Songoftheday 4/12/19 - Don't be afraid to be weak, don't be too proud to be strong...
from the album The Cross Of Changes (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 21
Today's song of the day comes from the German art-pop new-age collective Enigma, who had scored a left-field top ten pop hit in the U.S. and around the world with their monk-goth jam "Sadeness, Pt 1" in the spring of 1991. It took a few years before the act's second album arrived, and the sound on the disc was a sharp contrast to the dub beats and Gregorian chanting on their debut. Led by Romanian-born producer Michael Cretu, along with his wife Sandra (a former HI-NRG singer in her own right), along with musicians Peter Cornelius and Jens Gad, and lyricist David Fairstein, The Cross Of Changes delved into worldbeat and aboriginal music, as was demonstrated by the lead single "Return To Innocence". Featuring a sampled record from a Taiwanese aborigine couple the Kuos (who eventually sued and settled with Cretu), and verses sung by Sandra, the chanting here was from a difference time and age, and much more uplifting and spiritual than the BDSM fantasy of "Sadeness". Despite the total change in genre, Enigma found themselves with an even bigger hit the second time around...
"Return To Innocence" became Enigma's second, and so far last top ten pop hit in the U.S. in May of 1994. The song spent five weeks at #2 on the Modern Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, and slipped on to their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list at #40. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Ireland, Sweden, and Norway, and reached the top ten in the UK (#3), Iceland (#3), Canada (#4), Austria (#4), Germany (#5), Switzerland (#5), New Zealand (#5), Finland (#6), and the Netherlands (#8). The tune also peaked at #11 in France, #12 in Italy, and #16 in Australia and Belgium.
The second single from The Cross Of Changes, "The Eyes Of Truth", featured Mongolian folk music and was in the trailer for The Matrix movie. It was a top-40 hit in the UK (#21), the Netherlands (#31), and Sweden (#34). That was followed by "Age Of Loneliness", which was a rewrite of their song "Carly's Song" from the Sliver soundtrack, nicked the American dance chart at #31, and hit the top-40 in the UK (#21) and the Netherlands (#40). But none of those follow-ups reached the pop chart in the States.
In 1996, Enigma returned with their third effort Le Roi Et Mort, Vive Le Roi!. The lead single "Beyond The Invisible" was the act's most recent chart hit at #81, while making the top-40 in Norway (#13), Austria (#20), the UK (#26), the Netherlands (#27), Sweden (#29), France (#32), Switzerland (#36), and their native Germany (#40). Although Sandra eventually left the act (and after that, Michael), Enigma carried on mostly as a Cretu project, with singer Andru Donalds, who had his own solo top-40 hit with "Mishale" in 1995, also on board through most of the later years. The title track from their Seven Lives Many Faces album is their most recent chart single at #56 in Germany, while Enigma's latest studio album, The Fall of A Rebel Angel, went to #10 in Germany.
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Here's the band appearing live in 2017...
Up tomorrow: The Material Girl reflects about college kids.
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