Songoftheday 5/4/22 - I dream of rain I dream of gardens in the desert sand, I wake in vain I dream of love as time runs through my hand...

 

 

"Desert Rose" - Sting featuring Cheb Mami

from the album Brand New Day (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 15

 

Today's song comes from ex-Police-man Sting, who had landed his eleventh top-40 pop hit in America at the close of 1994 with a new track from his greatest hits collection, "When We Dance".  Two years later, he returned with his fifth solo studio album Mercury Falling, which rose to #5 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, selling over a million copies. However pop radio in this country wasn't so kind, with three of its cuts released as singles stalled in the lower half of the Hot 100 singles chart, with the second, "You Still Touch Me", doing the best at #60. On older-skewing radio formats, it did better, hitting #5 on Billboard magazine's Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple-A") Rock chart, #19 at the Adult Top-40 format, and #21 on the Adult Contemporary list. The lead single, "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot", went to #3 on the Triple-A list, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal, which Eric Clapton took home for "Change The World". Mercury Falling was also up for Best Pop Vocal Album at that Grammy broadcast, losing to Celine Dion for her Falling For You set. Sting got a better reception in his native England, with both songs reaching the British top-40. Another cut from the album, the country pastiche "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying", went to #94 on the pop Hot 100, but was redone as a duet with country star Toby Keith, and went all the way to #2 on the Country Singles chart.

The following year, his record company released a combined retrospective The Very Best of Sting & The Police, which topped the British albums chart and went to #46 on the Billboard 200. A revamp of his Police classic "Roxanne '97" went to #59 on the American pop Hot 100 and #17 in the UK. Two years later, he contributed a song to the soundtrack to the Jennifer Aniston/Paul Rudd romantic comedy The Object Of My Affection. The result, a remake of the 1920's standard "You Were Meant For Me", grabbed a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal yet again, which was won by Eric Clapton (again) for "My Father's Eyes". 

In 1999, Sting released his sixth solo set Brand New Day. The title track "Brand New Day" was put out as the first single, and while again it did well on the "old people" formats like Triple-A (#2) and Adult Top-40 (#8), the song only "bubbled under" the pop Hot 100 at #103. Stevie Wonder played harmonica on the track, and it deserved a wider audience, but by that time pop radio was chasing the teen market. At the Grammys in 2000, "Brand New Day" redeemed itself by winning the Best Male Pop Vocal award. Internationally, the single hit the top ten in Finland (#2) and Italy (#10), and made the top-40 in the UK (#13), Iceland (#26), Canada (#31), Switzerland (#35), and Austria (#38).

The second release from Brand New Day was a departure for the artist, pairing him up with Algerian singer Cheb Mami. A master of that country's Rai musical style, Mami provided a counterpoint to Sting's wistful verses on a world music production backdrop. Written by Sting and Mami, it reads like a poem, as Sting sings about a lost love, with Mami's chanting in the background giving it an almost religious feel. As for the music video, the less said the better, since all it is is a glorified advertisement for Jaguar cars, putting him in the desert before meeting Cheb in Las Vegas. 

"Desert Rose" became Sting's twelfth, and Cheb's first, top-40 pop hit in the U.S. in August of 2000. The single was huge on the Adult Top-40 radio format, spending ten weeks at #3, while spending a month (four weeks) at #1 on the Triple-A Rock chart, and making it to #22 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") airplay list. The remixes of the track, done by tribal house DJ Victor Calderone, helped the song go to #5 on the Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Greece and Portugal, and made the top ten in Canada (#2), Switzerland (#3), Italy (#4), France (#6), Austria (#6), Germany (#7), Belgium (#7W/#11F), and Hungary (#7). In his native Britain, "Desert Rose" peaked at #15. The Brand New Day album, released in September of 1999, rose to #9 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over three million copies. At the 2000 Grammy Awards, the record won for Best Pop Vocal Album. 

The third release from Brand New Day, "After The Rain Has Fallen", didn't make the American Hot 100, but did climb to #19 on the Adult Top-40 radio chart, and was a British top-40 hit at #31 in 2001. That same year, Sting contributed another song to a movie, this time for the Disney animated film The Emperor's New Groove. The result, "My Funny Friend And Me", went to #24 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, losing out to Bob Dylan for his "Things Have Changed" from the Wonder Boys. He also won another Pop Male Vocal Grammy Award in 2001, but not for that film song or anything from Brand New Day, but rather a cut from a tribute album to Brazilian musician Ivan Lins, "She Walks This Earth (Soberana Rosa)". Later that year, a song from Sting's 1987 album Nothing Like The Sun, "Fragile", saw a revival from his performance of the track in concert in Italy on the evening following the September 11 terrorist attack. The live version went to #28 in Italy, and was nominated for the Pop Male Vocal Grammy, which went to John Mayer for "Your Body Is A Wonderland". In 2002 remixes of the track were released on a promotional single to clubs, and went to #20 on Billboard's dance chart. Also in 2001, another soundtrack song, "Until" from the forgotten fantasy rom-com Kate & Leopold starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman, which Randy Newman took home for "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc..

