Songoftheday 7/4/24 - I've got it all but I feel so deprived, I go up I come down and I'm emptier inside...

 

 

"(There's Gotta Be) More To Life" - Stacie Orrico

from the album Stacie Orrico (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #30 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 7

Today's song comes from Stacie Orrico, who grew up in a evangelical religious family where she delved into Christian music at a young age. She was originally signed to the gospel label Forefront, where she released her debut album Genuine in 2000. The set got some religious radio exposure, and went to #103 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. A holiday EP Christmas Wish followed. 

With this momentum, Forefront arranged for Virgin Records to help distribute and promote her sophomore disc Stacie Orrico. The first single from the set was "Stuck", which was produced by R&B super-producer Dallas Austin and Matchbox Twenty's go-to guy Matt Serletic. Written by Stacie with Kevin Kadish (who would go on to co-write Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass"), the song would be her first hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart, stopping at #52, but was a much bigger hit on the radio, peaking at #10 on the Mainstream Top-40 airplay list. And it was an even bigger hit overseas, reaching the top ten in Australia (#3), New Zealand (#3), Germany (#4), the Netherlands (#4), Denmark (#4), Switzerland (#6), Ireland (#6), Austria (#8), the United Kingdom (#9), Sweden (#9), Norway (#9), and Belgium (#9 Flanders/#12 Wallonia).

For the follow-up, Orrico released a more inspirational single like the ones from the early 90s that made Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Kathy Troccoli stars. "(There's Gotta Be) More To Life" was also co-written by Kadish along with Sabelle Breer, producers Harvey Mason Jr. and Damon Thomas, aka the Underdogs, as well as singer/songwriter Lucy Woodward, whose own concurrent single "Dumb Girls" climbed to #22 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 chart and "bubbled under" the Hot 100 at #112.  The lyrics play the vague "meaning of life" question. She sings about being unfulfilled, with the cloudy message being that faith would bring the answer into focus. The production from the Underdogs has that 2000s boyband sheen to it, trying to fit in with the Avril Lavigne/Kelly Clarkson/Britney Spears crowd. The result was a stronger crossover to mainstream radio for the singer. The music video got a big budget from Virgin throwing in the morphing special effects perfected since the Michael Jackson "Black and White" days...

"More To Life" became Stacie's first and only top-40 hit on Billboard's Hot 100 in December of 2003. On the radio, the song peaked at #5 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, and #31 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format. Since its tenuous link with Forefront still getting religious station airplay, the track also rose to #5 on the Christian Singles and Tracks list. Internationally, the single hit the top ten in Norway (#2), New Zealand (#3), and Ireland (#9), and reached the top-40 in Australia (#11), the United Kingdom (#12), Germany (#12), Denmark (#12), the Netherlands (#19), Switzerland (#22), Austria (#23), and Belgium (#36 Flanders). The Stacie Orrico album, released in March of that year, made it to #59 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, spending close to a year on the list and selling over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2004, the album was nominated for Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album, losing to veteran Michael W. Smith for his Worship Again set. 

A third single from the record, "I Promise", was written by song doctor supreme Diane Warren and sounded so much like Britney it's uncanny. While it stiffed in the States, it scored another top-40 hit in Ireland (#19) and Britain (#22). That was followed by "I Could Be The One", which also made the top-40 in Ireland (#26) and the UK (#34). 

After a break from the business, as well as from ForeFront Records, with her signing on with Virgin outright, Orrico released the soul-inflected third set, Beautiful Awakening in 2006, which is so far her most recent studio album. The lead single from the record, "I'm Not Missing You", was co-written and produced by Naughty By Nature's Kay-Gee (Keir Gist). But the song got ignored in the States, even if it made the top-40 in Australia, Austria, Czechia, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Switzerland, and peaked at #22 in the UK. 

(5/10)

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Here's Stacie performing the song acoustically for Australian television...

and lastly, in concert in Japan...

Up tomorrow: Rapper redresses.