"When I See You Smile" by Bad English

#1 Alert!

Gold Record Alert!

Song#:  4035

Date:  09/16/1989

Debut:  72

Peak:  1 (2 weeks)

Weeks:  22

Genre:  Rock

Pop Bits:  This supergroup starring John Waite, Jonathan Cain, and Neal Schon kicked off their self-titled debut album with the #2 Rock hit "Forget Me Not." While the tune would get on the Pop chart, it stalled shy of the Top 40 at #45. Hoping to better that result, this power ballad was next up for release. It would become the band's mainstream breakthrough getting to #10 Rock and #11 AC while hitting #1 on the Pop chart for two weeks. The single would sell well enough to go gold. With that result, the album would peak at #21 and by the beginning of November it would go gold.

ReduxReview:  With the songwriting capabilities of the band's members, I'm pretty sure none of them said, "hey, let's go find a hit song for the album written by someone else!" It totally wreaks of label/A&R folks pushing the band to record a potential hit because they didn't hear one within the band's compositions. Bad English then opted to take on this Diane Warren power ballad and did their best to rock it up. The end result was a solid piece of commercial pop/rock that was bound to light up the charts. Lead singer John Waite sold it well and it became his biggest hit since his own #1, 1984's "Missing You." It would easily become the band's most recognizable tune and it is one that still gets a lot of airplay today.

ReduxRating:  8/10

Trivia:  This song was penned by Diane Warren. It was only one of two tracks on the Bad English album where a band member was not listed as a composer. Warren had been on a hot streak for the past couple of years earning #1 songs in '87 ("Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship) and in '88 ("Look Away" by Chicago). While other songs she wrote did well in '89 she had yet to grab a #1 through the majority of the year. Then this Bad English track did the job making it three years in a row that Warren had penned a #1 Pop single.

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