Robbed hit of the week 10/16/24 - Seal's "Love's Divine"...

 

 

"Love's Divine" - Seal

from the album Seal IV (2003)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #79 (three weeks)

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from British singer/songwriter Seal, who scored his third top ten hit on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in the beginning of 1997 with his remake of Steve Miller's "Fly Like An Eagle" from the movie Space Jam.  However, his next studio album Human Being, which saw the singer/songwriter move to Warner Brothers Records, didn't keep the momentum up. The lead single, "Human Beings", didn't get a lot of attention, missing the American pop chart (though it made it to #32 on Billboard's Adult Top-40 radio list), and stopping at #50 in his native UK. The album still reached the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales chart at #22. 

 

After a scrapped attempt at a fourth set in 2001, he finally re-emerged in 2003 with his Seal IV effort. Reuniting with producer Trevor Horn who was assisted by Mark Batson, the record's lead single, "Get It Together", became a top-40 hit in his native Britain at #23, but while remixes of the track helped it spend a rare two weeks at #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, and peaked at #21 on their Dance Airplay list, mainstream radio didn't pick up on it yet. The next release, "Waiting On You", also topped the Dance Club Play chart and rose to #15 on the Dance Airplay list, but this time Seal infiltrated the older-skewing pop radio formats, hitting #18 on the Adult Top-40 format and #20 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") chart. 

For the third song promoted in America, Seal released "Love's Divine", which had already went to #68 in the UK. Written by Seal and Batson, the lyrics poetically spell out a desire to break from the worries of his life to find love, the one thing that would heal him. It's spiritual without being religious or preachy, and his choice of describing love as a sanctuary from the rainstorms hits home to me. The production from Horn and Batson is strikingly beautiful in its avoidance of the "throw everything against the wall" method Trevor is known for but rather letting different elements shine (although holding back on the percussion) at different points. The music video tries to relay the gravitas of the lyrics through vignettes of people going through stressful lives in good and bad ways, while Seal acts as the "watcher" of it all...

While "Love's Divine" again did really well on the older radio formats in America, spending two weeks at #3 on the Adult Contemporary chart and making it to #22 on the Adult Top-40 list, mainstream pop was a bit too simplistic for this nuance, and the single stopped in the lower quarter of the Hot 100 in April of 2004, even though it spent a respectable twenty weeks on the chart. The remixes of the track, done by Deepsky and Passangerz, helped Seal score a third #1 from the album on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart, as well as getting to #8 on the Dance Airplay list. Internationally, besides the low UK ranking, the single did better elsewhere in Europe, reaching the top ten in Germany (#4), France (#4), Switzerland (#4), Belgium (#5 Wallonia), Croatia (#7), and Poland (#7 Airplay). It also made the top-40 in Austria (#11), Spain (#13),  Italy (#25), and New Zealand (#34). The Seal IV album, released in September of 2003, ended up landing his highest rank on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #3, going on to sell over a half million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2005, "Love's Divine" was nominated for Best Pop Male Vocal Performance, which was won by John Mayer for "Daughters". 

After this, "Get It Together" was given a second chance on American radio, where it climbed to #29 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

(9/10)

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Here's the edit of the remix from Passengerz that helped "Love's Divine" top the dance chart...

Next up, from his Live In Paris concert set...

and lastly, Seal on stage with Trevor Horn...