Songoftheday 4/27/21 - I've been down this road walkin' the line that's painted by pride, and I have made mistakes in my life that I just can't hide...

 

 

"Searchin' My Soul" - Vonda Shepard

from the album Songs From Ally McBeal (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #16 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay top-40: 11

 

Today's song of the day comes from singer/songwriter Vonda Shepard, a native New Yorker who grew up on the West Coast. After being a session player for many top acts of the 1970s and 1980s, Shepard got her first big break in a duet on Dan Hill's single "Can't We Try", which reached the pop top ten in America in the autumn of 1987. From that exposure, Vonda was signed to Reprise Records, releasing her self-titled debut album in 1989. Two of the cuts from the record made Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary radio chart, with "Don't Cry Ilene" going as high as #17 there. Although her second and third albums stiffed, Shepard's luck (and diligence at the piano bars) kicked in, when she was recruited by produced David Kelley to provide the music for his upcoming lawyer sitcom Ally McBeal. A track from her second disc, The Radical Light, was also chosen as the theme song for the show. "Searchin' My Soul", produced by Shepard, who wrote the track with Paul Gordon. It was one of four original songs on the show's first soundtrack, which was dominated by kitschy cover tunes to complement the quirky title character. "Searchin'" was a driving midtempo number that borrowed a little from contemporary country (like Jo Dee Messina) and a little from jangle-pop style rock.(like Sister Hazel). The result was a pleasant little intro to the program that would become a huge success for the then-burgeoning Fox Network. It connected to its many fans, most especially single women, as a anthem for their hopes and struggles...

Since "Searchin' My Soul" wasn't released as a commercial single (much like the insanely popular theme to Friends years before), it wasn't able to place on Billboard's official Hot 100 pop chart. However the song got enough radio love from mainstream stations to place in the top-20 of the airplay component of the tally in June of 1998. The song climbed to #10 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format chart, while getting to #22 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") airplay list. Internationally, the single went to #10 on the British singles chart, #6 in Canada, and #8 in Finland, while making the top-40 in Norway (#16) and Sweden (#20). The first Ally McBeal soundtrack album, which solely featured Shepard, went to #7 on the Billboard 200 sales chart in America, going on to sell over a million copies. 

Shepard's next studio album By 7:30 was released on the indie Jacket Records in 1999. From it, a remake of a song from her debut disc, "Baby Don't You Break My Heart Slow", this time with Emily Saliers from the Indigo Girls, made the American Adult Top-40 radio chart at #30, while being a minor hit in Britain at #76. The album did make the top half of the Billboard 200 list at 79, while reaching #39 in the UK. Later that year, a second Ally McBeal collection titled Heart and Soul came out, which made the British Albums top ten at #9, and selling over a half-million copies in the U.S. peaking at #60. Vonda would be involved with two more McBeal tie-ins, with the second, Ally McBeal: For Once In My Life, making the American albums top-40 at #34. She also has released four more studio albums apart from the show, the most recent being Rookie in 2015.

(7/10)

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Here's the original version of "Searchin' My Soul" from Vonda's The Radical Light album, which isn't as rushed as the TV theme...

Next up is Vonda in concert...

and lastly, a "quarantine at home" performance from last November...

Up tomorrow: R&B "boy-band" believes they are being duped.