"Cross My Heart" is a song recorded by English pop band Eighth Wonder, released in June 1988 by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

as the second single from their debut album, '' Fearless'' (1988), and the group's sixth single. It proved to be almost as successful chartwise as " I'm Not Scared", reaching the top ten in Italy, Norway and Switzerland, and the top twenty in France, West Germany and United Kingdom. It was a minor success in the US, peaking at number 56, but remains the band's only American top 75 hit single. The music video was directed by Dieter 'Dee' Trattmann. The song was also notably recorded by American singer Martika.

Overview

Songwriter Michael Jay says the track was originally written for Martika, who he was planning to produce and launch as a pop star. However, his publishing deal at the time required that his songs not be withheld exclusively for one artist, and were to be shopped around for placement with other acts. Eighth Wonder's version of "Cross My Heart" followed Tracie Spencer's January 1988 version which featured on her self-titled debut album. During that year, the song was also released by Martika on her eponymous debut album. Also in 1988, Hong Kong pop singer

Sandy Lam Sandy Lam Yik-lin (; born 26 April 1966), is a Hong Kong singer, actress and producer. She rose to fame in the 1980s, before expanding her fan base significantly in Asia, releasing more than 30 stylistically diverse albums in Cantonese, Englis ...

recorded a Cantonese version of the song, titled "Once We've Touched (一接觸)" for her sixth album '' City Rhythm''.

Critical reception

In his review of the song, Chris Roberts from ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' declared it as "a fantastic single". Jerry Smith of ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as ''Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music We ...

'' considered "Cross My Heart" an "irritatingly catchy and strikingly vapid pop number". Barry Egan from ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' viewed it as "a disc of untouchable magnificance, a wondrous piece of neo-poetry." British synth-pop duo

the Communards The Communards were a British synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985. They consisted of Scottish singer Jimmy Somerville and English musician Richard Coles. They are best known for their cover versions of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes fe ...

reviewed the single in ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand ...

'', and while Richard Coles did not like it as much as " I'm Not Scared",

Jimmy Somerville James William Somerville (born 22 June 1961) is a singer from Glasgow, Scotland who rose to prominence in the 1980s with the synth-pop groups Bronski Beat and the Communards. With Bronski Beat, Somerville achieved commercial success with the 1 ...

noted that it sounds like a

Stock Aitken Waterman Stock Aitken Waterman (abbreviated as SAW and also known as the Hit Factory) are an English songwriting and record production trio consisting of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman. The trio had great success from the mid-1980s throug ...

production, that Kensit's voice is stronger than on her previous single, and stated: "This is a fab record, actually. I love it".

Track listings

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Cross My Heart": * 7" single # "Cross My Heart" — 3:26 # "Let Me In" — 4:35 * 12" maxi 1 # "Cross My Heart" (dance mix) — 7:06 # "Cross My Heart" — 3:26 # "Let Me In" — 4:35 * 12" maxi 2 # "Cross My Heart" (club mix) — 6:50 # "Cross My Heart" (house mix) — 7:29 # "Cross My Heart" (dub mix) — 6:00 * CD maxi # "Cross My Heart" (dance mix) — 7:08 # "Cross My Heart" — 3:27 # "Let Me In" — 4:37 # "Cross My Heart" (instrumental) — 4:31

Credits

* Design – Stylorouge * Photography – Eamon J. McCabe * Edited by Chep Nunez * Engineer assistant – Jeff Abikzer * Engineer (remix) – Hugo Dwyer * Keyboards – Mac Quayle * Producer – Pete Hammond * Remix – "Little" Louie Vega

Charts

References

{{authority control 1988 songs 1988 singles Eighth Wonder songs Martika songs Tracie Spencer songs CBS Records singles