Songoftheday 8/17/17 - Where do we go from here? What must we do to make that change?
from the album Make The Difference (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from R&B/pop singer Tracie Spencer, who at the age of twelve landed herself a top-40 pop hit with the infectious dance-pop jam "Symptoms Of True Love" in the winter of 1988. Two more singles from her debut album, "Hide and Seek" and a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine", reached the top-40 on Billboard's R&B chart as well. Two years later, Tracie released her sophomore record Make A Difference. The first single from the set, "Save Your Love", was another dance-pop confection like "Symptoms", but while it hit #7 R&B and #20 Dance, it missed the pop chart altogether. That was remedied, though, with the release of the second song from the album, "This House". Written by producers Matt and Paul Sherrod with Marty Spencer, the album version was remixed into a "house music" jam (tying in the name), and with inspirational lyrics of striving for peace and harmony among everyone, it resonated with Americans, landing Tracie the biggest pop hit of her career. The video had her singing among scenes with Native Americans...
"This House" climbed all the way to the top-3 on the American pop chart in March of 1991. The single also went to #7 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the remixes on the 12" single helped it up to #7 on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#26), and was a minor hit in the UK at #65 and Australia (#87).
The third single from the Make A Difference album, the youthful club jam "This Time Make It Funky", reached the top-40 on the dance (#13) and R&B (#31) charts, but stalled under the halfway mark on the pop Hot 100 at #54. Spencer slowed it down then with the midtempo love ballad "Tender Kisses", which rewarded her with her only R&B #1 hit, and almost made the top-40 at #42. That was followed by the even more slower "Love Me", which got to #48 pop and #2 R&B. She wouldn't be back until seven years later on her Tracie album.
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Here's the house music-inflected 12" club mix from Justin Strauss that sent the song to the top ten on the dance chart...
Up tomorrow: American arena rock band sails back in and asks for directions.
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