Songs with Earlier Histories Than the Hit Version

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Get Here

Written and first recorded by Brenda Russell (R&B #37 1988).
Hit version by Oleta Adams (US #5/MOR #3/R&B #8/UK #4/CAN #27/IRE #4 1990).

From the wiki: “‘Get Here’ was written by American singer/songwriter Brenda Russell (‘Piano in the Dark’) which became an international hit via a 1990 recording by Oleta Adams. Russell wrote the song while staying at a penthouse in Stockholm, Sweden: the tune came to her as she viewed some hot air balloons floating over the city, a sight Russell recalls set her ‘really tripping on how many ways you can get to a person’ (the eventual song’s lyrics include the line: ‘You can make it in a big balloon but you’d better make it soon’).

“Russell recalled ‘I don’t read or write music [therefore] it’s extraordinary if a song is still in my head that I haven’t jotted down or recorded. So if it’s still in my head overnight, I think that’s something extra special, it’s like somebody trying to tell me something.’ Russell recorded the song as the title cut of her 1988 Get Here album from which it was issued as a single – the album’s third – reaching the Billboard Black Top 40.

“Coincidentally, it was while Oleta Adams was also later visiting Stockholm, in 1989, that she heard the Russell’ original recording of ‘Get Here’ playing in a record store and was sufficiently impressed with the song to record it for her 1990 debut album Circle of One. World events at that time gave the song a resonance as an anthem for the US troops fighting in the Gulf War; it would peak in the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, the UK Singles Chart, and the Billboard R&B Chart.”

Oleta Adams, “Get Here” (1990):

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