Songoftheday 8/15/19 -You could put some joy upon my face sunshine in an empty place, take me to turn to and babe I'll make you stay...
from the album The Rhythm Of The Night (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 20
Today's song of the day comes from the Italo-disco studio act Corona. Created by producer Francesco Bontempi, who got assistance from fellow Italian producer Giorgio Spagna, the group released their debut single "The Rhythm Of The Night" in their own country in 1993. Written by the pair with Annerley Gordon, who would go on to have her own international dance-pop hit in 1998 with "2 Times" under the name Ann Lee, the vocals for the song would be recorded by Italian singer Giovanna Bersola, aka Jenny B, but for some reason Bontempi hired a model "Black Box-style" to appear on the record covers and music videos. That model, Olga Maria de Souza, apparently didn't garner enough attention to avoid the huge backlash that eventually hit Black Box, Milli Vanilli, C+C Music Factory, and the like. And as such she became the "front" of Corona, as the single first hit Europe in 1994, then America by the end of the year...
"Rhythm Of The Night" became Corona's first and biggest American pop hit, reaching the top-40 then just missing the top ten by a notch (the only one that year to peak at #11) in January of 1995. The remixes of the song helped it climb to #7 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single topped the Italian singles chart for eight weeks in 1994, then reached the top 10 in the UK (#2 for two weeks), France (#3), Ireland (#3), Spain (#3), Switzerland (#4), Denmark (#4), Iceland (#4), the Netherlands (#5), Austria (#6), New Zealand (#7), Germany (#8), and Australia (#8).
Corona was so into the Black Box-esque bait and switch and even when Jenny B wasn't hired on for their debut album and next single (she would go on to sing on the top ten hit "The Summer Is Magic" by Playahitty), instead of getting Olga to sing, they hired yet another vocalist, Sandra Chambers, while keeping Olga for the lipsynching even though Sandy and Jenny's voice sounded nothing like each other. The act's next single, "Baby Baby", the first with Sandy on vocals, was the act's biggest club hit at #5, but missed the pop top-40 in the U.S., peaking at #59. However it was another international success, spending five weeks at #1 in Italy, and reaching the top ten in Spain (#2), Denmark (#4), The UK (#5), Finland (#6), Australia (#7), Norway (#7), Ireland (#8), France (#9), Sweden (#10), and Iceland (#10). Their third release, "Try Me Out", was Corona's third and final top ten hit on the Dance chart at #10, while again reaching the top ten in Italy (#2), Spain (#4), Finland (#5), the UK (#6), Denmark (#6), Ireland (#7), and Australia (#10). Finally, a fourth single in "I Don't Wanna Be A Star", spent two weeks at #1 in Spain, and hit the top-ten in Italy (#2) and Finland (#6), while peaking at #22 in the UK. In 1996, a "Megamix" single became the act's final top-40 hit in Britain at #36, while climbing to #20 in Italy and #40 in France.
The group returned in 1998 with a second album, Walking On Music (again with Sandy on vocals), but only the lead single "The Power Of Love", which tried to evolved from the Italo-Disco sound, only managed to get to #25 on the Italian chart, while mostly ignored elsewhere. Sandy would depart, and for all intensive purposes, Olga has been the "real" singer since, emerging with a top-40 hit in 2006 with "Back In Time" (#36), while Bontempi and Spagna also left to be replaced by Francesco Conte and Paulo Dughero. Most recently, German DJ Sean Finn reworked the original vocals of "Rhythm Of The Night" to release a new single version, which rose to #6 on the Dance Club Play chart in Billboard magazine this past spring.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
Here's The Luvdup "Burning Bush" vocal mix from the CD Single, which helped the song make the top ten on the dance chart...
In 2008, a remake from the Dutch pop act Hermes House Band made it to #16 on the French singles chart...
Four years later, Eurodance titans Cascada from Germany also tried their hand with the song, reaching the top-40 in Germany (#26), Switzerland (#22), and Austria (#9)...
And earlier this year, German DJ Sean Finn returned Corona to the top ten on the Dance Club Play chart at #6 with his rework...
Up tomorrow: Southern rocker wasn't getting much empathy 25 years ago.
Comments