Portrait 40263
Producers: Robin Millar, Ben Rogan, Mike Pelo, and Sade
Track listing: Is It a Crime / The Sweetest Taboo / War of the Hearts / You’re Not the Man / Jezebel / Mr. Wrong / Punch Drunk / Never as Good as the First Time / Fear / Tar Baby / Maureen
February 15, 1986
2 weeks
Producer Robin Millar can still remember the first time he heard Sade’s voice. Millar, who ran the Power Plant Willesden studio, had used keyboardist Andrew Hale and guitarist/saxophonist Stuart Matthewman, from the London-based group Pride, for a session. Pride’s manager told Millar that the group had cut a demo tape with one of its backup singers, Helen Folsade Adu. A song called “Smooth Operator” was among the selections featured on the tape. “It was a really, really rough tentative demo,” Millar says. “It was a girl’s first steps at singing lead vocals, but I heard the turn of her voice and that was that. I took the tape home and I woke my wife up at 3 a.m. and told her, ‘If I can produce this and get an album deal, it’s going to be huge.'”
Millar’s prediction proved to be correct. The group and its singer, both known as Sade (pronounced SHA-day), become a hit in the U.K. and in America. Their 1984 debut album, The Diamond Life, reached number five in the States and spawned the hit single “Smooth Operator.” Sade’s smooth blend of jazz and R&B had struck a nerve.
By the time Portrait/CBS Records released The Diamond Life in America, Sade was already a British superstar attempting to forge her own creative vision, without interference from record company executives, on her second album. The singer, band members, and Millar all felt that with the success of The Diamond Life, Sade had “earned the right to be wrong.”
The group, which also included bassist Paul S. Denman and was augmented by several session players, began recording Promise at Millar’s Power Plant Willesden studios. Tracks recorded in London include “Is It a Crime,” “Fear,” “The Sweetest Taboo,” and “War of the Hearts.” With full tour in support of The Diamond Life under their collective belt, the group and Sade had grown tremendously since the sessions for the first album and thus wanted to push their newly honed chops to the limit. For example, “Is It a Crime” was cut completely live in the studio. “Nobody believes me to this day that the whole track was done live,” says Millar. “It took two-and-a-half days set up the instruments. When we cut it, we had everyone in the same room. It had to be one complete mood. It was Sade’s moment to see if she could be a torch singer, and she really came of age on that record.”
However, Sade’s popularity also created some problems. Journalists hung around the studio, trying to get the dirt on the new star. To escape all the attention, the group fled to Studio Miraval in France. “She was still being pestered by European press,” Millar says. “I had never worked with a very famous group before. It was hard to get everyone to focus when they were doing interviews between the takes for vocals.”
To make matters worse, record company executives from CBS in America were attempting to become involved in the creative process. “We were very much aware of the fact that people around us, who were making money off us, were attempting to push us around,” Millar says.
Rather than succumb to the outside forces, Sade and the group continued to follow their own muse. “There were great highs and lows, and that brought about intensity in the music,” Millar says. “It was a painful record to make, in the best sense of the word.”
When the album was completed six months later, Millar and the group realized they didn’t have a track suitable for release as a single. “We thought of recording a couple of other tracks, but then we decided to stick to our guns,” Millar says.
The group’s unwillingness to compromise paid off, even if their instincts regarding the album’s commercial prospects were a bit off. Promise hit the top in its ninth week on the chart and “The Sweetest Taboo” became a top five hit.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of February 15, 1986
1. Promise, Sade
2. The Broadway Album, Barbra Streisand
3. Welcome to the Real World, Mr. Mister
4. Heart, Heart
5. Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston