The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. was an American
R&B and
dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...
group, assembled by
Robert Clivillés and
David Cole of
C&C Music Factory
C+C Music Factory was an American musical group formed in 1989 by David Cole and Robert Clivillés. The group is best known for their five hit singles: " Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)", " Here We Go (Let's Rock & Roll)", " Things T ...
, that was active in 1992. The group featured lead vocals by
Michelle Visage
Michelle Lynn Case (nee Shupack), better known as Michelle Visage (born September 20, 1968), is an American singer, television host, actress, radio DJ and producer. She first gained recognition as a member of the musical group Seduction which ...
, who was formerly a member of another Clivilles & Cole group,
Seduction
Seduction has multiple meanings. Platonically, it can mean "to persuade to disobedience or disloyalty", or "to lead astray, usually by persuasion or false promises".
Strategies of seduction include conversation and sexual scripts, paralingual ...
(whose debut CD, ''Nothing Matters Without Love'', had been produced by Clivilles & Cole in 1989). Rounding out the quartet were
Octavia Lambertis (often credited simply as Octavia or Octahvia, who had a moderately successful solo career in the 1980s), Gary Michael Wade, and Jamal Alicea.
[S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M., The]
Discogs
Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...
The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M. produced one hit single,
[ " It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day!", a pop/house song that sampled the 1978 ]Bill Withers
William Harrison Withers Jr. (July 4, 1938 – March 30, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He had several hits over a career spanning 18 years, including " Ain't No Sunshine" (1971), " Grandma's Hands" (1971), " Use Me" (197 ...
song " Lovely Day".[ The song appeared on the 1992 film soundtrack '' The Bodyguard''.][Michelle Visage young: Strictly Come Dancing star looks completely different in old photos](_blank)
Daily Express (5 August 2019) It reached number 1 on the '' Billboard'' Hot Dance Club Play
Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as th ...
chart, and peaked at number 34 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, number 16 in 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 ...
in 1993, and number 90 in Australia on the ARIA Chart
The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
in 1993. The song "It's Gonna Be a Lovely Day!" was the only song on the soundtrack performed by an artist other than Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...
released as a single in the US.
Visage was the recording artist by contract on this song (thus the single cover read "Introducing Michelle Visage") and the group was born out of a production deal for her as contracted by Clive Davis himself. Her contract included recording three albums but the entire first album was lost after completion and the contract then broken. Visage also shares a writing credit on "It's Gonna Be A Lovely Day!". The S.O.U.L. S.Y.S.T.E.M.'s debut album, ''Anything Goes!'', was supposed to be released during 1993's first quarter. Per Michelle Visage, Clivillés + Cole failed to deliver the album's original master tapes (which was completed on early 1993) to Arista Records (for reasons that are unknown to this day). Because the master tapes of the album were never delivered to the label, Arista never issued the album and the act was soon dropped thereafter.
Visage went on to become a TV and radio talk show host, along with RuPaul in NYC and on the cable channel VH1 and can be seen as a current judge on the reality competition show ''RuPaul's Drag Race
''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...
''. She was also a judge on ''Ireland's Got Talent
''Ireland's Got Talent'' is the Irish version of the international ''Got Talent'' franchise. The series launched on 3 February 2018 on Virgin Media One (formerly known as "TV3") and was hosted by Lucy Kennedy, accompanied by a sister show entit ...
''. Lambertis went on to provide vocals for several other artists throughout the 1990s.
See also
*List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
This is a list of recording artists who have reached number one on ''Billboard magazine's'' Dance Club Songs chart. ''Billboard'' began ranking dance music on the week ending October 26, 1974, and this is the standard music popularity chart in th ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soul System, The
American contemporary R&B musical groups
American dance music groups