Robbed hit of the week 5/4/20 - Billie Ray Martin's "Your Loving Arms"...

"Your Loving Arms" - Billie Ray Martin
from the album Deadline For My Memories (1995)
Billboard Hot 100 peak (1995): #87
Billboard Hot 100 peak (1996): #46

This week's "robbed hit" comes from German-born pop singer Billie Ray Martin, who got her start in Berlin, but didn't really get going until she moved to London in the mid-1980s. She first was recruited by DJ Mark Moore's psychedelic-sample house act S'Express, recording a few track for their debut album including the UK and Irish top ten single "Hey Music Lover". That single also made it to the States, going to #6 on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart in 1989. At around the same time, Martin had joined the Birmingham-based dance group Electribe 101, and between 1989 and 1990 had two club hits including the US top ten dance hit "Talking With Myself" (US Dance #8), which also made the top 40 in the UK (#23) and Ireland (#26). After that band broke up in the midst of recording a second album, Martin went solo, recording an EP before being signed to EastWest Records (and Sire in the States) for her debut solo set Deadline For My Memories. The lead single was "Your Loving Arms", a sweet slice of "sophisti-house" that contrasted her smoky vocal delivery with Chicago-inspired house grooves. Written by Billie Ray with David Harrow, the track was originally released in 1994, where it nicked the British top-40 at #38. But six months later, groundswell in the clubs behind the record helped it re-enter the British charts climbing to #6, while going all the way to #1 for two weeks on Billboard's Dance chart in the spring of 1995, while spending 10 weeks on the pop Hot 100, climbing to #87. But eventually the single would still not go away, with it finally catching on to American pop radio a year later, and re-entering the charts here for its biggest go...

While "Your Loving Arms" was one of the biggest club songs of the mid-1990s, it missed the American pop top-40 in July of 1996, spending altogether an impressive 23 weeks on the Hot 100. Internationally, the single topped the Italian singles chart for a week, and made the top ten in the UK (#6) and Ireland (#8). It also made the top-40 in Austria (#23) and the Netherlands (#36). The Deadline For My Memories album stalled under the top 40 in the UK at #46, while not charting here in America.

The second release from the album was "Running Around Town", which was another top ten Dance hit in America at #3, while doing well up in Finland at #19 and the UK at #29. That was followed by "Imitation Of Life", which got to #15 on the American dance chart, and again made it to #29 in Britain. A fourth single, "Space Oasis", rose to #66 in the UK, while finally the last release, the ballad "You and I (Keep Holding On)", stopped at #76 in Britain.

Billie Ray left East/West and signed to React, promoting her upcoming second album with the single "Honey". However with a lackluster showing in the UK (#54) and the Netherlands (#63), that second set was cancelled. Four years later in 2003, with new remixes by Chicane, that song was picked up in the States by the dance label Nervous, and rose to #3 on the Dance Club Play tally in Billboard. However, that didn't really work to an album deal (in fact during those four years she independently released an album of Stax-inspired material that didn't go anywhere). In 2007, Martin returned with the single "Undisco Me", which hit #20 on the Dance Chart in America. Most recently, Martin came back to the dance top ten at #8 with "The Glittering Gutter", from her album The Soul Tapes.

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Here's the "Soundfactory Mix" by Junior Vasquez that gave the song its biggest popularity...

and finally, Billie Ray appearing live on Top of the Pops...