Songoftheday 5/27/18 - And I didn't mean to hurt you but I know, that in the game of love you reap what you sow...
from the album Here It Is (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14
Today's song of the day comes from the Latin freestyle dance music trio the Cover Girls, whose second album We Can't Go Wrong landed them their highest-charting single with the title track, along with another top-40 pop hit in "My Heart Skips A Beat" as well as a top-20 dance hit that almost made the countdown, "All That Glitters Isn't Gold". However, after the promotion of that album, lead singer Angel Clivilles left the group for a solo career (she ended up having a #1 club hit with a remake of the group's "Show Me" in 2000), and was replaced by Evelyn Escalera. In 1990, Escalera, Margo Urban, and original member holdout Caroline Jackson recorded a song for a Russian/American collaboration album; the result, "Don't Stop Now", ended up climbing to #63 on Billboard's Pop Airplay chart. It would eventually be paired as a single with the song serving as the lead track from their third album, Here It Is. With Urban also dropping out, and Michelle Valentine taking over lead vocals, the dance jam "Funk Boutique" ended up being an underground hit, reaching #8 on the Dance Club Play chart and #55 on the Pop Hot 100 in the U.S. But it was the second release from Here It Is that would return the Girls fully to pop radio.
"Wishing On A Star" was originally recorded by the soul group Rose Royce, best known for their #1 hit "Car Wash", as the third single from their second album Rose Royce II: In Full Bloom, in 1977. In the States, the single only made it to #52 on Billboard's R&B chart, and missed the pop Hot 100 by one notch, peaking at #101 on their "bubbling under" chart, but had since been a cult classic among R&B enthusiasts (and foreigners, as the song hit #3 in the UK)...
Fifteen years later, the Cover Girls, with Valentine on lead, kept most of the smooth mood of the arrangement of the original, with Escalera and Jackson pumping up the harmonies in just the right places...
The Cover Girls' version of "Wishing On A Star" became their second and final top ten (as well as top-40) pop hit in July of 1992. The single was their biggest on Billboard's R&B chart, climbing to #19, while the remixes of the song helped it go to #7 on their Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the remake hit the British top-40 at #38, while it made the top ten in the Netherlands at #6, and peaked at #26 in Belgium. It bubbled under the top-40 in Canada at #46. The third single from Here It Is, another ballad in "Thank You", stalled down at #75 on the pop chart. Finally, the club jam "If You Want My Love (Here It Is)", didn't make the Hot 100, but climbed to #8 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Jackson left shortly after, leaving only Valentine and Escalera to record their fourth album Satisfy with studio help. Since then, Escalera has continued the "Cover Girls" moniker, as starting members Clivilles, Jackson, Urban, and Sunshine Wright tour under the "Original Cover Girls" moniker.
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A Spanish version of "Wishing On A Star", with Valentine and Escalera trading lead vocals, was also released to Latin radio...
The remix of the song, which made the dance top 10, gave the song a groovy beat without having to delve into house or techno...
Three years before the Cover Girls, dance act Fresh 4 did a spacey club version of the song as well, and went to #10 in the UK...
Dubstep act 88.3 had a minor hit in the UK with their cover, which climbed to #61 in 1995...
In 1998, R&B singer Randy Crawford went to #14 on the Dance chart in America with her transformation of the track...
Rapper Jay-Z enlisted Rose Royce's Gwen Dickey to sing her part for his interpolation of "Wishing On A Star" in 1998, which peaked at #13 in the UK at #56 in Germany...
Meanwhile, his wife, Beyonce', won a Grammy for her rendition of the song, which was a promo for Tommy Hilfiger in 2010 besides appearing in the movie Roll Bounce...
In 2011, Seal included it on his Soul 2 covers album as the second single, but it failed to chart...
That same year, the song was used as the annual "charity single" from the finalists of the singing competition X Factor UK, which included the season eight singers and previous finalists JLS and One Direction, and ended up going all the way to #1 on the British and Irish singles charts...
...and finally, the girls appearing on Arsenio Hall...
Up tomorrow: Canadian rocker takes to the road.
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