Songoftheday 12/7/18 - You'll remember me when the west wind moves upon the fields of barley...

"Fields Of Gold" - Sting
from the album Ten Summoner's Tales (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (two weeks)
Weeks on the Top-40: 8

Today's song of the day comes from ex-Police-man Sting, whose fourth solo album Ten Summoner's Tales had already scored a top 20 pop hit in the spring of 1993 with "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You". The second release from the album in his native Britain was the loose and jazzy "Seven Days", and it earned him another top-40 hit there at #25. However, that single would be filling the space before the next worldwide single, which would be the the sophisticated rock of "Fields of Gold". Written by Sting, who produced the track with Hugh Padgham, it would become one of his "signature" solo songs...

"Fields Of Gold" became the second top-40 pop hit in America from Ten Summoner's Tales in July of 1993. The song also reached both the Mainstream (#24) and Modern (#12) Rock radio charts in Billboard magazine. But its biggest success was on "easy listening" radio, where he spent five weeks at #2 on their Adult Contempoary chart, by far his biggest hit at the format. Internationally, the single took two non-consecutive weeks at #2 in Canada, got to #6 in Iceland, and reached the top-40 in the UK (#16), Ireland (#22), Switzerland (#25), and New Zealand (#34).

Sting's next release from the record was the white-boy funk of "Nothing 'Bout Me", which despite a vamped up remix from the album version only managed to make the top-40 in Britain at #32, while settling down at #57 in America and just missing the top-40 in the Netherlands at #41. That was followed by what I felt was the most beautiful song of the record, "Shape Of My Heart", which was a minor hit in the UK (#57) and France (#96). Lastly, the rollicking track "Love Is Stronger Than Justice" slipped in at #75 in Germany.

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Here's a shot from Sting's studio promotional videos from the album with "Fields Of Gold"...

And live for a TV appearance in France in 1994...

The late singer Eva Cassidy recorded a cover of "Fields Of Gold" for her 1998 album Songbird that was cherished by many as their favorite, and added to her legacy after her passing...