Songoftheday 6/6/19 - Only a child someone to love, she was 17 beauty queen I met her in a magazine...
from the album For The Love Of Strange Medicine (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 7
Today's song of the day comes from Steve Perry, who is best known as the lead singer for the arena rock band Journey from the 1970s through the 1990s. His last album of the 1980s with the band, Raised On Radio, scored four top-40 pop hits, with the last, "I'll Be Alright Without You", reaching the top 20 in the beginning of 1987. He had also released a solo album, Street Talk, in 1984, which also spun off four top-40 pop singles in America with "Foolish Heart", "Strung Out", "She's Mine", and the top ten sing-along love anthem "Oh Sherrie". Four years later, after the success of Raised On Radio, he attempted to record a second solo record that was left unfinished (some track have resurfaced on other compilations). It wouldn't be until 1994 that Perry would re-emerge with a totally new second release, For The Love Of Strange Medicine. Produced mostly by James Barton with help from Tim Miner and Steve on a couple tracks, it proved how much his voice was missed, even with the changing sound of rock music in the 1990s. The lead single, "You Better Wait", took six people to write, including Perry, John Pierce of soft-rock kings Pablo Cruise, Christian rock artist Lincoln Brewster, Paul Taylor and Moyes Lucas from his band, and George Hawkins, the featuring of his vocals on a tight harmonic production was an excellent choice...
"You Better Wait" became Perry's fifth and so far most recent top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in August of 1996. The song also climbed to #6 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, while peaking at #17 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format list. Internationally, the single spent a week at #1 on the singles chart in Canada. The second release from the For The Love Of Strange Medicine album, "Missing You", went to #74 on the pop Hot 100 in the U.S., while topping out at #24 on the Adult Contemporary tally. (In Canada, it reached #50 as the third single, after "Young Hearts Forever" got to #70.)
In 1996, Perry returned to Journey for their last studio album together, Trial By Fire, but after injuries kept him from touring, he and the band went their separate ways. He recently returned in 2018 with his "comeback" third solo set Traces. It was his first solo top ten album in the U.S. at #6, while lead single "No Erasin'" climbed to #18 on the adult contemporary chart, followed by "We're Still Here" at #14.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's Steve performing "You Better Wait" live in concert in 1994...
Up tomorrow: Neo-soul duo delivers their desires.
Comments