Songoftheday 8/31/19 - God, I feel like hell tonight, tears of rage I cannot fight...

"Strong Enough" - Sheryl Crow
from the album Tuesday Night Music Club (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 21

Today's song of the day comes from pop singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow, who after busking and background singing for acts like Michael Jackson, and false starts to her own career, finally broke through big with her international smash hit "All I Wanna Do", which reached the runner-up spot on the American pop chart in the fall of 1994. Her follow-up to that bubbly hit was surprisingly a silent and somber tune that questions a lover's steadfastness in the face of romantic adversity. A "you must love me at my worst" if you will. Is there possibly a transgression of said lover that caused this? Perhaps. But the point of the lyrics is to make sure the man won't go. Written by the Tuesday Night Music Club crew of Crow, David + David members Baerwald and Ricketts, Kevin Gilbert and Brian Mcleod of Toy Matinee, and producer Bill Bottrell, it was a daring second single choice for pop radio with a record that was more country that most of country music at the time...

"Strong Enough" became Sheryl's second top-ten pop hit in the U.S. in March of 1995. The song also climbed to #10 on the Alternative Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine, while peaking at #11 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list. Internationally, the single topped the Canadian pop chart for three weeks, and peaked at #3 in Australia. It was also a top-40 hit in the UK at #33.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's Sheryl performing the song live on British TV in 1995...