Robbed hit of the week 8/9/21 - Blackhawk's "There You Have It"...

 

 

"There You Have It" - Blackhawk

from the album The Sky's The Limit (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the country band Blackhawk, who came together in the early 1990's. Two of the three members had already been on top-40 pop hits in the past. Lead singer Henry Paul was a member of the southern rock group Outlaws for their first three albums in the 1970's, of which the debut had the hit "There Goes Another Love Song", which went to #34 in 1975. Leaving them to start his Henry Paul Band, he went to #50 on the pop Hot 100 in Billboard magazine in 1982 with "Keeping Our Love Alive" from the act's third release Anytime. He rejoined the Outlaws for a reunion album in 1987. Meanwhile, Van Stephenson, initially a songwriter, had been signed as a solo artist by MCA and scored a top-40 pop hit in the summer of 1984 with "Modern Day Delilah". Failing to follow-up on that success, Stephenson went back to songwriting for awhile, teaming with Dave Robbins to pen a string of hits for the country crossover band Restless Heart, including their #1 country hit from 1988 "Bluest Eyes In Texas". 

 

With Stephenson and Robbins joining Paul as Blackhawk, the trio, with Paul as lead singer, were signed to Arista Records. There, they released their debut single, "Goodbye Says It All" at the close of 1993. The song stalled right under the Country Singles chart in Billboard magazine at #11, the song had buzz, and the sales of the single led it to "bubble under" the pop Hot 100 at #111. Releasing their self-titled first album in the beginning of the following year, they scored four top ten hits from the debut, including "Every Once In A While", which spent a week at #2. The Blackhawk record went to #98 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and #15 on the Country Albums list, and was a steady seller, going on to move over two million copies. 

 

The group returned the following year with their sophomore effort Strong Enough. Lead single "I'm Not Strong Enough To Say No" (which Robert "Mutt" Lange wrote) spent two weeks at #2 on the Country Singles chart, and the album was their highest-charting success, making the top-40 on the Billboard 200 at #22 and hitting #4 on the country-specific list. Their third try, Love & Gravity, had also reached the Country Albums top ten at #8, but radio support faltered, with both singles from the set stopping at the 30's on the Country radio chart. 

Paul, Stephenson, and Robbins regrouped in 1998 for their fifth release The Sky's The Limit. The first single from the project, "There You Have It", wasn't written by any of the three but rather Steve Bogard and Rick Giles, and produced by Mark Bright and Tim DuBois. A simple midtempo love song riding off the title phrase, it had the trio's harmonies intact and lots of fiddle touches, to a pleasant if not really exceptional record...

While "There You Have It" returned Blackhawk to the Country Singles top ten at #4, and was their first and biggest (and only) success on the Hot 100, the song stalled at the frustrating peak of #41 just missing the top-40 in January of 1999. Internationally, the single went to #10 on the Canadian Country chart. The Sky's The Limit album, released in September of 1998, got as high at #192 on the Billboard 200 sales tally and #25 on the Country Albums list. 

Sadly, a month after this single peaked, Stephenson was diagnosed with skin cancer. A second single from the album, "Your Own Little Corner Of My Heart", stopped at #27 on the Country Singles chart, and only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #113. Stephenson left to care for himself in 2000, as the label released their Greatest Hits compilation, which had a new track "I Need You All The Time", which grazed the Country Singles top-40 at #40. With the collection going to #18 on the Country Albums chart, and #152 on the Billboard 200, the act ended their stint on Arista. Stephenson lost his fight with melanoma in the spring of 2001. 

Bringing on Randy Threet as bassist, Paul and Robbins continued on as Blackhawk, moving to Columbia Records and released Spirit Dancer in 2002. The set's lead single, "Days Of America", made it into the Country Singles top-40 at #37, which is also where the album peaked on the Country Albums chart. After a second release "One Night In New Orleans" stopped at #51 on the Country Singles list, Blackhawk and Columbia Records parted ways. After guesting on Keni Thomas' single "Gloryland", which they co-wrote and went to #56 on the country singles chart, Paul, Robbins, and Threet rejoined the Outlaws in 2005. However, that band didn't release an album until 2012 with It's About Pride, which pretty much went unnoticed. The same three went back and recorded a new Blackhawk album, Brothers Of The Southland, independently, and while radio left them be, the album did sell enough to reach #44 on Billboard's Country Albums chart in 2014. They have since toured as both Blackhawk and the Outlaws.

(5/10)

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Here's Paul, Robbins, and Threet performing "There You Have It" live in concert in 2018...