Songoftheday 3/3/23 - On my way to see my friends who lived a couple blocks away from me, as I walked through the subway it must have been about quarter past three...

 

 

"7 Days" - Craig David

from the album Born To Do It (US 2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 16

 

Today's song comes from British singer/songwriter Craig David, who was one of the few if only acts in the "UK Garage" scene to break through on American shores, when he scored a top-20 hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the autumn of 2001 with his stellar debut solo single "Fill Me In".  Craig follow-up single was the mid-tempo track "7 Days", which he wrote with producer Mark Hill (of "Artful Dodger" fame) and Darren Hill. In the song he regales to a friend how he did a meet-cute with a young lady on a Monday, and the progression of the relationship through the week, although it ran damn fast since they were already between the sheets by Wednesday. I mean it is lazy to just have them banging the rest of the week before "chilling" Sunday, but that's how they wrote it (and I guess how things go sometimes). It's not as striking as the biting "Fill Me In", but it does tell a story, and David channels a R. Kelly-style vocal delivery. The music video plays like a sexual Groundhog Day, as he relives his Monday over and over correcting his mistakes, which definitely makes up for the repetitiveness of the lyrics. In the end, he ended up having his biggest stateside hit...

"7 Days" reached the top ten on the Hot 100 in March of 2002, while making it to #52 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song peaked at #6 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart, #53 on the R&B Airplay list, and #10 on the dance-oriented Rhythmic format. Internationally, the single landed David's second #1 in the United Kingdom, and hit the top ten in Ireland (#3), Australia (#4), New Zealand (#6), Poland (#6), Italy (#7), The Netherlands (#7), Canada (#9), and Denmark (#9). It also made the top-40 in Norway (#11), Belgium (#12 Wallonia/#25 Flanders), Iceland (#14), Finland (#17), France (#19), Switzerland (#20), Sweden (#21), and Germany (#22). At the Grammy Awards in 2003, "7 Days" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, losing to John Mayer for "Your Body Is A Wonderland". 

The third single from his Born To Do It album was the downtempo break-up ballad "Walking Away", which he also wrote with Mark Hill. While the song topped the charts in New Zealand and Poland, and peaked at #3 in his native Britain, it stalled right under the top-40 in America at #44, even though it got as high as #17 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay chart. A fourth release from the debut, "Rendezvous", scored a fourth top tenner in the UK at #8. 

At the end of 2002, David returned with his sophomore effort on Wildstar Records (distributed by Atlantic), Slicker Than Your Average. While six of its tracks made the British singles chart, and four hitting the top ten there, the two singles in America only "bubbled under" the Hot 100 with the electro-dance "What's Your Flava?" (#8 UK, #104 US) and the breezy "Hidden Agenda" (#10 UK, #119 US). Nevertheless, the album did make the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #32, perhaps from the buzz from the continued British success, going on to sell over a half-million copies in the U.S.. ("What's Your Flava?" made #24 on the Mainstream Top-40 radio chart, and was a minor radio hit on the Rhythmic format at #32.) Another song of the album, the collaboration "Rise & Fall" with Sting, which interpolated the latter's song "Shape Of My Heart", peaked at #2 in the UK. Also, the album track "Personal" became the singer's first and so far only hit on the older-skewing Adult R&B radio chart in America at #35.

Despite that modest success, Atlantic declined initially to release Craig's third album, The Story Goes.... Internationally, he continued to have success, with two more British top ten hits, with the neo-disco track "All The Way" going all the way to #3. He was given another chance in America when Reprise Records picked up David's next release, Trust Me, which came out in 2007. While it missed the Billboard 200 tally, placing at #58 on their R&B Albums list, and did have any radio hits, a cut from the album "Hot Stuff (Let's Dance)", which sampled the classic David Bowie tune, managed to make David's first hit on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart at #22, and made the top ten in the UK (#7), Croatia (#2), Finland (#3), Hungary (#5), Denmark (#9), and Sweden (#10). 

At this point, Warner Brothers released a Greatest Hits album, and when both new tracks from the set failed to make the top-40 in the UK, David parted ways with the label, though he continued to tour. In 2010, he released an album on Universal Motown based on classic R&B covers and samples, Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and while it hit #13 on the British Albums chart none of the tracks caught on on the radio or sales-wise. 

Things changed in 2015 when Craig and rapper Big Narstie released a single "When The Bassline Drops", which brought the singer back into the British Singles top ten for the first time in eight years at #10. It's not surprising, since it brought back the drum-and-bass/UK Garage sound David started out with. The song would get him signed to Sony's Insanity Records, where he released Following My Intuition the following year. The album topped the British Albums chart, and landed three more top-40 hits in his home country. To me, it's his best album (I had bought it on import), and the record re-invigorated Craig's career. 

His good fortunes continued with his next record, The Time Is Now, which topped out at #2 on the British Albums chart, and scored a top ten single at #5 with "I Know You" featuring modern rock band Bastille. That song also climbed to #12 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart in America. In 2020, a collab with rapper/singer KSI and producer Digital Farm Animals (Nick Gale), "Really Love", peaked at #3 on the British Singles chart.

David's most recent album, 22, was released in 2022, and crested at #7 on the British Albums chart. The song "Who You Are", a duet with singer/songwriter MNEK, went to #27 on Billboard's Dance Airplay radio chart, and is his most recent top-40 hit in the UK at #39. His most recent single was a holiday release, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", at the close of 2022.

(6/10)

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Here's Craig performing on the British music show CD:UK to promote the single...

Next up at a holiday concert in 2016...

And lastly, a nice version with the BBC Orchestra from last year...

After this weekend's chart, singles, and album recaps, I'll return on Monday with the bombshell's band catcalling...