"If Wishes Came True" is a song recorded by American
freestyle/
dance trio
Sweet Sensation on their 1990 second studio album, ''
Love Child''. It was released as the album's second single on June 14, 1990 by
Atco Records
ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the comp ...
and
Atlantic Records. It was written by Deena Charles, Robert Steele and Russ DeSalvo, and produced by Steve Peck. The song was a different musical direction for the
girl group, known primarily for their
freestyle hits. It was the biggest hit of their career, reaching number one on the US
''Billboard'' Hot 100 on September 1, 1990. The song also became Sweet Sensation's only entry on the ''Billboard''
Adult Contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...
chart, where it reached number eight, and it peaked within the top 30 in Canada and New Zealand.
According to ''The Billboard Book of Number One Hits'', the members of the group "cried for days" after learning that their song had hit number one. ''Billboard'' named the song number 87 on their list of "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time".
Composition
The album version of the song begins with strings and a
flamenco
Flamenco (), in its strictest sense, is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and ...
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
, then quickly picks up into a synthesizer line, an electric guitar solo, and the vocal begins soon afterward. The edited version omits the strings-and-guitar intro.
Music video
The video was filmed in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, and alternates studio shots of the trio singing with outdoor shots of lead singer Betty LeBron walking in the rain and reminiscing, with flashbacks to sunny scenes of better days with her former boyfriend.
Track listing
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
References
1990 singles
Sweet Sensation songs
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Cashbox number-one singles
Pop ballads
Rock ballads
1990 songs
Atco Records singles
Atlantic Records singles
1990s ballads
Songs written by Russ DeSalvo
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