Songoftheday 5/24/20 - She's the kind of woman who let's you know, when she knows what she wants she won't let go...
from the album Man With The Fun (1996)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #20 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10
Today's song of the day comes from British pop/reggae artist Maxi Priest, who in 1991 guested on two big singles. First he had a top ten pop duet with Roberta Flack on "Set The Night To Music", and then reached the top ten on the R&B chart with reggae artist Shabba Ranks on "Housecall". However, when it came time to release his next studio album following his #1 success in 1990 with "Close To You", American pop radio wasn't as keen on Fe Real, with the lead single "Groovin' In The Midnight" stalling down at #63 on the pop chart, although it did make the R&B top-40 at #26. The record was critically heralded, and earned Maxi his first Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album (which went to Inner Circle's insanely popular Bad Boys set). Two other cuts from the record made the top-40 in his native UK: "Just Wanna Know" (UK #33) and "One More Chance" (UK #40).
For his next album Man With The Fun in 1996, Maxi recruited another reggae artist that had a big success in the early 1990s, Shaggy. Shaggy made the top ten in 1995 with the double-shot single of "Boombastic" and "In The Summertime". Together and with a generous sample of the 1960s soul classic "Green Onions" by Booker T and the MGs, Maxi released "That Girl" as the lead single. This time, radio was ready for a comeback...
"That Girl" became Maxi's fifth and to date most recent top-40 pop hit in August of 1996. The song also climbed to #34 on Billboard magazine's R&B chart, and crossed over to #39 on their Adult Top-40 radio list. Internationally, the single was a big success, reaching the top ten in Finland (#3), Canada (#4), Australia (#7), Hungary (#7), and New Zealand (#10). It also made the top 40 in the UK (#15), Sweden (#15), Iceland (#18), Austria (#29), Switzerland (#29), and the Netherlands (#35). The Man With The Fun album again scored Priest a Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album, which went to Bunny Wailer for Hall Of Fame: A Tribute To Bob Marley's 50th Anniversary. The set peaked at #108 on Billboard's Top 200 albums sales chart.
The follow-up single, "Watching The World Go By", reached the top-40 in the UK at #36, but was only able to "bubble under" the American pop Hot 100 chart. The third release, "Heartbreak Lover", went unnoticed. In 1999, Priest landed a top-20 hit in New Zealand with "Mary Got A Baby" with Beenie Man from Maxi's Combination album. He has since released four more studio albums, his most recent being It All Comes Back To Love which came out in 2019.
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And here's Maxi and Shaggy performing "That Girl" live in concert in 1998...
Up tomorrow: Grunge rockers are fumbling around vital organs.
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