Songoftheday 1/31/18 - You said too much and what you said it was a lie, you said too much and what you said it was a crime...
from the album Schubert Dip (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5
(Inspired by last night's State of the Union disaster)
Today's song of the day comes from the British new wave group EMF, who landed a #1 pop hit in America with their first single "Unbelievable" in the summer of 1991. The second single from the record, "I Believe", which was a #3 hit in the UK, missed the American pop chart, but did manage to get up to #10 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio chart. That was followed by "Children", which climbed to #19 in Britain and #26 on the Modern Rock list. The fourth release from Schubert Dip was "Lies", which was written by keyboardist Ian Dench, and with its similar vibe to "Unbelievable", found a niche on pop radio again...
"Lies" became EMF's second and final top-40 pop hit in America in November of 1991. The single also climbed to #27 on Billboard's Modern Rock radio format chart, while the dance remixes helped the song peak at #6 on their Dance Club Play tally. Internationally, the record reached the top-40 in Ireland (#18) and the UK (#28), and slipped on to the Australian chart at #99.
The band followed their success with Schubert Dip with a four-track EP, The Unexplained EP, in 1992, which made it to #18 on the British singles chart. Later that year, their second full-length record, Stigma arrived. The lead single, "They're Here", was their biggest club hit in America, rising to #5, while stopping at #27 on the Modern Rock chart and #29 in the UK. Three years later, the band's third and so-far last album, Cha Cha Cha, came out, and the single "Perfect Day" (not the Lou Reed song) got to #27 in Britain. Later in 1995, they released a cover of the Monkees' "I'm A Believer" with comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer which rose to #3 in the UK, matching the success of "Unbelievable" there as their highest-charting hit. After another one-off single, "Afro King", stalled down at #51 in Britain, EMF disbanded. Since then, the band reunited a few times, and recorded a couple tracks for a hits set in 2001, but not long after that bass player Zac Foley died of an overdose. After another get together in 2007, they most recently toured to play the Schubert Dip album in 2012.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the band appearing on the Letterman Show to perform "Lies"...
The song climbed to #6 on the Dance chart helped by versions like the "Jonestown Mix"...
and again on MTV's New Year's party in 1992...
Back to their reunion tour in 2001...
Up tomorrow: Bel-Air resident chimes in.
Comments