Songoftheday 3/23/19 - It seems I have the strangest dream I'm dreaming that you are gonna leave me, I wake up and I find it's true what will I do without you?
from the album Always & Forever (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11
Today's song of the day comes from the British pop female vocal group Eternal, who were put together in the early 1990's to resemble American acts like En Vogue. With sisters Easther and Vernie Bennett joined by Louise Nurding and friend Kelle Bryan, the women released their debut single "Stay" in the UK in the fall of 1993, two months before the arrival of their debut album Always & Forever. The song climbed to #4 on the British singles chart, and was actually a remake of an American soul hit for singer Glenn Jones, who took the record to #6 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine in 1990...
With Eternal, they took the lite new jack swing vibe from the track written by Mark Stevens and Bobby Khozouri and flushed it out with their harmonies produced by Nigel Lowis...
"Stay" became Eternal's first and only hit on the pop Hot 100 in America in March of 1994. The song also climbed to #13 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine, while the remixes of the track helped it climb to #12 on their Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the single reached the top ten in Australia (#3) and the UK (#4), while making the top-40 in New Zealand (#11), Canada (#17), France (#17), Ireland (#19), and the Netherlands (#30).
In the U.S., they would place one more hit on the R&B chart with America-only single "Sweet Funky Thing", which scaled to #54 in the summer of that year. Meanwhile, in their native Britain, the group continued to flourish, scoring five more top-20 singles. Both "Save Our Love" and "Just A Step From Heaven" peaked at #8 there, followed by "So Good", which got to #13 in the UK, but became their first #1 hit in Ireland. Then came "Oh Baby I...", which went to #4 in England, as well as #9 in the Netherlands. Lastly, the BeBe Winans-written "Crazy" made it to #15 in the UK (all six songs reached the top-40 in Ireland, and all by "So Good" did the same in New Zealand). But with that success came a price; Louise was lured away from the group to pursue a solo career. I guess it was the right decision - considering she didn't sing lead on the Eternal debut, she ended up with a career with three top ten albums and twelve top-20 singles (all of her output), including nine that made the top ten, stretching from "Light Of My Life", which went to #8 in 1995, to "Pandora's Kiss", which climbed to #5 in 2003. Her highest, "2 Faced", peaked at #3 in 2000.
Eternal continued on as a trio with the Bennett sisters and Bryan, releasing their sophomore effort Power Of A Woman in 1995. That record scored four more British top ten hits, with the title track topping out at #5. They recorded the song "Someday" for the Disney animated movie Hunchback Of Notre Dame for the British release of the film (All-4-One did the American version) and rose to #4 on the UK chart. On their third offering, Before The Rain, the group landed their biggest international hit with "I Wanna Be The Only One", which topped the British chart and hit top ten all over Europe. In 1997, Eternal put out their Greatest Hits album, with new track "Angel Of Mine" peaking at #4 in the UK (it would be covered in a year by Monica who topped the American pop chart with it). But shortly after, Ryan was fired from the group, leaving just the Bennett sisters to record their fourth and so far last to-date album Eternal, but after only hit single "What'cha Gonna Do" stalled at #16, they were dropped by their label. Bryan would release a solo single "Higher Than Heaven" that climbed to #14 on the UK chart (nice retribution), but battling lupus kept her career from fully going further. Easther sang on the remake of Diana King's "Shy Guy" from reggae group Aswad, which was a minor British hit at #62 in 2002.
In 2014, The Bennetts and Bryan would reunited for the TV show The Big Reunion, which put back together previous hitmakers from the 1990s and 2000s. Their Greatest Hits album would return to the charts from that appearance...
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the group performing "Stay" live to track on the Australian TV show Hey Hey It's Saturday...
and on Top of the Pops....
Here's Louise doing a remake of her old band's hit in 2017...
And finally, the Bennetts and Bryan on The Big Reunion in 2014...
Up tomorrow: A double shot of diva, as she mourns a loss twice over.
Comments