Songoftheday 8/8/17 - I'll tell you what I know so well, your love is standing tall and swell

"I Don't Know Anybody Else" - Black Box
from the album Dreamland (1990)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4

Today's song of the day comes from the Italian dance music act Black Box, who landed a top-10 pop hit in America in the fall of 1990 with the neo-house bounce of "Everybody Everybody". However that record had a dirty little secret, as Weather Girl Martha Wash was hired to sing on the track, like almost all of the Dreamland album, but French model Katrin Quinol was used to lipsynch in the music videos and be on the single and album covers. This continued with the band's follow-up single, "I Don't Know Anybody Else". Written by the group's Mirko Limoni, Daniele Davoli, and Valerio Semplici, the song was released internationally originally before "Everybody" was, and was a huge success. The epic expression of love was a mistook lyric from Loleatta Holloway's "Love Sensation" (as was their international debut "Ride On Time") where "know" meant "love". Either way, it was Martha's best vocal performance on their album that sold this, and later she would sue successfully for credit...

"I Don't Know Anybody Else" became Black Box's second American top-40 pop hit in February of 1991. The single also climbed to #10 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the remixes from the 12" vinyl and CD singles helped it to top their Dance Club Play list for a week. Internationally, the track reached the top ten in Ireland (#2), Switzerland (#3), the UK (#4), Norway (#4), Australia (#6), Sweden (#8), France (#9), New Zealand (#9), and Austria (#10).

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's one of the remixes from house music legend "Silk" Hurley that helped the song go to #1 on the dance chart...

and lastly, Martha Wash singing "I Don't Know Anybody Else" live in Japan in 1993...

Up tomorrow: Diva ingenue is looking into the future...