Songoftheday 11/7/17 - Sitting in my bedroom the rain is pouring down, the shade is on the window and loneliness is all around...
from the album Rythm Syndicate (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13
Today's song of the day comes from the dance-pop band Rythm Syndicate (the "h" removed), who came together as the working recording group for producers Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken. Rogers and Sturken, who had written and produced singles for R&B artists trying to cross over to mainstream radio, had their first big success reviving the career of teen idol Donny Osmond, who landed a #2 hit with "Soldier Of Love" and a top-20 follow-up with "Sacred Emotion", both works of theirs. With that momentum, they released their own album under the Rythm Syndicate moniker in 1991, with Kevin Cloud, Mike McDonald, Rob Mingrino, and John Nevin. The first single was the uptempo spelling lesson "P.A.S.S.I.O.N.". Written and produced by Rogers and Sturken, the song had the funkiness of a Prince/Ready For The World knockoff (or wedding cover band) can muster, but fans of dance-pop pining for something like the late 80s grabbed on to their sound, along with that rap break clearly inspired by Paula Abdul's "Cold Hearted"...
"P.A.S.S.I.O.N." became the Syndicate's first and biggest pop hit in August of 1991. The song also climbed to #20 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the remixes on the 12" vinyl/cassette single helped it make it to #32 on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the record reached the top-40 in New Zealand (#21) and Australia (#28), while it also was a minor hit in the UK (#58) and Germany (#82).
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Here's the band performing the song live on TV (I believe the Late Show) to promote the single...
Up tomorrow: Pop trio's hopes are springing eternal.
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