Songoftheday 11/6/18 - When you were eight and you had bad traits, you go to school and learn the golden rule...
from the album Bad Boys (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song of the day comes from the Jamaican reggae band Inner Circle, who started their career way back in 1968, with brothers Roger and Ian Lewis along with Cat Coore and Stephen Cooper in the capital of Kingston. After a couple of years of backing up artists, the group recruited singer "Bunny Rugs" Clarke, drummer William Stewart, and percussionist "Carrot" Jarrett, who together backed Eric Donaldson on his essential reggae classic "Cherry Oh Baby" in 1970. However, by 1973, everyone save the brothers had left Inner Circle, with a bunch of them moving to New York and forming another crucial reggae band, Third World. The Lewis' hired on new bandmates, including singer/keyboard player "Touter" Harvey, second keys man Charles Farquharson and drummer Calvin MacKenzie, with two guys playing keyboards in the band for the first time, changing their sound in essence. After their first two albums in Jamaica were re-issued in the UK in 1975, when they hired new lead singer Jacob Miller, the band got their first major-label deal with Capitol Records. They continued to release music under various labels through the decade, until 1979, when under Island records they landed their first hit in Britain, when "Everything Is Great" from the album of the same name reached #37 there. Two other tracks from that album also hit the top-40 in the Netherlands, with "Music Machine" reaching #28. However, just as their momentum was building, Miller died tragically in a car accident in 1980. The brothers called it quits for a period, eventually moving to Miami and regrouping with Harvey and by the mid-decade recruiting singer Carlton Coffee and Lancelot Hall and "Junior" Douglas both doing the drumming.
In 1987 this band released their One Way album, which included a classic-style reggae jam titled "Bad Boys", to little acclaim. Two years later, they also included it in their next record Identified, their first with new guitarist Dave Gonzales (who only lasted that album). That version was a big hit in Scandinavia in 1991, reaching #1 in both Norway and Finland and #2 in Sweden. The next year, Inner Circle released their album Bad To The Bone, and finally had a huge international hit with "Sweat (A La La La La Long)" (I'll get to that on another SOTD blog). A massive hit all over Europe, it caused the band to yet again revisit "Bad Boys". But this time the song had served as the theme song for the American syndicated show Cops, which was one of the first "true" reality shows, following policemen and women across the country as they nab petty criminals for enjoyment of the viewing public. Written by Ian Lewis, who produced the single with the band, this time America got on board as the TV show was cresting...
"Bad Boys" became Inner Circle's first and biggest American pop hit, reaching the top ten in June of 1993. The song also crossed over to Billboard magazine's R&B chart, peaking at #58. Internationally, the single got to #5 in New Zealand, and made the top-40 in Canada (#19), Austria (#21), Australia (#25), Ireland (#26), and Germany (#35). However in the UK the track stalled down at #52. Appearing on the re-release of their Bad To The Bone album which was renamed Bad Boys, it helped them win the Grammy Award for Best Duo/Group Reggae Album in 1993.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the group performing "Bad Boys" live back in 1990, before it was re-recorded for the hit version...
And again in concert at the Festival De Vina in Chile in 1995...
And finally, from a show this year in Slovakia...
Up tomorrow: Freestyle trio has a hard time with break-ups.
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