Songoftheday 5/25/22 - When I get you all alone I'm gonna move in nice and close, ain't nobody gonna interrupt my game...

 

 

"Faded" - SoulDecision featuring Thrust

from the album No One Does It Better (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #22 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 16

 

Today's song comes from the Canadian pop group SoulDecision, who came together in Vancouver in the mid-1990's. Before Trevor Guthrie, Gary Bowman, and Ken Lewko were signed to MCA Records, they released the single "Ooh It's Kinda Crazy" under the name Indecision, which almost made the top-40 in Canada at #45 in 1998. Renaming themselves after another act had that name, the rechristened SoulDecision released their first album No One Does It Better in 2000. Their first single on the label was the slick dance-pop of "Faded". Written by Guthrie who sings lead, the song has him playing the romance dance with a woman who is a friend but a possible friend with benefits. With lines like "Cause I like the way you're making it move, I like the way you're making me wait" that are so politely Canadian, it's clear he doesn't know how it's going to end up, but doing his best to finesse her. It's boy-band grown up a little for sure, but damn is it infectious, and ended up being one of my favorite nuggets of the genre. The single version featured Canadian rapper Thrust (Christopher France), who previously featured on the Canuck rap group Rascalz' single "Northern Touch", which just missed the Canadian top-40 at #41, and brings a deceptively Notorious B.I.G.-like delivery. (One of the other rappers featured on the track, Kardinal Offishall, will eventually be on this series.) The result was a smooth slice of pop ready-made for American radio, and their first and biggest hit...

"Faded" became SoulDecision's first and only top-40 hit on Billboard magazine's pop Hot 100 in September of 2000. The song also climbed to #31 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart. Internationally the single spent a week at #1 in their Canadian homeland, while reaching #23 in Australia. The No One Does It Better album, released in February of that year, peaked at #103 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, while making the top ten in Canada at #7.

To follow-up this success, the group re-released "Ooh It's Kinda Crazy" in a new single remix that had it sounding like George Michael's "Fastlove" with lyrics like Wham's "Everything She Wants". While the song did OK on mainstream radio, peaking at #26 on the pop airplay chart, but it only managed to "bubble under" the main Hot 100 list at #111. In Canada, it did better at #18, and in Australia, it stopped at #49. A third single from the set, "Gravity", was a minor hit in Canada at #59. 

SoulDecision and MCA parted ways, and after an self-promoted album Shady Satin Drug in 2004 that went nowhere, the group did as well. Since then, Guthrie has had a decent amount of success singing on a string of dance music singles. In 2013, he handled vocals on Dutch DJ Armin Van Buuren's song "This Is What It Feels Like" from Van Buuren's album Intense. The single, which Guthrie co-wrote, was a top ten hit in the Netherlands (#2), the UK (#6), Canada (#6), Austria (#7), and Belgium (#8F). In American, it peaked at #96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #35 on the Dance Club Play chart. The following year, a collaboration with remixer R3HAB, "Soundwave", made the Canadian Top-40 at #31, while reaching #27 on Billboard's Dance Airplay radio chart. A solo follow-up, "Summertime", just missed the top-40 in Canada at #46, while getting to #19 on that countries top-40 radio list. A song with another Dutch DJ, Laidback Luke, "Let It Go", slipped on to the American Dance Airplay list at #40 in 2015. A year later, another solo single, "Wanted", went to #22 on the Canadian pop airplay chart. Trevor hooked up with the Swedish team of Axwell & Ingrosso in 2017 for "Dreamer", which was a top ten dance club play hit in America at #6, while getting to #11 on the Dance Radio airplay list. He continued his success with European collaborators with Dutch DJ/producer Hardwell in 2019 for "Summer Air", which got to #28 on the American Dance Airplay chart. Most recently, Guthrie joined Canadian DJ Domeno for "Lightning", which popped on to the Canadian pop radio chart at #46 in 2021.

(8/10)

Up tomorrow: Teenage rapper from Atlanta is ringing your phone.