Shining Star (The Manhattans song)
| "Shining Star" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Manhattans | ||||
| from the album After Midnight | ||||
| B-side | "I'll Never Run Away From Love Again" | |||
| Released | April 1980 | |||
| Genre | R&B, soul | |||
| Length | 4:39 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Writer(s) | Leo Graham, Paul Richmond | |||
| The Manhattans singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Shining Star" is a popular song by the R&B group the Manhattans. It is the first track on their 1980 album After Midnight[1] and was written by Leo Graham and Paul Richmond. It is not to be confused with "Shining Star" by Earth, Wind & Fire, which was a different song from 1975.
Charting and accolades
Released as a single in 1980, the song reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it remained for three weeks.[2] It also peaked at number 4 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, No. 21 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart. It was the group's highest charting hit since "Kiss and Say Goodbye", which was released in 1976.
The song won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1981.[3]
Popular culture
The song was performed many times by the Jerry Garcia Band during their 1991 through 1994 tours. It frequently appeared to open or near the beginning of the second set. On October 6, 1993, at The Warfield Theatre, the band opened the second set with Shining Star. The audience spontaneously began singing the chorus in unison towards the end of the song and the band quieted and riffed off the audience. This became the standard and the song was always performed with the audience participation from then on. The band was so amused that they opened the second set with the song again the following night.
The song was used in the 1983 Derrick episode "Die kleine Ahrens" and the 2006 Cold Case episode "Baby Blues."