Robbed hit of the week 3/18/19 - UB40's "Higher Ground"...
from the album Promises & Lies (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45
This week's "robbed hit" comes from the British reggae veterans UB40, who had just scored the biggest hit of their career with their remake of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling In Love" in the summer of 1993. Their follow-up single would be an original, "Higher Ground", written and produced by the group. Although all their American success has been behind cover tracks, the popularity of "Can't Help..." would certainly be able to give them a moderate hit here, no?
Well, no. Although "Higher Ground" went to #14 on the Modern Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, the song stalled a few notches below the pop top-40 here in January of 1994. Internationally, the single did much better, landing in the top ten in the UK (#8), The Netherlands (#8), New Zealand (#8), and Ireland. It also made the top-40 in Austria (#16), Switzerland (#19), Germany (#21), France (#23), Sweden (#29), and Australia (#40). They would go on to have a total of five top-40 hits in their native Britain from Promises & Lies, but this song would be their final American chart appearance to date.
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And here's the band in concert live in New Jersey...
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