Songoftheday 10/27/17 - Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane, touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of the pouring rain...
from the album Marc Cohn (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Marc Cohn, who originally hails from the Midwest (Ohio) but spent his early career doing gigs in Los Angeles and New York before landing a record contract after playing on Tracy Chapman's debut album in 1989. Marc released his self-titled debut album in 1991, with the story song "Walking In Memphis" as the first single. The midtempo number, which recounted a visit of his to Memphis and Mississippi, was written back in 1985, but formed the backbone of his first record, with vivid descriptions of his feelings of being transformed by the people he came across there, including Reverend Al Green and local gospel singer Muriel Wilkins, who passed on a year before this was released...
"Walking In Memphis" became Cohn's sole top-40 pop hit in July of 1991. The song also climbed to #7 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and made it to #12 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio tally. It even crossed over to the Country Singles chart at #74, garnering airplay from quite a few brave and savvy stations. Internationally, the record went to #3 in Canada, #7 in Ireland, and reached the top-40 in Australia (#11), the UK (#22), and Germany (#25). It would go on to be nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year (losing to Natalie Cole's cover of "Unforgettable") and Pop Male Vocal Performance (which Michael Bolton took for his cover of "When A Man Loves A Woman"), but Marc would grab the Best New Artist trophy there.
Cohn's next single, "Silver Thunderbird", stopped at #63 on the pop chart, but managed to climb to #22 on the Mainstream Rock radio list. That was followed by the sublime ballad "True Companion" (my personal favorite), which landed at #24 on the Adult Contemporary format, and #80 on the pop Hot 100. Another track from his debut, "Ghost Train", was a minor hit in Germany.
In 1993, Cohn released his sophomore effort, The Rainy Season. While the album reached the top half of the chart in America, and lead single "Walk Through The World" was a top 40 hit in the UK (#37), it missed the American pop Hot 100 completely, though it made it to #28 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. He's released four more studio albums since, most recently Careful What You Dream in 2016. In 2005, while on tour, he was shot during a carjacking incident but has recovered fully.
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Here's Marc appearing on the country music television show Austin City Limits in 1991...
The following year, British dance act Shut Up And Dance sampled the record for their single "Raving I'm Raving", which raced to #2 on the UK chart, before being pulled from shelves because they didn't get clearance for the sample...
Back to Marc on his appearance on the Arsenio Hall show to promote the album in 1991...
In 1995, Cher took his personal song and Vegas-fied it for her own single, which went to #11 in the UK, and remains a staple in her concerts...
A year later, German trance kings Scooter reworked the Shut Up And Dance record as "I'm Raving" (presumably with clearance this time) and climbed to #4 in Germany and Austria and #2 in Finland, and was even a top-40 British hit at #33...
Dutch singer Wouter, who placed second on his country's version of the Idol franchise, went to #3 in the Netherlands with his finals performance in 2003...
That same year, country-pop band Lonestar covered "Walking In Memphis" for their Greatest Hits album, and the result climbed to #8 on the Country chart and #61 on the all-genre Hot 100...
Back to Marc performing in the Songwriters Circle in New York in 2008, with a little funny aside about reaction to the song...
Here's country acts Sugarland and Little Big Town collaborating on a live version of the song...
Finally, here's a snippet on Marc with the Blind Boys of Alabama from 2016...
Up tomorrow: Latin lothario goes to Parliament.
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