Songoftheday 9/10/17 - And ever since the day you put my heart in motion, baby I realize that there's just no getting over you...
from the album Heart In Motion (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16
Today's song of the day comes from singer Amy Grant, who was the biggest star of the Christian Contemporary Music world in the 1980's. Selling millions of records, she even popped into the pop top 40 in the summer of 1985 with the inspirational "Find A Way". The following year, Amy teamed up with former Chicago lead singer Peter Cetera for the duet "The Next Time I Fall", which spent a week at #1 on Billboard's pop Hot 100.
In 1988, Grant released Lead Me On, which again strayed into pop music waters, but still was planted firmly in her faith. However, she was able to grow airplay on secular stations, and while three tracks from the album reached the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart - "Saved By Love" (#32), "1974 (We Were Young)" (#34), and "What About The Love" (#34), the title track was able to slip into the pop Hot 100 at #96. All four of those singles also were #1 hits on the Christian Pop (CCM) chart.
Grant started the next decade with a bold move into promoting her music to mainstream radio in a big way, with her eighth studio album Heart In Motion. Written and produced with Keith Thomas, the first single, "Baby Baby", was an ebullient synth-pop song that could easily be interpreted as either being sung to a love interest or a child, and its universal theme without bringing religion up came at the right time as soft-pop again was taking over mainstream radio as it did in the beginning of the 1980s...
"Baby Baby" became Amy's biggest pop hit, spending two weeks atop the American pop Hot 100 in April of 1991. The song also spent three weeks at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart, and even crossed over to their Dance Club Play list (with remixes serviced to DJs) at #23. Internationally, the single peaked at #2 in Canada, New Zealand, and the UK, and reached the top ten in Australia (#5), Sweden (#5), Norway (#6), Ireland (#7), Austria (#7), and Germany (#8). The song was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 1992, losing out to Bonnie Raitt's "Something To Talk About" for Pop Female Vocal, and Natalie Cole's "duet" version of "Unforgettable" for Record and Song of the Year.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's Amy as she hit #1 on the pop chart appearing on the Arsenio Hall show...
A "Soul II Soul"-ish remix helped the song become her first dance hit....
Grant guested on Cetera's Soundstage live show on TV, and sang "Baby Baby"...
In 2006, Amy reprised "Baby Baby" with up and coming star Tori Kelly for the 25th anniversary of the album...
New remixes of the song were released in 2014, including this one from Dave Aude'. It caused the record to return to the Dance Club Play chart, climbing all the way to #3...
Finally, I've got Amy along with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra...
Up tomorrow: Our national anthem becomes a top-40 hit for the second time.
Comments