Songoftheday 1/28/19 - When she woke up late in the morning light and the day had just begun, she opened up her eyes and thought Oh what a morning...

"All That She Wants" - Ace of Base
from the albums The Sign (1993, US) and Happy Nation (1993, International)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 30

Today's song of the day comes from the Swedish pop group Ace of Base, who came together in the late 1980s with siblings Linn, Jenny, and Jonas Berggren joining up with friend Ulf Ekberg in the city of Gothenburg. At that time, pop music in Sweden had waned since the days of ABBA, which the two-guy two-girl lineup of Ace of Base just happened to emulate, so initially breaking a record deal was tough. An initial single, "Wheel Of Fortune", was released to not much notice, but their second release changed that in a massive way. "All That She Wants" was a reggae-pop hybrid written by Jonas and Ulf that started out as "Mr. Ace", but had always been about a certain woman in their parts that would chase after all the boys. With some song doctoring by a Swedish newcomer producer named Denniz PoP, who had produced house music artist Dr. Alban's Hello Afrika album, the revamps "All That She Wants", with its gloomy turn on a reggae vibe, was something completely new, and quickly became an international smash. Their momentum continued with a re-release of "Wheel Of Fortune" along with "Happy Nation" and "Waiting For Magic". But even after becoming a huge hit overseas, they still faced rejection from labels until were finally picked up by Clive Davis' Arista for release in the States, a year (and a couple singles) from the original...

"All That She Wants" became Ace Of Base's first top-40 pop hit in America, reaching the runner-up position in November of 1993. The song also made it to #22 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart, and even crossed over to their Modern Rock radio chart at #17. Internationally, the single topped the charts in the UK (three weeks), Australia (three weeks), Canada (two weeks), Germany (eight weeks), Italy (four weeks), Spain (two weeks), Switzerland (two weeks), Austria (six weeks), Belgium (three weeks), Denmark (12 weeks), Greece and Iceland (one week). It also reached #2 in France and Ireland, and #3 in the Netherlands, New Zealand, and their native Sweden.

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Here's Ace of Base appearing live (to track) on Top Of The Pops...