The Blessing was a British musical group led by William Topley, whose music featured elements of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

, and

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

. The group released two albums and had one UK

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

hit before disbanding.

History

The Blessing was founded in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1987, initially acting mostly as a

and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

cover band A cover band (or covers band) is a band that plays songs recorded by someone else, sometimes mimicking the original as accurately as possible, and sometimes re-interpreting or changing the original. These remade songs are known as cover songs. Ne ...

. The group began writing its own material and recorded in keyboardist Mike Westergaard's studio, eventually landing a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

in 1989 with

MCA Records MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc., which later became part of Universal Music Group. Pre-history MCA Inc., a powerful talent agency and a television production company, entered the recorded music business in 1962 wit ...

. Their debut, ''Prince of the Deep Water'', followed in 1991, with the lead single "Highway 5" reaching #42 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Paul Lester Paul Lester is a British music journalist, author and broadcaster from Elstree, North London. Career He began his career as a freelance journalist, for ''Melody Maker'' in the early 1990s, as well as ''City Limits'', ''20/20'', ''Sky Magazine ...

, liner notes to The Blessing, ''Best of the Blessing: Highway 5''.

Castle Music Castle Communications, also known as Castle Music, was a British independent record label and home video distributor founded in 1983 by Terry Shand, Cliff Dane, and Jon Beecher. Its video imprint was called Castle Vision. The label's productio ...

, 2000 The single was remixed and re-released at the end of the year and re-charted early in 1992, this time peaking at #30.Search for "Blessing" performed a
Everyhit.com
database on 25 July 2009. ''Prince of the Deep Water'' featured guest musicians

Nicky Hopkins Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...

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Jeff Porcaro Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro (; April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work with the rock band Toto but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on ...

Rickie Lee Jones Rickie Lee Jones (born November 8, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author. Over the course of a career that spans five decades, she has recorded in various musical styles including Rock music, rock, Rhythm and blues, R&B ...

, and

Bruce Hornsby Bruce Randall Hornsby (born November 23, 1954) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. His music draws from folk rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Southern rock, country rock, jam band, rock, heartland rock, and blues rock musical traditions ...

, and went on to sell 125,000 copies. For the follow-up full-length, ''Locusts & Wild Honey'',

Jimmy Miller James Miller (March 23, 1942 – October 22, 1994) was an American record producer and musician. While he produced albums for dozens of different bands and artists, he is most closely associated for his work with several key musical acts of t ...

was called in to produce three tracks, though he died before the album's release. One of the tracks he produced, "Soul Love", was released as the album's lead single, peaking at #73 on the UK Singles Chart. Due to the high cost of recording the group's first album and restructuring at label MCA, the band was seen as not sufficiently commercially viable and lost support from the label, splintering soon after. Topley secured a contract with

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

a few years later as a solo artist.

Members

* William Topley – vocals *Luke Brighty – guitar *Kevin Hime-Knowles – bass *Mike Westergaard – keyboards *

Simon Hanson Simon Hanson is an English drummer, songwriter and producer. He was the former drummer of Death in Vegas and is the current drummer of British band Squeeze. Early life Hanson's father and sister both died in a plane crash in 1983. Career ...

– drums

Discography

;Albums *'' Prince of the Deep Water'' (

, 1991) *''Locusts and Wild Honey'' (

Polygram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

, 1998) *''Best of the Blessing: Highway 5'' (

, 2000) ;EPs *"The Blessing" (

, 4 Track Promo, 1991) *"Locusts & Wild Honey" (

, 4 Track Promo, 1993) ;Singles *"Highway 5" (

, 1991) *"Hurricane Room"(

, 1991) *"Highway 5 '92" (

, 1992)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blessing, The English rock music groups