Songoftheday 11/2/20 - Won't you let me catch your fall, won't you let me lend a hand...

 
"I Wanna Be There" - Blessid Union Of Souls
from the album Blessid Union Of Souls (1997)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #39 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 2
 
Today's song of the day comes from the group Blessid Union Of Souls, whose debut album Home had scored a pair of top-40 pop hits in 1995 with "Let Me Be The One" and the top ten ballad "I Believe". Two years later, adding bass player Tony Clark, the band returned with their self-titled sophomore effort. The lead single from the set was "I Wanna Be The One", a simple midtempo ballad in the style of their breakthrough hit, leading with just lead singer Eliot Sloan and an acoustic guitar at the start, until it breaks into the whole band playing. Written by the Sloan, band guitarist Jeff Pence and drummer Eddie Hedges, along with producer Matt Senatore, the song moves their sound from an All-4-One vocal-heavy emphasis to a more mainstream rock tack like Hootie & The Blowfish...


"I Wanna Be There" became Blessid Union's third top-40 pop hit in July of 1997. The song also climbed to #25 on Billboard magazine's Adult Top-40 radio format chart. Internationally, the single rose to #19 in Canada. The Blessid Union Of Souls album, which was released in May of that year, made it to #127 on the Billboard 200 sales chart.

A second single from the record, the waltz-time "Light In Your Eyes", made it to the halfway point on the pop chart at #48, while becoming a decent hit at "adult contemporary" stations, peaking at #16 on the Adult Contemporary list and #29 on the Adult Top-40 format tally. 
 
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Here's the band appearing live on their local Cincinnati TV station performing the song...


and lastly, live in 2006...


Up tomorrow: Folk singer contemplates domestic abuse and revenge and gets Grammy love in the process.



 

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