Release history - Charts
With two albums and several singles, Sabrina had been successful without changing style. Several music critics blamed her for singing always the same song which, while being exaggerated, contained an element of truth. If a singer with a strong artistic identity like Kate Bush could live in her own musical world, a pop music singer had to move with the times. In 1990, Italo dance was already has-been and Sabrina's career was thus in danger as she was considered as the main example of this style made in Italy. But very few singers are able to take a radical music change. Indeed, big changes never please fans and a new audience is mostly impossible to reach for a singer with a strong image, "over the top" for some, like Sabrina.
Madonna had already understood that the secret to remain at the top was to re-invent herself again and again and some singers whose career was similar to Sabrina's had tried to depart from their previous work in 1989. Indeed, Samantha Fox and her team decided to make an album with a decided House Music feel to it. In Germany, Sandra was trying to leave her dance-oriented style to reach a more mature audience. But Sabrina remained the same and Gringo showed the limits of her style. Outside Italy, the song flopped in spite of being supported by RCA, a strong record-company. Sabrina thus had to surprise the audience to consolidate her position on the international market where Super Sabrina had had mixed success.
In fact, it was obvious that Sabrina wanted to go further in the development of her music career. Her manager also understood that it was maybe time to change something but without taking a really different musical direction. It's on this shaky compromise that Sabrina and her team began to work on her third album the recording of which would take much longer than for her previous records.
In 1989, Sabrina had already announced the upcoming release of a new album but this release finally never took place. The fans had to wait till the spring of 1990 and the release of Yeah Yeah to be certain that Sabrina was working on a new record. But the sales of this new single (which production was similar to Sabrina's previous singles) disappointed the expectations of Sabrina and her team. As the new album wasn't ready, Casablanca, her new label, released a summer compilation titled Super Remix in order to keep the fans satisfied. As she was interviewed on the Superclassifica Show to promote Yeah Yeah and this compilation, Sabrina announced that her new album would be released in October. She made her fans curious saying that it would be full of surprises including the collaboration with American musicians. A few months before, on the Rafaella Carrà set, Giorgio Moroder himself had said that his team was working on Sabrina's debut in the US. So this new album was supposed to show a new Sabrina and allow her to conquest the only market which resisted her till then: the US.
Nevertheless after Yeah Yeah (and Vola, a song she performed once on Spanish TV in a slightly different version), no sign of change was in the air. And the end of the year came without the release of this long-awaited third album. It was not until the hit Siamo donne with Jo Squillo (a last-minute addition to the album) that Over the pop was finally released, in April 1991. But, a few weeks before, the most attentive fans had noticed a new track on the Siamo donne cassette single: With a boy like you.
If the first two singles released before the album didn't announce the long-awaited change, it was because they were not representative of a varied record which featured many good songs. Over the pop marked, if not a radical change, at least a transition in Sabrina's career, between the Italo dance of her debuts and a new pop-rock sound.
In fact, this album contained three kinds of material, apart from Siamo donne:
- Some old-fashioned but entertaining tracks which could have featured on the album announced at the time of Gringo: Yeah Yeah, Afraid to love
- Some covers, more or less successful, of American hits (With a boy like you, Yesterday once more, You can get it if you really want) and an itaglish version of Lorella Cuccarini's La notte vola simply titled Vola
- Finally and above all, some very good songs which obviously showed a new direction in Sabrina's career: Promises in the dark, Dirty boy look, Domination, Love dream and two songs produced by the faithful Moroder: Love is like magic and Shadows of the night
Sabrina had co-written four tracks and seemed very proud of this album. She heavily promoted it on Italian TV and decided to focus on the most innovative songs but also decided to use her solo version of Siamo donne. But the variety of styles of the record was probably confusing for the audience. Obviously, those who had bought the album for Siamo donne were likely to be disappointed and those who could have liked Love dream or Domination would probably never buy a record by Sabrina.
Casablanca also seemed a little lost in the way of promoting Over the pop as far as it didn't contain another strong single. The promotion of the album in Italy was thus rather strange: a third "single", Shadows of the night, was released at the beginning of summer but only on 12" and without being supported by a music video. Another song, for which a video was shot, was released on a jukebox promo 7": Dirty boy look. Finally, a video was shot for With a boy like you even if the song wasn't released on record. In fact, it seems that her record company tried to show the variety of the album without supporting the release of a song in particular. Without a new hit, the album sales declined in Italy and the promotion of the album stopped at the end of that summer. However, Sabrina kept on singing some of its tracks at the beginning of 1992, in particular during the show Bellezza sulla neve that she co-hosted on Canale Cinco and which was also broadcasted in Spain and Germany.
Outside Italy, the album was published from in 91 but featured only 12 tracks. Indeed, Siamo donne didn't appear on the international release. As for Yeah Yeah, it was finally decided to use the original version instead of the remix which was however promoted in different countries. An edition "made in Holland" was released in Europe, in particular in France and Scandinavia. Some releases are also known from Spain (where Sabrina promoted several songs of the album), Greece, Eastern Europe and Turkey (on tape only).
The album was also distributed in South America, in particular in Argentina, Ecuador and Chile where Sabrina promoted the album that year. In that occasion, she performed an alternate version of Dirty boy look which remains unreleased. Besides, the Italian CD was also (poorly) distributed in Japan with an obi-strip and a promotional sheet in Japanese.
But nowhere the record seemed to meet the success and plans for an American release fell trough even if Sabrina had given an interview to an American channel in late 1991.
So Over the Pop became Sabrina's least commercially successful album to date which was a pity for this excellent record and Sabrina's fans who had found very interesting her attempt of musical evolution. But with a title that Lady Gaga wouldn't disown nowadays, the album Over the pop showed an assumed but probably disproportionate ambition of (re) conquest of the international market.
The year 91 ended thus less well than it began, with a media battle initiated by Angela Cavagna, a comeback on TV as co-hostess of the show Bellezze sulla neve and, above all, growing tensions with her manager.
Charts
COUNTRY |
HIGHEST POSITION |
CHART ENTRY DATE |
CHART HISTORY |
Italy |
Unknown |
14/04/1991 |
?, ?, ?, 34, 33, unknown |