Sade — Smooth Operator
Diamond Life · 1984
Label: Epic · Genre: Soul / Sophisti-Soul · Country: United Kingdom · From: London, Europe
Sade recorded Diamond Life in London in 1983 with producer Robin Millar and a band built around guitarist Stuart Matthewman, keyboardist Andrew Hale, and bassist Paul Denman. Sade Adu had been singing with a funk band called Pride before the group reconstituted around her voice and aesthetic. The album landed in 1984 as a direct rebuke to the synthesizer-driven pop of the era — acoustic piano, walking bass, brushed snare. Smooth Operator was the third single and the one that broke internationally, built around Ray St John’s melody and a saxophone part that became one of the most imitated sounds of the decade. Diamond Life won the 1985 BRIT Award for Best British Album, outselling almost everything released that year while sounding nothing like any of it.
Did you know: Diamond Life was rejected by every major label before Epic signed Sade. The label’s executives wanted her to go solo and ditch the band entirely — she refused, and the band’s collective sound is precisely what made the album inimitable.
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