Sheena
CALL IT HOUSE
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 140,074
Yeah certification is 200k.
Louise Survivor: Round TWO
- Thread starter VoR
- Start date
Yeah certification is 200k.
Sheena
CALL IT HOUSE
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 140,074
As I said, the licensing. You’re right- they would have made money off that easily.
She did! The No Sweat tour sponsored by Soft and Gentle no less (I went...to Wembley (arena, not stadium, she's not Freddie Mercury).
Sheena
CALL IT HOUSE
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 140,074
That’s it- for ages I was thinking she did something with Impulse but it was Soft & Gentle.
Rita
User
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2004
- Messages
- 49,674
As I say she was clearly a lot more successful than I remember. I would never have imagined she would be able to fill Wembley.
Put a decimal point in there and maybe...When going through this I came across an OK! article saying that Louise made her impressive net worth partly through her 15 million UK sales.
She really did luck out in that the label clearly needed to offer her something, and she made the most of it. Made no difference to Eternal - did they even chart again in the US post Stay?
Rita
User
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2004
- Messages
- 49,674
I imagine if she wants to carry on with her music career she will be able to tour with 90’s nostalgia gigs for years to come. I don’t think anyone has interest in anything new though. She was very throwaway and I am assuming me like many more have very little memory of her as a pop star unless Naked, or Let’s Go Round Again show up on a playlist and you are transported back to the time.
Rita
User
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2004
- Messages
- 49,674
Sheena
CALL IT HOUSE
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 140,074
Not at all. Apart from the dance chart, I’d have thought they did well there.
Stay was weirdly huge though- it sold really well, but only made #19 cause it couldn’t pick up the airplay. It was on the Billboard year end chart and was a fairly big RnB chart hit.
In fairness, the music mostly never leaned quite as heavily into RnB as the first album did which would have turned the US off.
VoR
Take it or leave it
I love a lot of Eternal stuff, but (much like Louise) they were always very much a local act. America already had En Vogue and SWV, so a lower budget British version was never going to fly.
Angel of Mine *was* a US #1 hit for Monica, and her version was virtually identical to theirs bar a couple of lyrical tweaks.
Angel of Mine *was* a US #1 hit for Monica, and her version was virtually identical to theirs bar a couple of lyrical tweaks.
Sheena
CALL IT HOUSE
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 140,074
I disagree with a lot of that. Monica's Angel of Mine has far more of an RnB slant- listen to the backing beats for the most obvious sign of that. Angel of Mine catered to the Eternal audience that loved I Am Blessed and Someday. Which was very different to Monica's audience.
Eternal were, I feel, badly mismanaged for the most part in the US. They never capitalised on that Stay exposure (and to a lesser extent, Sweet Funky Thing, which was the US follow- up and was a big club hit) as, as I said, they moved into pop more on Power of a Woman, and they even screwed up the chance at their third album being a success there- unbelievably, they were going to release the most piss weak cover of Fleetwood Mac's Dreams as the lead single in the US before a repackaged Before The Rain (it was only a bonus track on an international version of the album) when I Wanna Be The Only One had already been a hit pretty much everywhere. Eternal were predominantly a UK act, agreed, but "local" isn't quite right- they were really big in Japan and a Wiki check suggests they had hits throughout Europe- especially in the latter part of their successful years.
I understand your point about a low budget En Vogue, but there was room for a LOT of RnB girl bands in the US back in that era and Eternal had the songs. I just don't think it was ever really tried properly.
Last edited:
Sheena
CALL IT HOUSE
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 140,074
Also, don't get me started on how they abandoned Before The Rain too early for that Greatest Hits. They could have easily eeked out a couple more singles and pushed that album, given that I Wanna Be The Only One had taken it back to the top ten- I think if I remember, back to its peak.
They seemed to do well down under as well. Well NZ at least. Forgot the GH hit #4 here and went platinum, and I Wanna Be went top ten both there and Australia. But yeah, never really any momentum. I guess when you do as well as they did in the UK it’s probably better financially to concentrate there. See also Steps.
BoysForSeles
User
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2006
- Messages
- 13,074
Yes, I feel for the US the label didn’t really bother, or certainly there was no cohesive plan. A wasted opportunity but perhaps they were happy with the success elsewhere.
Before The Rain was cut short due to Kelle’s “I want to leave, no I don’t, yes I do” kind of approach according to Vernie, the yes I do after they hit #1 coming too late and the sisters drawing a line under her time in the band. How Many Tears was supposed to be the 4th single but a reissue with new tracks would’ve been smarter.
Before The Rain was cut short due to Kelle’s “I want to leave, no I don’t, yes I do” kind of approach according to Vernie, the yes I do after they hit #1 coming too late and the sisters drawing a line under her time in the band. How Many Tears was supposed to be the 4th single but a reissue with new tracks would’ve been smarter.
Sheena
CALL IT HOUSE
- Pronouns
- he/him
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2004
- Messages
- 140,074
The GH tracks were apparently supposed to be part of the US repackage and (presumably) a UK re-release.