Songoftheday 10/7/19 - I used to be a lunatic from the gracious days, I used to feel woebegone and so restless nights...

"No More 'I Love You's'" - Annie Lennox
from the album Medusa (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's song of the day comes from Scottish singer/songwriter Annie Lennox, who after agreeing to take a break from her duo Eurythmics with David A. Stewart, released one of the finest pop records of all time, Diva, in 1992. From it two songs made the American Top-40: "Why" and "Walking On Broken Glass". Because of her concentrating on raising her children, it took three years for Lennox to return with her sophomore solo effort, and one that was all cover songs. Medusa, probably intended to mark that all the originals were from male artists, was another critical triumph, and the first single from the record became a big success despite the original song being to obscure. "No More 'I Love You's'" was the solitary hit for the British duo the Lover Speaks in 1986. Written by the duo's David Freeman and Joseph Hughes, the single was produced by powerhouse Jimmy Iovine, but only managed to make it to #58 on the British singles chart...

Lennox, with the help of producer Stephen Lipson, kept the delicate electronic sparseness of the original, but of course with a vocal range like hers blew that out of the water to the point where everyone assumed this was an original piece of hers. The video is a whirlwind of bohemian gender-bending splendor...

Annie's version of "No More 'I Love You's'" became her fourth and so far final top-40 pop hit in May of 1995. The song climbed all the way to #10 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format chart, spending a half-year (26 weeks) on the list. The remixes of the song had it spent two weeks at #1 on the Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the single was her biggest solo success in her native UK, spending two weeks at #2, and also hitting the runner-up position in Ireland. The song went to #1 in Canada (two weeks), Italy (one week), and Spain (one week). It also made the top-40 in Poland (#3), Iceland (#7), Austria (#11), Norway (#12), France (#13), Switzerland (#14), Sweden (#15), Australia (#16), the Netherlands (#17), Belgium (#19), New Zealand (#22), and Germany (#27). At the 1996 Grammy Awards, the song won for Best Pop Vocal Performance. Ironically, the Medusa album lost for Album of the Year to Joni Mitchell's Turbulent Indigo, since the "B-side" to the "No More I Love You's" single was a remake of Mitchell's "Ladies Of The Canyon".

The second single from Medusa was "A Whiter Shade Of Pale", a version of the Procol Harum rock classic which reached the top-40 in the UK (#16), Belgium (#16), France (#17), Ireland (#25), Switzerland (#26), Canada (#37), and the Netherlands (#39), but in America missed the Hot 100, appearing on the "bubbling under" chart at #101. The single did go to #2 on the Dance Singles chart since the CD single contained the remixes of "No More I Love Yous". The third release would be a cover of Bob Marley's "Waiting In Vain", which peaked at #31 in the UK. Lastly, a take on Paul Simon's "Something So Right" got her to #44 in the UK.

In 1998, Annie and David reunited for another Eurythmics album, Peace. Five years later, she reemerged with her third album Bare, which was a return to her own songwriting,as she dealt with the dissolution of her marriage. While the three singles from the record, "Pavement Cracks", "A Thousand Beautiful Things", and "Wonderful", all failed to reach the singles charts in the US and the UK, all three went to #1 on the American Dance Club Play list in 2003. That same year, she recorded a song for the Lord Of The Rings film Return Of The King; the result, "Into The West", won Annie an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Another brief reunion with Stewart as Eurythmics for a compilation happened in 2005.

Lennox came back in 2007 with Songs Of Mass Destruction, which was a top ten seller in both the US and the UK, even though the lead single "Dark Road" only managed to get to #58 in the UK. Another track from the album, "Sing", featured Madonna on backup vocals and hit #29 on the Adult Contemporary chart while the remixes got to #18 on the Dance Club Play list. Annie ended her tenure with RCA Records with a solo greatest hits set The Annie Lennox Collection - from it a live version of the reggae classic "Many Rivers To Cross" put her back on the pop Hot 100 chart in America for the first time since "No More I Love Yous", peaking at #80 in 2008. Also, "Shining Light" from the Collection returned Annie to the British Top-40 at #39.

Since signing with Island Records, Lennox has released a holiday record, A Christmas Cornucopia, and a second covers album called Nostalgia. Her version of "I Put A Spell On You" is her most recent chart hit, getting to #97 in the US and #63 in the UK, while landing her a top ten hit in France at #29. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Album, which went to the unstoppable Cheek To Cheek from Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.

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Here's the Junior Vasquez club mix, one of two that he did for the CD single...