Songoftheday 9/23/19 - War makes money cancer sleeps, curled up in my father and that means something to me...
from the album Made In England (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #13 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16
Today's song of the day comes from British pop icon Elton John, who was coming off one of his biggest commercial and artistic successes with the soundtrack to the animated Disney movie The Lion King. The album sold over seven million copies in just the U.S., and landed two big pop hits with "Circle Of Life" and the top ten "Can You Feel The Love Tonight", the latter of which also nabbed Elton an Oscar and a Grammy. That same year in 1994, Elton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And he had been in a relationship for a year so far with future husband David Furnish. Elton dedicated his next studio album, Made In England, to Furnish, which was released in 1995. The lead single, "Believe", was a grandiose ballad written by Elton with longtime partner Bernie Taupin, and co-produced by the singer with Greg Penny. The lyrics were vaguely broad yet sung powerfully, and the music video was Art Deco beautiful but crazy, but never mind, the song entered the top 40 in only its second week on the Hot 100 and racked up another success...
"Believe" returned Elton to the pop top-20 in America in May of 1995. The song spent two weeks at #1 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") chart as well. Internationally, the single topped the Canadian singles chart for a month (four weeks), as well as taking two weeks at #1 in Italy. It also reached the top-40 in Poland (#3), Belgium (#8), France (#13), the UK (#15), Switzerland (#20), Austria (#21), Australia (#23), Ireland (#24), and Sweden (#25). At the Grammy Awards in 1996, "Believe" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, losing to Seal's #1 hit "Kiss From A Rose".
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Here's Elton previewing the song live in concert in 1994...
Next up, Elton appearing at the Brit Awards, where he won a trophy for Outstanding Contribution to Music (their "Lifetime Achievement Award")...
Back to the concert tour from 1995...
Fast forward to 2008 with his Red Piano shows in Las Vegas...
And finally, at the Peace One Day charity concert in 2012...
Up tomorrow: Flava-ful rapper goes low.
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