Songoftheday 12/5/22 - Who can say when the roads meet? That love might be in your heart?

 

 

"Only Time" - Enya

from the album A Day Without Rain (2000)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (three weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 22

 

Today's song comes from Irish Celtic pop/new-age artist Enya, whose second solo album after leaving the group Clannad, Watermark, had unexpectedly spun off a top-40 pop crossover hit with the lush vocal masterpiece "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)" in the spring of 1989. Two years later, she returned with her third effort, Shepherd Moon, which sold over four million copies and reached #17 on the Billboard 200 (the low rank is deceiving since it spend a massive 238 weeks on the chart). The lead single from the record, "Caribbean Blue", an attempt to recreate the magic of "Orinoco Flow", did more modestly, reaching #79 on Billboard magazine's Hot 100, though it got decent airplay on Alternative Rock radio, spending four weeks at #3 on that chart, as well as getting to #29 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format. Another cut from the record, "Book Of Days", went to #10 in the United Kingdom. The album won the Grammy for Best New Age Album in 1993.

After another break of four years, Enya delivered her next album, The Memory Of Trees, which became her first to break the top ten on the Billboard 200 at #9, selling over three million records. But while the first single from the set, "Anywhere Is", was a top ten success in Poland (#1 Airplay), Iceland (#3), the United Kingdom (#7), Ireland (#8), and Austria (#8), American mainstream stations were getting to younger and rock or rap oriented to even get this on the Hot 100 or the other radio charts. But as like her previous, this was given the Best New Age Album Grammy in 1997. Also that year, Enya released her first retrospective, Paint The Sky With Stars, which reached #30 on the Billboard 200 and sold over four million copies. A new recording on the set, "Only If...", placed Enya back on the Hot 100 at #88, while barely missing the British top-40 at #43. 

In 2000, Enya released her fifth studio album on Reprise Records A Day Without Rain. The lead single from the record, "Only Time", was a modest hit in the UK at its release that year, making #32 on the singles chart in the country. The album debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200, and in its first run on the chart went to #17. But in the beginning of the following year, the song started to get airplay on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format, making its first appearance at #29 (one notch above boy-band 98 Degrees in a week where NSYNC had the #1 song). By the summer, older-skewing Adult Top-40 stations started to play it, and it started to climb that list. But unfortunately (but fortunate for her, I guess), the terrorist attack on America on 9/11 sparked radio to start playing the track, re-released in a new remix by longtime business partner Nicky Ryan. The new version was released as a CD single to benefit the Firefighters Association in New York decimated by the tragedy. 

"Only Time" is a very simple song lyrically, with Enya asking a series of questions, with the title being the answer. The power of the record is not in these mantras but rather the hypnotizing vocal layers she is famous for, over a backdrop of a string section and no percussion save for what appears to be wooden blocks. That definitely helps this stand out and give weight to the scant lyrics, and it's no wonder it's theme of history and getting over loss would have the weary nation grasping at it after 9/11. The record raced up the charts it was on, and made mainstream radio station play it as well, and "Only Time" became Enya's biggest hit in the States...

"Only Time" reached the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in November of 2001. On the Radio, the song hit #11 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, while spending six weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary list, and four weeks atop the Adult Top-40 format. Internationally, the single topped the charts in Canada, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland, while making the top-40 in Austria (#2), Belgium (#11W), Italy (#17), Sweden (#28), and the United Kingdom (#32). Surprisingly, in her home of Ireland, the song stalled down at #58. The Day Without Rain album, originally released in November of 2000, spent two weeks at #2 on the Billboard 200 sales tally in October to November of 2001. The set topped Billboard's New Age Albums chart for 93 weeks, and went on to sell over seven million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002. A Day Without Rain scored Enya her third Best New Age Album trophy. 

With the momentum of "Only Time", Enya released the track "Wild Child" as the follow-up. The deceptively-titled ballad was a moderate hit on the Adult Contemporary radio format, peaking at #12, while internationally it was mostly ignored, only placing down at #72 on the British Singles chart. 

The following year, Enya contributed two songs to the soundtrack to the first Lord Of The Rings movie, The Fellowship Of The Ring. One of them, "May It Be", which mingled English lyrics with Tolkien's Elvish language of Quenya, was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 2002, losing to Randy Newman's "If I Didn't Have You" from the animated film Monsters, Inc.. 

 

R&B singer/producer Mario Winans used a sample of Enya's 1987 album track "Boadicea" for his single "I Don't Wanna Know" in 2004, and Winans gave her credit on the single for the charts, in which it climbed all the way to #2, so Enya will be back as a featured artist. An "answer record" to that single, "You Should Really Know", also sampled and credited Enya, and went all the way to #8 on the British top-40.

Enya continued the method of using a fictional language, this time Loxian (created by her co-writing companion Roma Ryan) for some of her next record, Amarantine, in 2005. The title track climbed to #12 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart. The album won Enya's fourth Best New Age Album Grammy Award in 2007. One of the songs from the record, "Drifting", was also nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Performance, which went to George Benson and Al Jarreau for their remake of Jarreau's 1983 song "Mornin'" (ahem, ringer). 

The artist's next studio album in 2008 was a holiday-adjacent record, And Winter Came..., which made it to #8 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. The second of two charting singles, "White Is The Winter Night", also went to #8 this time on the Adult Contemporary radio list at the beginning of 2009, her most recent radio chart appearance. The album is getting close to selling a million copies. 

There was a long lapse before Enya would re-emerge with her most recent studio album, Dark Sky Island, in 2015. The set was a top ten success in America at #8, while also reaching the top ten in most of the rest of the world. It was nominated for Best New Age Album at the 2017 Grammys, losing to the band White Sun for their White Sun II album. But we should be due for a new Enya album hopefully soon.

(9/10)

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Here's Enya performing "Only Time" with a string orchestra for a TV appearance in 2001..

She also performed the song at the World Music Awards that year....

Up tomorrow: the self-proclaimed "King Of Pop" is flabbergasted.