Billie Ray Martin - "Your Loving Arms"

[johnnywest]

I fell in love with this song the very first time I heard it! An excellent jam from 1996 with a techno flavor to it.

[Moonshadow]

A perennial KTU favorite that gets a ton of airplay to this day. Crossed over to the "emerging out of alternative" Z100 too. It's good...nothing that really stands out as "wow" admist all the mid 90s dance singles, though. The Todd Terry Mix got the most play.

[Disco🌶️📖]

This is such an amazing song. Highly underrated. I loved Billie's vocals on this. They had a very calming, relaxing feel to them.

The mix on one of the X-Mix Radio Active CDs gets more play here.

Junior Vasquez incorporated some bits of the chorus from this song into his DMC remix of "Missing" by Everything But The Girl. It works nicely.

[crash46]

A top 20 hit that all of my pop outlets slept on. I only got to hear this on AT40. But I didn't care too much for it. With all the songs that had beats like that in the early to mid 90's, it just seemed like a late arrival. I always figured that's why there was no followup released in the US--very strange for a song reaching as high as #19 to not even attempt a followup.

[BillboardBoy]

Love it! I saw this thread and decided to put it on. I'm listening to it right now. :)

[Disco🌶️📖]

crash46 said:

A top 20 hit that all of my pop outlets slept on. I only got to hear this on AT40. But I didn't care too much for it. With all the songs that had beats like that in the early to mid 90's, it just seemed like a late arrival. I always figured that's why there was no followup released in the US--very strange for a song reaching as high as #19 to not even attempt a followup.

Billie has had a couple other singles, but they didn't do quite as well as YLA had outside of clubland.

"Running Around Town" was released before YLA, and then "Imitation Of Life" came shortly after and most recently in 2003, there was "Honey."

[BillboardBoy]

eros said:

crash46 said:

Billie has had a couple other singles, but they didn't do quite as well as YLA had outside of clubland.

I remember hearing one of her songs on the radio when I was in Atlanta back in 1996 but don't remember what it was.

[cartman2002]

crash46 said:

A top 20 hit that all of my pop outlets slept on. I only got to hear this on AT40. But I didn't care too much for it. With all the songs that had beats like that in the early to mid 90's, it just seemed like a late arrival. I always figured that's why there was no followup released in the US--very strange for a song reaching as high as #19 to not even attempt a followup.

Your Loving Arms got to #46 on The Hot 100 in 1995

[johnnywest]

I remember hearing this on a Hot AC station once in Colorado and smiling :)

[Disco🌶️📖]

I had been thinking about this song recently after that remake by Karen Overton came out. It was not that great. She seemed to have an unusual accent when she did the vocals. It seemed like she was trying to sound like Billie and do all those subtle vocal nuances, but it didn't work.

Junior Vasquez re-remixed this song late last year using the original vocals and it was a scorching hot mix. But nothing compares to the original Junior Vasquez, Todd Terry and Brothers In Rhythm mixes.

[WotUNeed]

I heard this song again the other day. Still sounds good.

[busyboy]

Very very nice song.

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

Everytime I hear this song reminds me of the good old days of 103.5 WKTU. They spinned this a lot on that station. Memories of Goumba Johnny, Hollywood Hamilton, Diane Pryor, Broadway Bill Lee, Michelle Visage, Rupaul, Freddy Colon, Frenzy Fuentes, Al Bandiero, etc.

Currently only Hollywood Hamilton works there.

[dth1971]

First released in 1994, but didn't reach Top 40 pop until 1996.

[Verisimilitude]

Classic - one of those songs that makes me wish the '90s lasted forever.

[Disco🌶️📖]

Jan 16, 2012 16:05:51 GMT -5 Verisimilitude said:

Classic - one of those songs that makes me wish the '90s lasted forever.

"True Moments Of My World" was meant to be the followup single to this song. Remixes by John Digweed and Junior Vasquez were produced but were never released.

Listen here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zhrGN25150

"Running Around Town", "Imitation Of Life", and "Space Oasis" were the various followup singles.

[esoteric76]

This was the first song that came to mind when Britney's "Hold It Against Me" came out. The chorus/melody is very similar.

[areyoureadytojump]

Boring.

[MikeCheck12]

I absolutely loved this track!

[anthonyc]

Any radio stations still spinning this these days I know a couple of years back this was still in rotation....still the best to this day

[#LisaRinna]

This is a BOP and a half. I had memories of listening to this song when I was a child but I could only remember the melody and none of the lyrics (I was like 5 when it came out). After looking for it for a long time I finally found it! It was like a missing piece of my childhood lol

[areyoureadytojump]

More info:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Your_Loving_Arms

#6 in the UK

[HolidayGuy]

Always liked it, especially the original version.

[disman00911]

Growing up, I was more into house than Eurodance in the 1990s but I actually love this song. One of those songs that instantly come to mind when it came to dance/rhythmic years of WBBM-FM B96 in Chicago. When "Your Loving Arms" first came out in 1995, it was lost in a shuffle of heavily-fragmented Top 40 stations that were either heavy on alternative/grunge or hip hop/R&B and a song like this would stick out like a sore thumb. B96 was one of the earliest stations to play this record during its original release as were WPOW "Power 96" Miami and WIOQ "Q102" Philadelphia. It was B96's 7th most most song of 1995! Of course, when New York's dance-leaning WKTU came to the scene a year later, gave this song a second chance. One of the best 90s dance records.

[♛ The Manticore ☯]

Now that takes me back. Stations like KTU, B96 and WPOW. Love the 90's. As for the song I still dig it.

[Disco🌶️📖]

After the success of the Junior Vasquez mix of this in the clubs, some stations began to play an edit of that version.

[Hefty Hanna]

Yeah this song still sounds excellent after all of these years. I miss the KTU golden days!

[Mic Technique]

I've been on a Junior Vasquez kick for the past few days and I rediscovered this fighting with my sister over who gets to sit in the passenger seat of my mom's Mercury Mountaineer anthem. But it's Junior's Sound Factory mix that takes it where it needs to go.