Songoftheday 5/17/21 - Strange voices are sayin' things I can't understand, it's too close for comfort this heat has got right out of hand...

 

 

"Cruel Summer" - Ace Of Base

from the albums Cruel Summer (US/CAN) & Flowers (Int'l) (both 1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 14

 

Today's song of the day comes from the Swedish pop/dance act Ace Of Base, whose second album The Bridge had scored a pair of top-40 hits in America with "Beautiful Life" and "Lucky Love", though neither did as well as their massive debut record The Sign.  The group returned in 1998 with their third effort, which was originally titled Flowers in Europe, patterned after lead single there "Life Is A Flower", which did pretty decently, reaching the #1 in Hungary and top ten in Denmark (#3), Finland (#3), the UK (#5), Sweden (#5), and Spain (#7). However in the U.S. and Canada, where they were signed to Arista, label boss Clive Davis insisted that they release a different track as the lead single. That would be a cover track, like "Don't Turn Around" was, but this time of a much more known song. "Cruel Summer" was a top ten hit for the British girl-group Bananarama in the fall of 1984... 

Taking a cue from the reggae-adjacent beat of the original, Ace of Base's version doesn't really add much to the mix besides freshening up the production. What was most noticeable is that Jenny Berggren had assumed "lead vocal" duties that before were done by sister Linn. All sorts of explanations were made, from stage fright (she was attacked at knifepoint) to vocal troubles, and while she remained in the band, it was way apparent something was awry as she was stoic and blurred in the music video, which she allegedly did not want to do. As for the record, is actually aged worse than the original, where Bananarama's unison vocals lend themselves to the naive pain of the words more than the watered down harmonies of Ace of Base's. It's not bad, but rather unnecessary. However (probably with Clive's promo muscle) it edged its way into their final top ten hit...

"Cruel Summer" became Ace of Base's seventh and so far last top-40 pop hit in America in August of 1998. The song also made Billboard's older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart at #33, and even older-skewing Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list at #22. The dance remixes of the track were a hit in the clubs, helping it rise to #10 on the Dance Play chart. Internationally, where it was released as the second single from Flowers, the single reached the top ten in Belgium (#3F/#27W), Poland (#4), Canada (#6), the UK (#8), and Hungary (#10). It also made the top-40 in Switzerland (#21), Iceland (#25), Germany (#28), Austria (#28), their native Sweden (#33), and New Zealand (#40). While the Flowers album reached the top ten across Europe, in America the Cruel Summer rebrand stopped just short of the halfway mark on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #101. 

Clive and Arista did get around to releasing "Life Is A Flower", but had them re-record the song with new lyrics as "Whenever You're Near Me" for the follow-up single. It stopped at #76 in the U.S. and #51 in Canada. Meanwhile in Europe, they put out the Motown pastiche "Always Have, Always Will", which rose to #12 in the UK, #15 in Ireland, and #29 in both Austria and Switzerland. In Germany, the cut "Travel To Romantis" was a minor hit at #61, and "Everytime It Rains", which was taken from the Flowers/Cruel Summer album to promote their Greatest Hits set, was a top-40 hit in the UK at #22.

Dropped from their Arista contract, Ace Of Base came back only in Europe in 2002 with their fourth album Da Capo. Britain ignored the set, but they returned to the top-40 in Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Switzerland with "Beautiful Morning". Their most recent studio album, The Golden Ratio, came out in 2010 with the sisters replaced by Julia Williamson and Clara Hagman, making the top-20 in Germany, where single "All For You" reached #38 on the singles chart. As of now, the group features just Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg, though their Hidden Gems compilation has the four original members on the cover. 

(4/10)

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Here's the "Big Bonus" remix that helped the band score a top ten dance hit...

Here's Ace of Base performing "Cruel Summer" on CBS This Morning in 1998...

At the same time Ace Of Base's original version of "Cruel Summer" was released, another version from the French dance act Alliage that featured Jenny singing (billed as "Ace of Base") came out and hit the top-40 in that country at #24...

Eleven years later in Germany, another revamp by DJ Rico Bernasconi made the singles chart at #69...

Lastly, the group in concert in Finland in 1998 doing "Life Is A Flower" and "Cruel Summer"...

 

 Up tomorrow: British girl-group absolutely refuses.