Robbed hit of the week 10/15/18 - Mary-Chapin Carpenter's "Passionate Kisses"...

"Passionate Kisses" - Mary-Chapin Carpenter
from the album Come On Come On (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #57

This week's "robbed hit" comes from indie-country singer/songwriter Mary-Chapin Carpenter, who was born in the college town of Princeton, New Jersey, and spent a lot of her younger years either there or Washington, DC, where her music career began. She released her first album, Hometown Girl, in 1987, but it wasn't until her sophomore disc, State of the Heart, where her momentum took off. Promoted as a country artist, the first single from the set, the frenetic "How Do", hit #19 on Billboard magazine's Country Airplay chart in 1989. That was followed by "Never Had It So Good", which became her first to reach the country top ten at #8. The next year, Mary-Chapin's third effort, Shooting Straight In The Dark arrived. As with her last album, four singles from it reached the top-20 on the country airplay chart, with the zydeco homage "Down At The Twist And Shout" scaling to #2 on the country list.

All this led to what would be her most successful album to date. Come On Come On was released in the summer of 1992, with the lead single "I Feel Lucky" (a line-dancing favorite) adding a fourth top ten country hit to her tally at #4. Then came an emotional and powerful ballad duet with Joe Diffie, "Not To Much To Ask", which made it to #15 on the country chart. But it was the third release from the record that would provide Carpenter her biggest pop success. "Passionate Kisses" was written by country-rock legend Lucinda Williams, who recorded it herself for her self-titled third album in 1988...

Mary-Chapin' version kept the tempo of the Williams original and toned the electric guitar noise down with a more strumming acoustic-esque sound. Her calming voice also allowed the lyrics to shine through more as well to a "mainstream" audience of soccer moms as well...

While "Passionate Kisses" reached #4 on the Country Airplay chart, it didn't have enough overall sales and airplay to make the pop top-40, peaking in the lower half of the Hot 100 in March of 1993. But the song did especially well on Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio, nearly making the top ten peaking at #11. It did make the top-40 mark in Canada, topping out at #39. At the 1994 Grammys both Mary-Chapin and Lucinda won awards for the record, the former for Female Country Vocal and the latter for writing the Best Country Song.

The next single from Come On Come On, the midtempo lesson song "The Hard Way", peaked right under the top ten at #11, followed by the comical "The Bug" (a remake of a Dire Straits rock song) at #16. The sixth single from the record, "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", proved to be the biggest country hit from the album, hitting #2 and ended up with another Grammy nomination for Record Of The Year (which went to Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do"). It also was her first minor hit in the UK at #71. Amazingly, the seventh single release from Come On Come On, the fast-paced "I Take My Chances", matched the peak position of the last at #2.

With the massive success of that set, expectations were huge for her next release, Stones In The Road, which arrived in 1994. At first the gamble paid when first single "Shut Up and Kiss Me" (a midtempo line-dance fave like "I Feel Lucky") hit #1 on the country airplay chart (so far her sole chart-topper) and #90 on the pop Hot 100. It also nabbed Carpenter a top-40 hit in Britain at #35. But the album was way "brainier" than before, though nuggets like "Tender When I Want To Be" still found a home on radio, albeit being her last top ten country hit at #6. Still, Stones In The Road and "Shut Up And Kiss Me" both won her two more Grammys for Country Album and Female Country Vocal Performance.

In 1996, she had pop radio success with a cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old With Me" (#17 AC) that never went to country stations. By the time of her next studio set, A Place In This World, the gap between her musical style and country radio's evolution became much wider. While the album went to #3 on the Country Album Sales chart, lead single "Let Me Into Your Heart" missed the top ten, peaking at #11. She closed the decade with her first compilation record, Party Doll and Other Favorites. One of the new tracks on the album, "Almost Home", made it to #22 on the Country Airplay chart (so far the last in the top-40 for her) and was her third to hit the pop Hot 100 at #85. She returned in 2001 with Time*Sex*Love, which got to #6 on the albums sales chart but had its only charting single, "Simple Life", stall down at #53.

Since then, Mary-Chapin has remained popular with her fans, who continue to send her albums to the top of the sales chart, but radio has dropped her like a hot rock. Eight more studio sets have been released since, with her most recent, Sometimes Just The Sky, hitting #29 on the Country Albums chart. Four of those have made the top ten on the albums list.

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Here's Carpenter performing the song on Austin City Limits in 1992...