Songoftheday 5/22/20 - If I could reach the stars I'd pull one down for you, shine it on my heart so you could see the truth...
from the album Phenomenon (Original Soundtrack) (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 36
Today's song of the day is from guitar god Eric Clapton, who cleaned up at the Grammy Awards and sold millions of records with his MTV Unplugged album, which also landed the British musician, singer, and songwriter a top-20 pop/top ten rock radio hit with his acoustic take on his old gem "Layla" in the fall of 1992. The next year, Eric recorded a cover of "Stone Free" for a tribute album to another guitar legend, Jimi Hendrix. That version was a hit at rock radio, climbing to #4 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock chart. In 1994, he returned with a new studio album, this time a cover of some of his favorite blues classics in From The Cradle. Lead single "I'm Tore Down" scored another rock radio success at #5, but it was too traditional for mainstream radio's fickle taste at the time, and followup "Motherless Child" only managed to "bubble under" the pop Hot 100 at #114. In any case, the critics and industry loved it, and while the album was his only British #1 record while also topping the American albums sales list, it won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album while being nominated for Album of the Year (which ironically went to Tony Bennett for his MTV Unplugged set).
1996 saw Eric taking mostly some time off except for one giant moment. Contributing a song to the John Travolta sci-fi movie Phenomenon, he would find himself with one of the biggest hits of his career. "Change The World", written by Gordon Kennedy, Wayne Kirkpatrick, and Tony Sims, was a soft-pop aspirational song that relied most on the production work by Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds. His stamp (and backup vocals) made the record into much more that what it could've been otherwise, a greeting-card wishlist that boils down to getting a woman to love him. No specifics, no big poster-ready mantras, just "if I could change the world I'd make sure you're with me" sentiments. Still, it sure sounded pretty as all hell...
"Change The World" became Clapton's fifteen top-40 pop hit and sixth and so far most recent top ten success in August of 1996. The song spent a massive 13 weeks on Billboard's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, while racking up seven weeks at the top of their Adult Top-40 format list. Because of the "Babyface" sound, it even crossed over to their R&B chart, spending 20 weeks there and peaking at #54. Internationally, the single topped the Canadian chart for five weeks, and made the top ten in New Zealand (#3), France (#7), Australia (#8), Belgium (#9F/#27W), and Austria (#10). At the Grammy Awards in 1997, "Change The World" won three big trophies with Song of the Year, Record Of the Year, and Best Male Pop Performance. The song also marks Eric's most recent appearance on Billboard's official Hot 100 pop chart in America to date, although he will have another SOTD in the future with a track he took to the airplay top-40.
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Here's Eric guesting on Babyface's own MTV Unplugged show in 1997...
And at the Grammys that year, with Eric winning Record of the Year and Babyface winning Song of the Year...
Next is Clapton in concert in Japan in 2001...
and finally live in 2007...
Up tomorrow: Welsh songstress has some long-lasting feelings.
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