Songoftheday 9/30/19 -I could reach out and touch you girl that was long ago, there are some things that I guess I'll never know...
from the album Funky Melody (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12
Today's song(s) of the day come from singer/songwriter/producer Stevie B, who in the late 1980's was one of the biggest acts, and by far the biggest solo male act of the Latin Freestyle Dance Music genre. He had racked up twelve charting singles from his first three albums, including three from his Love And Emotion set with the top-20 "I'll Be By Your Side", "Love & Emotion", and the biggest hit of his career, the #1 "Because I Love You (The Postman Song)" at the end of 1990. However as the style was waning on the radio, Stevie switched labels from RCA-distributed LMR to Epic Records. His first (and only) record with them, Healing, ended up stiffing, with lead single "Pump That Body" only being able to reach the Dance Music Singles Sales chart at #15 in 1992. That song tried to place him into a rapper as well as singer, which failed terribly. Stevie regrouped, and when he was dropped by Epic promptly, went with Thump Records, who were successful at the time with marketing compilations of freestyle and R&B music. His album released through Thump was Funky Melody, which came out at the end of 1994. The first single released from the record was a "double", with a ballad promoted to pop radio as well as a jam for R&B and "rhythmic" dance radio as the "flip". The ballad, "Dream About You", and the dance track "Funky Melody" charted as one unit as per the Billboard charting rules at the time, allowing airplay from either to add up the points, and in effect scored Stevie his most recent top-40 pop hit. "Dream About You" was clearly meant to recapture the ear of the mainstream pop audience. It eventually got to #16 on Billboard's Rhythmic radio format chart...
While "Funky Melody" was more a throwback to his earlier years, and peaked at #30 on Billboard's Rhythmic radio format chart...
"Dream About You"/"Funky Melody" became Stevie's seventh and final top-40 pop hit in June of 1995. He would continue to release new music, with five or so more albums, the most recent being 2017's Never Gonna Let You Go. In 2013, a remake of his earlier hit "Spring Love" with rapper Pitbull briefly popped on to the German singles chart at #87.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
And here's the audio of "Dream About You", which is much better than the quality of the music video above...
Up tomorrow: Some Swedish Eurodance "hicks" revive a song from the 1800s. NOT the 1980s, the 1800s.
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