Robbed hit of the week 11/5/24 - Kimberley Locke's "8th World Wonder"...

 

 

"8th World Wonder" - Kimberley Locke

from the album One Love (2004)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #49 

 

This week's "robbed hit" comes from Kimberley Locke, who came in third place on the second season of the singing competition television program American Idol, behind Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken.  A native of Tennessee, Locke was popular enough on the show to get signed to Curb Records (without the burden of having to deal with the Idol machine). But before that, she appeared on the RCA Label's Idol franchise releases, and her duet with Aiken on "Silver Bells" from the Great Holiday Classics set reached #16 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary radio chart in the 2003 Christmas season. 

In the spring of the following year, Locke released her first album on Curb, One Love. The first single from the set is the light dance-pop of "8th World Wonder". Written by Kyle Jacobs (who mostly writes country music and eventually married American Idol finalist Kellie Pickler), Joel Parkes, and co-producer Shaun Shankel, has Locke comparing her "ordinary" home love life to the Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It's cutesy, but it's but too saccharine, and Kimberly delivers it in a bubbly youthful way that fits the slick early-90s production from Shankel (a gospel-music vet) and Guy Roche (who helped Celine Dion), which probably would've been a fit and more recent country radio. The music video, which featured soap opera hunk Charles Divins as the "wonder" in play, is geared more for the VH1 channel crowd...

While "8th World Wonder" climbed to #19 on Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 radio chart, #36 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 list, and #6 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format, the single stopped just above the halfway mark on the Hot 100 in May of 2004. Internationally, the single also made it to #49 in the United Kingdom. The One Love album, released in May as the single was peaking, came in at #16 on the Billboard 200 sales tally.

Locke's next single, "Wrong", tried to give Kimberley the Kelly Clarkson "sassy rock-ish girl" treatment, and it managed to pop on to Billboard's Mainstream Top-40 chart for a week at #39. That was followed in America by "I Could", which climbed to #8 on the Adult Contemporary radio chart. Meanwhile, another song, "Coulda Been", snuck on to the British singles chart at #90.

In 2005, Locke returned with a rendition of the holiday classic "Up On The Housetop", which would eventually appear on her 2007 Christmas album. Her version spent an impressive four weeks at #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart, as well as "Jingle Bells" which topped the list in 2006, and "Frosty The Snowman", which scored a hat trick in 2007, (both would also be on Christmas). But before that set came out, Locke emerged with a second album on Curb, Based On A True Story, which spent a single week on the Billboard 200 at #160. The set didn't get much notice on mainstream pop radio, but it scored three hits on the Adult Contemporary format that all went to #1 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart with "Change" (#6 AC), "Band Of Gold" (#9 AC), and "Fall" (#17 AC). After Kimberley went to #19 on the Adult Contemporary list with "We Need A Little Christmas" from the holiday album, she parted ways with Curb. 

Reuniting with American Idol judge Randy Jackson on his Dream Merchant label, Locke released "Strobelight" in 2010, her first to specifically aim for the dance floor. The one-off single climbed to #5 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Two years later Kimberley formed her own company, I AM Entertainment, and put out the EP (Extended Play single) Four On The Floor, which included "Finally Free", which is her most recent charting club single at #35. 

Since then, Kimberley's been appearing sporadically on television and on the stage, and involved in AIDS charity work. She's released two more albums independently, a children's lullaby record and a second Christmas set in 2021. A compilation of her music arrived in 2023 with a new recording, "Keep On (Falling In Love)". 

(6/10)

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Here's the remix of "8th World Wonder" that helped the single top the sales chart but stunningly missed the Dance Club Play list...

And lastly, here's Locke singing "8th World Wonder" at the Long Island GLBT Equality Awards in 2012...