Songoftheday 10/29/17 - All alone on my knees I pray for the strength to stay away, In and out out and in you go ...
from the album So Intense (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song of the day comes from soul singer Lisa Fischer, who grew up in Brooklyn and worked singing backup for a myriad of artists. In 1990, she recorded a duet with Teddy Pendergrass, "Glad To Be Alive", for the Andrew "Dice" Clay movie The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane. Put out as a single, it climbed to #31 on Billboard's R&B chart and #37 on their Adult Contemporary list. The next year, Lisa released her debut album So Intense in 1991. The first single from the record was a quiet storm gem, "How Can I Ease The Pain". Written by Lisa with Narada Michael Walden, who produced the single with Louis Biancaniello, the break-up song became her first and biggest pop success...
"How Can I Ease The Pain" became Lisa's sole top-40 pop hit in July of 1991. The single went to #1 on Billboard's R&B chart for two weeks, while it climbed to #16 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list. The record would go on to win a Grammy for Female Vocal R&B Performance, tying with Patti Labelle's Burnin' album (a rarity at the awards) but beating out powerhouses like Aretha Franklin, Vanessa Williams, and Gladys Knight. The second single from the record, the uptempo jam "Save Me", climbed to #74 on the pop chart and #7 R&B, but its biggest reception was the "house" remix which went to #2 on the Dance Club Play chart. That was followed by the title track "So Intense", which made it to #15 on the R&B tally.
In 1993, Lisa contributed a song to the soundtrack to the Eddie Murphy flick Coming To America, and the result, "Colors Of Love", got to #18 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Since then, she hasn't released any more albums, though she's in higher demand as a back-up singer, where she had been a longtime support for Luther Vandross and the Rolling Stones. In fact, her voice is the one on the live version of "Gimme Shelter" that charted on the Mainstream Rock radio list in Billboard at #29 in 1998. More recently, she appeared on DJ Louie Vega's Grammy-nominated Louie Vega Starring...XXVIII in 2016. Lisa also tours solo as well with her own band.
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Here's Lisa performing both "How Can I Ease The Pain" and "Save Me" from her appearance at Live At The Apollo...
...and again promoting the single on Arsenio Hall....
Lastly, Lisa in concert...
Up tomorrow: French Canadian tries to find an alternative.
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