A mashup by Detroit
producer Tall Black Guy which blends Sade's "I Couldn't Love You More" (from "Love Deluxe" 1992) with Donny Hathaway's "Love, Love, Love" (from "Extension of a Man" 1972) and has been titled "I Love Luv You More".
At present it seems to be only available via
Bandcamp.
Click on image below for link to where you can buy from.
Sade (Helen Folasade Adu) was born in Ibadan, Nigeria
on 16 Jan 1959 so will therefore be celebrating her 64th
birthday today. She is one of the most successful British female
singers in history even though she has only released six studio albums
since 1984. In 2002 she was honoured by the Queen receiving an OBE (Officer of the Order of the
British Empire) and in 2017 a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British
Empire) which is only one step away from a knighthood were she would
be referred to as Dame.
Sade was raised in Colchester (UK) by here grandparents reuniting
with her mother when she was 11. At the age of 18 she moved to
London to attend art school after which she launched a career as a
fashion designer and model before joining a Latin soul band called
Pride.
In 1982 she formed a breakaway band Sade (initially named Folasade
and then shortened) with former Pride members Paul Denman, Stuart Matthewman and Paul Anthony Cook (who was later
replaced by Andrew Hale). They debuted at Ronnie Scott's Club in Dec 1982. Sade was
initially signed to Epic Records in 1983 as a solo artist but the
band joined her later and they released a debut album "Diamond Life" the same year which is the best selling debut album by a
British female artist reaching #2 on the album chart and selling 1.2m
copies in the UK alone and in excess of 4m in the US. It won a Brit
Award for Best British album in 1985. Three albums followed "Promise" (1984) (which fared better on the chart reaching #1 for which the
group won a Grammy for as Best New Artist) , "Stronger Than Pride" (1988) and "Love Deluxe" (1992) and then went on an eight year hiatus. The next album "Lovers Rock" appeared in 2000 followed by another break of ten years until the last album, to date (as it is rumoured
that an new album is in the pipeline) "Soldier of Love" in 2010. Since then she has only released two songs, both for
soundtracks.
Die-hard soul enthusiasts may not regard her as a
bonafide 'soul' singer. The BBC describe her songwriting as
"sufficiently soulful and jazzy yet poppy, funky yet easy listening,
to appeal to fans of all those genres"
[1]. However, her music seems to have
certainly influenced a new generation of neo soul
artists.
As always, rather than regurgitate all the tried and tested songs,
the playlist below includes some of her lesser know songs, mainly
album only tracks. Videos for all her singles are available on her
YouTube Channel and to give you a taste we've included below videos for the first hit single "You're Love Is King" and also the 1993 single "Kiss Of Life" covered beautifully last year by
Beth Griffith-Manley
on Blair Bryant's "Red Tiger" album.
Album Discography
All albums have gone Gold (500k sales) or Platinum (1m sales) with
the first quadruple and second double Platinum.
Just 'stumbled' across this great video of Sade (Helen Folasade Adu), with a track that was never released as a single, from her platinum album 'Stronger Than Pride' from 1988.
I have to confess that 'back in the day' I didn't consider Sade particularly soulful. She had a style all of her own which was probably more smooth jazz than soul to my ears. However, compared to a lot of material being released today passing as R&B / neo soul this stands head and shoulders above, so I thought I'd do a quick post of it.
I have only just noticed that she was awarded a CBE in 2017 having already been given an OBE in 2002. 'Essex Girl' done good!
Haunting soulful jazz from the talented pianist Kandace Springs. The new single taken from her third album 'The Woman Who Raised Me' to be released on 27th Mar 2020.
'Pearl' features Avishia Cohen, which as I listen reminds me of a more soulful Sade .... which should come as no surprise as it's a Sade track from her 1992 album Love Deluxe.
Here's a live version of 'Pearls' originally released on Sade's 1992 album Love Deluxe and was also released as single in 1994 but didn't chart in UK. Another interesting fact, which may surprise you as much as it did me, is that Sade only had one Top 10 hit in the UK, her first release 'Your Love Is King' #6 in 1984, and only 3 other Top 20 hits, and a total of 8 Top 40 hits which include the previous 4. NB Pearls in the lyric represent grains of rice for those starving in Somalia!
Soul Strutters' Rating: 8.6
Sade [1992] - Kiss Of Life [Epic]
Soul Strutter's Rating: 9
Whilst in a mellow and jazzy mood here's another in the same vein also taken from Love Deluxe and released as a single. It may not be all soul lover's taste but Sade's music has had an enduring quality. You can automatically recognise her voice and her sound has stood the test of time as I feel this track still sounds fresh almost 30 years later! This did better in the US than the UK (#44) reaching Top 20 in adult contemporary chart and R&B #10.
Perhaps some of today's 'aspiring' artists should take a leaf out of her book, she is beautiful, classy, unique and has a sound of her own which is why she has endured. In her career spanning almost 40 years she has released only 6 studio albums - 4 went BPI platinum and 2 BPI gold! Her last studio album was released in 2010 although she relased a live album in 2012.
