Songoftheday 3/3/22 - You always make me smile when I'm feeling down, you give me such a vibe it's totally bonified...

"It Feels So Good" - Sonique

from the album Hear My Cry (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 21

Today's song of the day comes from British DJ/producer Sonique, who grew up Sonia Clarke in north London. Back in 1985 Sonique released a one-off single "Let Me Hold You", which spent a week on the British Singles chart at #99. Five years later, she joined the dance act S'Express for their second album Intercourse, and had a top ten dance hit in America with "Nothing To Lose" (#9). After that, Sonique went back to behind the turntables, DJ'ng in clubs before getting signed in Britain on the Serious label, where she released a remake of the blues classic "I Put A Spell On You" in 1998, which climbed to #36 on the British chart. Later that year, she released a follow-up single, "It Feels So Good". Written by the artist with Linus Burdick, the electropop nugget was ahead of its time, being dark yet ethereal in the chorus, which Sonique bending her voice in all kinds of directions. Her debut album Hear My Cry was released in the UK in 1998, and the single originally went to #24 on the British chart that year.

Skip ahead to 2000, and American radio stations got a hold of the record and started playing it in heavy rotation, as did the club DJ's, and with Republic Records picking up the single in the States, Sonique found herself with a big hit two years after the fact...

"It Feels So Good" climbed all the way into the top ten on the American pop chart in April of 2000. The song also spent a week at #1 on Billboard magazine's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, after the success in the U.S., the single was re-released in the UK, where it topped the British singles chart for three weeks, as well as topping the lists in Canada, Norway, Hungary, Portugal, and Romania. The track also made the top ten in Germany (#2), Spain (#2), Ireland (#2), Austria (#2), Switzerland (#2), Sweden (#3), Denmark (#3), Greece (#3), Italy (#6), New Zealand (#7), Finland (#7), France (#8), the Netherlands (#9), Belgium (#9W/#15F), and the Czech Republic (#9). The Hear My Cry album, released in the U.S. in 2000, climbed to #67 on the Billboard 200 sales tally.

Sonique's next single after the success of "It Feels So Good" was "Sky", written by the DJ/singer with veteran American songwriter Rick Nowels and produced by the Thunderpuss remixing team of Barry Harris and Chris Cox. While the song rose to #10 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, mainstream pop radio unfairly treated her as a one-off, and it missed the Hot 100 altogether, though it did climb to #2 on the British Singles chart.and was a top ten hit all over Europe. A re-release of "I Put A Spell On You" also made the British top ten at #8, but was criminally ignored in the States.

Returning in 2003 with her second and final album on Republic, Born To Be Free, Sonique claimed one more top-40 hit in her homeland with "Can't Make Up My Mind", which made it to #17, followed by "Alive", which stalled down at #70. It's a nuanced record and a good listen, and worth a shot that it didn't get back then.

Going indie on her own Kosmo label, Sonique released On Kosmo in 2006. The only waves it made was in Germany, where it spun a couple of minor hits, with "Another World" with German DJ/producer Tomcraft doing the best at #57 there. Her most recent album came back in 2011 with Sweet VIbrations. Since then she's sporadically put out singles, most recently "Keep On Lovin'" with house music artist Dario G in 2011.

(9/10)

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Here's the music video from the original release in the UK in 1998...