Songoftheday 4/24/19 - Ain't no smilin' faces Mmm, no no Lyin' to the races...
from the album Threesome (Original Soundtrack) (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13
Today's song of the day comes from the British new wave group General Public, fronted by two members of the seminal ska/punk/reggae band the (English) Beat, Dave Wakeling and "Ranking" Roger Charlery. With their first album All The Rage, and with members of Dexy's Midnight Runners, the Specials, and the Clash, the group scored a top-40 pop hit in the beginning of 1985 with the effervescent pop nugget "Tenderness". A year later, the band released their sophomore effort, Hand To Mouth, which got lesser notice, missing any charts in the UK, and spinning off two minor dance hits in America with "Too Much Or Nothing" (#21) and "In Conversation" (#23) (the former popped on to the Canadian chart at #83). It wasn't a surprise, since the sound on this record was like a mid-80's comedy film soundtrack. General Public broke up shortly after that, with Wakeling releasing a solo album in 1991 that got little notice.
In 1993, Roger and Dave reunited for at first a one-off song for a film soundtrack with an entirely new band as "General Public". The movie was the horrid bisexual-teased love triangle of Threesome. But surprisingly, the soundtrack was a pretty decent affair, with Duran Duran, New Order, The The, Tears For Fears, U2, and more. The General Public track was a cover of the Staples Singers soul classic "I'll Take You There". That Stax single went to #1 on both the pop and R&B charts in Billboard magazine in 1972...
General Public's take on the song doesn't stray too far from the original, since the rhythm of the original had a reggae-style flair as it were, but they sped the tempo a bit, and added a toast section from Roger...
General Public's version of "I'll Take You There" became the act's second top-40 hit and highest-charting single in America in May of 1994. The song was even bigger on rock radio, peaking at #6 on Billboard's Modern Rock format chart. But the biggest success of the remake came on the dancefloor, as the remixes of the song helped it spend a week at #1 on the Dance Club Play list. Internationally, the single climbed to #8 in New Zealand, #14 in Canada, and was a minor hit in their home country at #73.
In 1995, Wakeling and Roger would release their third and final album as General Public, Rub It Better. The record stiffed, while only the single "Rainy Days" managed to scrape the pop Hot 100 chart in the U.S. at #93, and the Modern Rock tally at #40. (It's a shame, the song was miles ahead of anything on their second disc.) They split again, with Roger releasing a pair of solo albums at the turn of the millenium. Since then, for a while both Wakeling and Roger had competing lineups of "The Beat"/"The English Beat". Ranking Roger passed away after a long fight with cancer in March.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's the downtempo house music groove of the Sunshine Club Mix of General Public's "I'll Take You There", which helped it top the dance chart in Billboard...
And appearing live on Arsenio Hall promoting the single...
Three years before the Threesome remake, gospel greats BeBe & CeCe Winans took a cover of the song (featuring Mavis Staples of the Staples Singers) to #1 on the R&B chart in Billboard in 1991...
And finally, Wakeling's Beat performing "I'll Take You There in concert in 2010...
Up tomorrow: A cappella vocal group redoes a country "robbed hit" for a massive success.
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