Robbed hit of the week 7/17/23 - Craig David's "Walking Away"...

 

 

"Walking Away" - Craig David

from the album Born To Do It (US 2001)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44 (two weeks)

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from British R&B/dance music artist Craig David, who took the underground "two-step" scene into the mainstream in the early 2000s with his debut album Born To Do It, which already scored two huge international hits that also made the American charts as well with "Fill Me In" and the top ten success "7 Days".  

The third single from Craig's debut was "Walking Away", written by the singer with producer Mark Hill. In the lyrics, David goes on about leaving the negativity in his life, before pinpointing it to the person he's in a relationship with and in the process of leaving. He seems resolved though a bit bitter with lines like "Whispers in the powder room baby, Don't listen to the games they play" even though he's got his mind made up. The U.S. release made a remix that was more adult-pop than his previous work, and sported a new music video that has Craig driving a car with a grill I wasn't expecting...

 

 

While "Walking Away" climbed to #17 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Top-40 radio chart, the single stalled just under the top-40 on the big Hot 100 in July of 2002. Internationally, the single was much more successful, topping the charts in New Zealand and Poland, and making the top ten in Hungary (#2), the United Kingdom (#3), Australia (#5), Norway (#6), Romania (#8), Ireland (#9), and Greece (#10). It also hit the top-40 in the Netherlands (#11), Sweden (#13), Denmark (#14), Italy (#15), Belgium (#18 Wallonia/#21 Flanders), France (#22), Spain (#22), Switzerland (#24), and Iceland (#24).

 

A fourth single from the record, "Rendezvous", didn't make any impact in the U.S., but internationally hit the top-40 in Australia (#28), Ireland (#29), and New Zealand (#31), while scoring a fourth top ten in hit native Britain at #8.

 

(5/10)

 

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The original British version of the video had a start with the argument but a totally different plot path...

 

Here's David performing the song on live TV...

 

 

For his Greatest Hits collection, Craig recorded four alternate versions in Spanish, German, French, and Italian, with guest performers on each, like Alex Ubago on the Spanish take....

Lastly, here's Craig on BBC's Radio Room in 2017...