Songoftheday 6/19/22 - I can show you every move I know just what to do...
"Dance With Me" - Debelah Morgan
from the album Dance With Me (2000)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17
Today's song comes from singer/songwriter Debelah Morgan, who after singing gospel in college was signed to a secular deal with Atlantic Records, where she released her debut album Debelah using just her first name in 1994. The lead single from the set, "Take It Easy", was a minor hit on Billboard magazine's R&B Singles chart at #56, followed by a remake of Deniece Williams' "Free", co-written by Susaye Greene of the latter-lineup Supremes, which slipped on to that chart at #96. With tepid reception of the album and those songs, Atlantic dropped her, leaving Morgan to sign with Motown. Four years later, that label released "Yesterday", written by Morgan (using her last name now) with producer Vassal Benford (who had success with pop/R&B trio Jade). Though the single scored Debelah her first top-40 R&B hit at #28, and initial Hot 100 pop placing at #56, and even hit the Dance Club Play list at #45, Motown declined to put out her second album It's Not Over in America.
Going back to Atlantic for a second try, putting together a third album with all the songs but one written by herself and brother/producer Giloh Morgan. The title track from the record, "Dance With Me", was released as the first single. The song interpolated the Broadway oldie "Hernando's Hideaway", which first appeared in the musical The Pajama Game in 1954, sung by actress Carol Haney, who won a Tony award for her role...
That same year, conductor Archie Bleyer released a version of "Hernando's Hideaway" on Cadence Records. His male-chorus single went to #2 on Billboard's Best Selling Singles chart, and #3 on the Jukebox and Disc Jockey lists...
There's no missing the melody on Morgan's record, which tries to tie the Latin groove to the song and gave composers Richard Adler and Jerry Ross writing credit on her single. There's no doubt the identifiable hook was a big selling point of the song, which seems like a distant cousin to Marc Anthony's "I Need To Know" from a year back. This tie-in to the "Latin Explosion" of the turn of the century helped give Debelah her biggest hit by far...
Despite the big success of the single, the album didn't make much noise, and followup single "I Remember", which was even given a remix by Rodney "Darkchild" Jenkins of Destiny's Child fame, but stiffed on the radio and in the stores. Later that year, Morgan recorded a song for the animated movie Osmosis Jones, "Why Did You Have To Be", written by song doctor supreme Diane Warren. However that didn't get major notice either. Debelah returned to her gospel music roots - her most recent release was Let The Worship In with brother Giloh in 2010.
(7/10)
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Here's the extended Jonathan Peters remix from the 12" single that helped take "Dance With Me" into Billboard's dance top five...
Morgan showed off her vocal range in her appearance on The Tonight Show promoting the single...
She even gave a bigger performance on the Canadian music show Electric Circus...
Up tomorrow: Convicted R&B star has aspirations.
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