Songoftheday 7/29/20 - I want to feed the babies who can't get enough to eat, I want to shoe the children new shoes on their feet...

"Fly Like An Eagle" - Seal

from the album Space Jam (Original Soundtrack) (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's song of the day comes from Seal, whose 1994 album Seal had spun off three top-40 pop hits in America with "Prayer For The Dying", "Don't Cry", and the #1 Grammy-winning song from the Batman franchise movie, "Kiss From A Rose". Two years later, the singer contributed a song to another mass-market movie, this time the half-animated basketball film Space Jam featuring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny. For this one, Seal covered a rock classic from 1976, "Fly Like An Eagle". Originally written, produced, and performed by Steve Miller, the space-rock masterpiece went to #2 on the American and Canadian charts...

Seal's version of the song keeps the dreaminess of the production, but gives it a more soulful edge and stellar vocals that even Miller was a fan. It was the second hit from Space Jam, after R. Kelly's power-ballad "I Believe I Can Fly"...

Seal's take on "Fly Like An Eagle" became his fifth and so far most recent top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in January of 1997. The song was big on "easy listening" radio, making the top ten on both the Adult Top-40 (#7) and Adult Contemporary (#9) format charts. Even though "Fly Like An Eagle" was his biggest hit on Billboard's R&B chart, it missed the top-40 at #44. Internationally, the single was biggest in Canada, peaking at #2, and Belgium, at #7, while landing in the top-40 in the UK (#13), Iceland (#18), New Zealand (#29), and Switzerland (#38).  At the 1998 Grammy Awards, Seal's "Fly Like An Eagle" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal, losing out to Elton John with his Princess Diana "Candle In The Wind 1997" reprise.

In 1998, Seal returned with his third studio album Human Being. The lead single, "Human Beings", didn't get a lot of attention, missing the American pop chart (though it made it to #32 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 radio list), and stopping at #50 in his native UK. The album still reached the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales chart at #22. After a scrapped attempt at a fourth set in 2001, he finally re-emerged in 2003 with his Seal IV effort, which was his highest-charting album and first top ten record at #3. It was notable by scoring a trio of #1 dance hits in Billboard, with "Love's Divine", "Get It Together", and "Waiting For You", with the last song being his most recent Hot 100 hit at #89 in 2004. All three also placed on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart, with "Love's Divine" spending two weeks at #3. That song also was nominated for a Pop Male Vocal Grammy, which went to John Mayer's "Daughters". A year later, Seal put out a greatest hits set, and from it his cover of the Bacharach/David classic "Walk On By" (popularized by Dionne Warwick) earned another Male Pop Grammy nom, losing out to Stevie Wonder for his "From The Bottom Of My Heart". Also, new mixes of his older track "Killer" in 2005 by the late Peter Rauhofer topped the Dance Club Play list in the U.S..

The singer came back in 2007 with his next record, System, which also ended up getting another #1 dance hit with "Amazing". It also landed yet another Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal, which Justin Timberlake won for "What Comes Around...Goes Around". That album was followed a year later by Soul, a covers collection, and his take on "If You Don't Know Me By Now" went to #8 on the Adult Contemporary list and was Grammy nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal, losing out to Jason Mraz for "Make It Mine". He by chance grabbed a Grammy a year later, as one of the featured artist on jazzman Herbie Hancock's version of John Lennon's "Imagine". He has released four more studio albums since then, with his most recent set, Standards, getting a Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy nomination, which Willie Nelson won for My Way. He also has had big success on Adult Contemporary radio with Christmas music, with his take on "This Christmas" topping the radio list in the 2015/2016 holiday season, and "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" just missing the top ten at #11 in 2017.

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And here's Seal in concert in New York in 2018...

Up tomorrow: Alaskan folkie scores with a double-headed single that doubly dominated radio.