writing five of the set's ten tracks, including the first single "On The Way Up". Produced by his associate David Z., who wrote the track with Prince, Fiorillo, and Levi Seacer Jr., the dance-pop nugget strutted its way on to pop radio as her biggest solo success with a sound close to Paula Abdul, Karyn White, and Pebbles...
"On The Way Up" became Elisa's second and so far last top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in January of 1991. The club remixes of the track helped the song up to #31 on Billboard's Dance Club Play list as well. Across the Atlantic, the single was a minor hit in the UK at #83.
Her second single from the I Am album, the seductive "Oooh This I Need", which was even more Prince-influenced and my favorite recording of hers, was a minor hit in America at #90. She since has sang more for Prince, joining his New Power Generation band, and also has still performed solo, releasing a scattering of indie albums in the 2000s.
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And here's Elisa performing on the Arsenio Hall, doubling the excitement factor of the single in a funkier and looser live setting...
Up tomorrow: Dance-pop duo deny dabbling domestically.
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