Songoftheday 6/12/21 - Just sittin' away watching the days go by, have you ever felt a breeze hit your heart like the wind was blowing it apart...

 

 

"Lately" - Divine

from the album Fairy Tales (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 25

 

Today's song of the day comes from the R&B vocal trio Divine, who came together in New Jersey in the mid-1990's. Nikki Bratcher, Tonia Tash, and Kia Thornton were signed as teens by record executive Ruben Rodriguez of Pendulum Records in his Red Ant imprint, and released their debut single "Lately". Written by Will Baker and Chris Kelly, and produced by John Howcott and Donald Parks, the record was a ballad that checked all the sad break-up song boxes with nothing really making it stand out, yet somehow this caught on in a big way and became the groups first and by-far biggest hit single. Perhaps its resemblance to All Saint's "Never Ever" gave some familiarity to listeners...

"Lately" spent a week at the top of the pop chart in America in November of 1998. In fact, it did better there than on Billboard magazine's R&B list, where the song spent two weeks at #2. The dance remix transformation of the track helped it place on the Dance Club Play tally at #46 as well. Internationally, the single reached the top-40 in New Zealand at #20, while being a minor hit in Canada (#47), Australia (#50), the Netherlands (#51), the UK (#52), and Germany (#75). The trio's debut album, Fairy Tales, was released in November as the single was cresting, but while it stayed on the Billboard 200 sales chart for 21 weeks it didn't get any higher than #126. This was their biggest success, but this won't be the last of the group in this series.

 

(Ed. Note: In a telling sign of the mostly-digital area, it's of note to say this is one of the rare #1 singles that isn't available to purchase or stream on any of the major platforms like Spotify and Amazon. It's on Apple on a curious compilation that I'm not sure if its legal or re-recorded. It's like history being erased.)

(4/10)

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Here's the group appearing on the Donny & Marie talk show to promote the single...

In 2006, Irish singer/actress Samantha Mumba released a cover of "Lately", and ended up with a much bigger hit internationally, reaching the top ten in Ireland (#3) and the UK (#6)...

Up tomorrow: Hip-Hop singer spreads some love carnally for his top-40 hit.