Songoftheday 5/18/19 - You've done me wrong your time is up, you took a sip from the devil's cup...

"Moving On Up" - M People
from the album Elegant Slumming (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #34 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 3

Today's song of the day comes from the British dance music act M People, who came together in the early 1990s when producers Mike Pickering and Paul Heard hired on singer Heather Small for a project named for Pickering as "Mike's People". In 1991, they scored their first British top-40 hit with "How Can I Love You More?", which served as the first single from their debut album Northern Soul. Originally climbing to #29 in 1991, after three more songs from the album reached the top-40, it was re-released and soared to #8 in 1993.

Later that summer, M People released their sophomore effort, Elegant Slumming. The first release from it, "One Night In Heaven", became their second top-ten British hit at #6. But it would be their second single from the record that would become the act's biggest hit at home and worldwide. "Moving On Up", written and produced by Pickering and Heard, was a bouncy and joyous house music jam that was much more positive for radio yet still soulful enough to claim the clubs...

"Moving On Up" became M People's first and only charting pop hit in June of 1994. The song topped the Dance Club Play chart in Billboard magazine for two weeks as well. Internationally, the single was there biggest British hit, peaking at #2, while also hitting the top ten in France (#3), Australia (#4), Ireland (#4), New Zealand (#4), and Finland (#6). It also reached the top-40 in the Netherlands (#11), Belgium (#17), Austria (#17), Switzerland (#19), Sweden (#20), Germany (#21), Canada (#23), and Iceland (#34).

In the States, "One Night In Heaven" was released as a followup, and while it also topped the American dance chart for two weeks, it missed the pop Hot 100, "Bubbling" under at #125. Also in the U.S., the Northern Soul single "Excited" was released as a single, making it three US dance #1s in a row. Meanwhile overseas, the band landed two more top ten hits in the UK with a remake of the Dennis Edwards 80s hit "Don't Look Any Further" (UK #9) and "Renaissance" (UK #5). Lastly, Elegant Slumming's fifth single in Britain, "Elegantly American", which was just a remix release of "One Night In Heaven" and "Moving On Up", popped on the top-40 at #31.

In 1995, M People returned with a third album, Bizarre Fruit. The lead single "Open Your Heart" topped the American dance chart for a week, and "Bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #125 (again). In the UK, after their first single "Sight For Sore Eyes" climbed to #6, that former single made it to #9, as well as a third top ten success with "Search For The Hero" (UK #9). Two years later, their fourth and so far final studio album Fresco arrived, scoring a pair of British top ten hits with "Just For You" and "Angel St." (both UK #8). The act released a hits set called The Best Of M People in 1998, which had three new songs on it. One of them, "Testify", hit #12 in the UK, and climbed to #5 on the American dance chart.

As the new millennium arrive, M People took a break from recording, with Small releasing her debut solo album Proud in 2000. The LGBT pride anthem title track "Proud" went to #16 on the British chart and eventually was used heavily in the promotion of the 2012 Olympics in London. She also had a British top-40 hit that same year with her collaboration with Tom Jones on his Reload album, "You Need Love Like I Do" (UK #24). She also put out a second album, Close To A Miracle, which reached the albums chart in Britain (UK Albums #57). However she never broke ties with Pickering and Heard, and they have been touring as M People since 2007.

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Here's the "MK Movin' Mix" from Mark Kinchen that helped the song top the American dance chart for 2 weeks...