Songoftheday 9/12/17 - She's taken my time convinced me she's fine, but when she leaves I'm not so sure...
from the album Free (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day comes from British singer Rick Astley, who had become one of the biggest successes for the production team of Stock Aitken Waterman, whose HI-NRG-inspired sound had proved to be a huge success in the UK and carried over to the States with Astley's first two albums. After hitting #1 twice in America with singles from his debut, Rick's second set Hold Me In Your Arms had given him another top ten hit with "She Wants To Dance With Me" and a top-40 follow-up with "Giving Up On Love". After a world tour, Rick changed directions and left the producers to move to a more organic sound, which came to pass on his third album Free in 1991. The first single from the set, "Cry For Help", was co-written by Astley with Rob Fisher of Naked Eyes and Climie Fisher, and co-produced by the singer with Gary Stevenson. Starting off with just a prominent piano, and then adding acoustic instruments, it warmed up the resulting record to become a gospel-like experience, which ended up one of my favorite singles of that year...
"Cry For Help" became Rick's fifth (and so far last) top ten pop hit in the U.S. in April of 1991. The single spent a week at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart. Internationally, the record reached the top ten in Canada (#4), Belgium (#5), the UK (#7), and Ireland (#9), and made the top 20 in Spain (#11), The Netherlands (#11), Australia (#13), Germany (#14), and Sweden (#17).
The second single from the album, the jazz-soul nugget "Move Right Out", made the top-40 in Canada (#36), and reached #29 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, but stalled down at #81 in the U.S. and #58 in Britain. A third release, "Never Knew Love", was a minor British hit at #70.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
An alternate cut of the video, which had Rick and his band edited in monochrome in parts, had more American coverage on MTV...
...and here's Rick performing live on the Amnesty International 30th Anniversary show in 1991...
Finally, a TV appearance from last year, with major props for Rick taking it back to let his backing singers shine...
Up tomorrow: Second City band are running after weather.
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