Songoftheday 12/31/17 - No longer can I resist your guiding light, that gives me the power to keep up the fight...

"Love...Thy Will Be Done" - Martika
from the album Martika's Kitchen (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's song of the day comes from the actress and dance-pop singer Martika, who had gone from being a star of the childrens musical program Kids Incorporated to her successful debut album, which spun off three top-40 pop hits in the U.S. with "More Than You Know", a cover of Carole King's "I Feel The Earth Move", and the #1 song "Toy Soldiers". In 1991, she released her sophomore effort Martika's Kitchen, with four of the twelve tracks co-written and produced by Prince. That included the first single "Love...Thy Will Be Done", an understated yet emotionally powerful song that pulsates as she sings. He also sings backup, giving his sound complete control over the record...

Martika - Love Thy Will Be Done (Video) from Eric West on Vimeo.

"Love...Thy Will Be Done" became Martika's fourth and final top-40 pop hit in America in October of 1991. The single also crossed over to Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart at #40. Internationally, the song spent a week at #1 in Australia, and reached the top ten in New Zealand (#4), Canada (#7), Ireland (#8), the UK (#9), and France (#10).

The follow-up single and title track, "Martika's Kitchen", was also written and produced by Prince, but even though it was insanely catchy, still a favorite of mine, and reached the top-40 in the UK (#17), Australia (#29), Canada (#34), and Germany (#40), it stalled down at #93 on the American pop Hot 100. A third release, "Coloured Kisses", was produced by Clivilles and Cole of the C+C Music Factory. It missed the charts altogether in the U.S., but hit #39 in Australia and just missed the British top-40 at #41. Since then she has mostly retired from the music business, but her profile spiked in the 2000s when rapper Eminem interpolated her "Toy Soldiers" into a #1 single in the UK and #34 in America in "Like Toy Soldiers". She's also gone on a few "retro" tours as well.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Martika appearing on the Terry Wogan Show in the UK promoting the single...