Songoftheday 4/10/18 - Well you came in my life like a ray of light, shining through the clouds in my heart...
from the album Pure Attraction (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from Christian-pop singer Kathy Troccoli, who grew up in a not-particularly religious home in New York, but after connecting with a born again artist, began her career in the Christian music world. Like Amy Grant, who had come before her, she became very popular with her modern production of gospel music, and following Amy's success in the secular world, it was a no-brainer for her to attempt a crossover as well. Kathy had sung backup on Taylor Dayne's top ten pop hit "I'll Be Your Shelter" in the summer of 1990, and taking her producer Ric Wake and a throwaway of Dayne's, "Everything Changes", written by Diane Warren, she used her Dayne-esque vocals to get herself on mainstream radio (many people were fooled thinking this was Taylor)...
"Everything Changes" became Kathy's first and only top-40 pop hit in April of 1992. The single also climbed to #6 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart as well. Up in Canada, the song reached the top 10 at #9.
The second single from Pure Attraction, "You've Got A Way", missed the pop chart in the U.S., but climbed all the way to #7 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and even made the top-40 in Canada at #37. Two years later, Troccoli returned with her self-titled sixth album, and while the lead single, "Tell Me Where It Hurts", peaked at #16 on the Adult Contemporary chart, it stalled down at #88 on the pop Hot 100 in America (though in Canada it went to a respectable #30). A second single, "If I'm Not In Love", was a minor hit up North at #90. In 1996, she appeared on the Beach Boys' collaboration album Stars & Stripes, and the result, a cover of their "I Can Hear Music", was one of the biggest hits from the popular record, peaking at #16 on the Adult Contemporary list. Although her pop fortunes didn't last, Kathy continued her success in the religious music world, and two songs from the 90s slipped on to the AC chart, most recently with "I Remember" going to #27 in 1999. However, unlike Taylor Dayne, who has been a champion for gay rights, Troccoli has aligned herself with the likes of hate-group Focus On The Family and Watergate convict Chuck Colson. She's also hosted religious TV programs, and her latest album Better Days was released in 2015.
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Here's Kathy appearing live on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1992 to promote the single...
And live in concert (where she name-checks Diane Warren)...
Up tomorrow: Pop singer/songwriter takes a dangerous trip.
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