Songoftheday 3/24/20 - I can see that it's hurting you I can feel your pain, it's hard to see the sunshine through the rain...
from the album Waiting To Exhale (Original Soundtrack) (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day comes from the late singer/actress Whitney Houston, whose second big film role in Waiting To Exhale had a soundtrack that already had granted her another #1 pop hit with "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" in the fall of 1995. The soundtrack also scored top ten pop hits with Brandy's "Sittin' Up In My Room" and Mary J. Blige's "Not Gon' Cry". The fourth single released from the album would be a duet between Whitney and a woman who was already a star in the gospel music world, CeCe Winans. CeCe started out with her brother BeBe as a duo, releasing their first single, a cover of the Officer and a Gentleman hit "Up Where We Belong" from their debut album Lord Lift Me Up (see what they did there), which was a minor hit on the Christian Adult Contemporary chart at #27 in 1984. Three years later, they returned with their self-titled second album; from it the first single "I.O.U. Me" went all the way to #2 on that religious list, while crossing over to both the R&B (#77) and Adult Contemporary (#24) radio charts. In 1989, their third disc Heaven got them to #1 for the first time on the Christian AC chart with "Lost Without You", which really broke them through with mainstream urban radio, going to #8 on the R&B chart. The modern smooth quiet storm-like arrangement were a big hit there, as their next effort, Different Lifestyles, scored a pair of #1 singles on both the Christian AC and R&B charts with "Addictive Love" and a cover of the Staples Singers' "I'll Take You There", the latter even making the pop chart at #90. After one more studio album, CeCe struck out on her own, releasing her first solo album Alone In His Prescence, in 1995. With a much stricter gospel sound, it eschewed mainstream radio in exchange for her faith. That said, she took the opportunity to sing with friend Whitney on the gospel-lite ballad "Count On Me". Written by Whitney, her brother Michael Houston, and producer Babyface, the song used Houston's star clout to bring this gospel-tinged ode to friendship to the pop radio stations for the first time in a long while...
"Count On Me" became the fourth top ten pop hit from Waiting To Exhale in May of 1996. The song also climbed to #7 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, while placing on both the Adult Contemporary (#4) and Adult Top-40 (#25) format lists. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in the UK (#12), Iceland (#22), Canada (#26), New Zealand (#26), Austria (#28), Switzerland (#31), and the Netherlands (#34). At the Grammy Awards in 1997, "Count On Me" was nominated for Best Song from a Movie/TV, losing to Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me". Also, the Waiting To Exhale album was up for Album of the Year, which Celine also took with her Falling Into You set.
After this success, CeCe released her second album Everlasting Love in 1998. Although the name recognition was a bit better, and sporting a modern production, lead single "Well Alright" missed the R&B top-40 at #47, while "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #109. In 2001, after switching to the more religious label Sparrow, her song "More Than What I Wanted" became her most recent R&B hit at #65. She flourished though in the gospel world, even making the top-40 on the all-genre Top 200 Albums chart in 2003 with Throne Room (#32). CeCe reunited with her brother in 2009, and their comeback album Still, which won two gospel Grammy Awards, landed a #1 gospel hit/top-40 R& single with "Close To You". Her most recent solo album, Something's Happening! A Christmas Album, came out in 2018.
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Here's Whitney and CeCe performing "Count On Me" at the Grammy Awards in 1996...
and finally, live on CeCe's television show in 1998...
Up tomorrow: Freestyle singer is doing pretty well, thank you.
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