Sting came back in 2003 with his next studio release Sacred Love, which became his seventh consecutive million-selling album and spent a week at #3 on the Billboard 200. Lead single "Send Your Love" again didn't make the pop Hot 100 in America, but again did well with the old folks, getting to #3 on the Triple-A Rock chart and #29 on the Adult Top-40 list, and was a top-40 hit in the UK at #30. And remixes of the EDM-inspired track may have missed at pop radio, but the song topped Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, as did another cut from the record, "Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)". "Whenever I Say Your Name", a duet with R&B singer Mary J. Blige from the album, won them a Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, while "Send Your Love" was up for Best Pop Male Vocal, losing to Justin Timberlake for his "Cry Me A River". Also in 2003, Sting paired up with bluegrass queen Alison Krauss for "You Will Be My Ain True Love" from the movie Appalachian chiller Cold Mountain, which was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar, which went to Annie Lennox's "Into The West" from The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, as well as the Grammy Award for Best Song from Visual Media. Ironically, he was on tour with Lennox that year. He also was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of the Police.

The rest of the decade, though, saw Sting eschewing pop music, at least for most his recorded output. Besides a collaboration with Sheryl Crow that will bring him back to the top-40 and this series, Sting's next few albums were a mix of classical music on Songs From The Labyrinth, somber holiday fare with If On A Winter's Night (which did get to #6 on the Billboard 200), to classical reworkings of his older material on Symphonicities (which also made the Billboard 200 top ten at #6). When he finally returned to rock music in 2013 with The Last Ship, it was even a jazzy rock affair, and the set got to #13 on the Billboard 200.

In 2015, Sting redid "Stolen Car" with French pop singer Mylene Farmer, and remixes of the track topped Billboard's Dance Club Play chart for a week. The next year, the artist made it back to the top ten on that albums sales tally with 57th & 9th, and rose up to #2 on the Triple-A Rock radio chart  and #37 on the Adult Top-40 list with "I Can't Stop Thinking About You". The following year, he contributed "The Empty Chair" to the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story, and received his fifth Oscar nom, losing yet again this time to "City Of Stars" from La La Land.  There was an unusual pairing of Sting with 90's reggae-pop singer Shaggy for the 44/876 album, which got to #40 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Best Reggae Album. A single pulled from the record, "Don't Make Me Wait", was a minor Triple-A Rock radio hit at #29 while remixes of the song put it at #3 on the Dance Club Play list. In 2019, new dance remixes of his debut solo single from 1985, "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free", topped the Dance Club Play chart. 

Sting's most recent album, The Bridge, arrived in 2021, coming in at a disappointing #101 on the Billboard 200 sales chart. Lead single "Rushing Water", went to #21 on the Triple-A Rock radio chart. This year, the Swedish House Mafia reworked the Police's "Roxanne" as "Redlight", and Sting found himself on the Dance/Electronics Songs chart at #20 and Dance Airplay list at #30. Also, he released a new version of his song "Russians" as a statement against the invasion of Ukraine, and a new single "Por Su Amor" "Desert Rose" was his last solo lead artist hit, but he will be back to the series as a featured artist.

 

And for Cheb Mami, the story is much darker and tragic. In the mid-2000's Mami and members of his entourage and management attempted to force an abortion on his then-girlfriend. He was convicted of the crime, and was incarcerated for two years of a five-year sentence (the baby actually survived, which may badly explain the small sentence). He was also successfully sued for plagiarism. After 2006's Layali album, he hasn't released any new material that I could find.

(9/10)

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Here's an edit of the "Melodic Club Mix" from Vince Calderone that helped the song make the dance top 5...

Next up is Sting and Mami performing "Desert Rose" at Italy's San Remo, their annual music competition that usually produces the country's Eurovision entry...

Here they are again in concert...

also, from the rehearsal to that fateful concert on September 11th from the day before...

Sting went solo at the Vina Del Mar festival in Chile in 2011...

 

 and lastly, Sting unplugged with two Arab musicians in Dubai in 2016...

Up tomorrow: A wish for joy from a country singer.