This article is about the song by Sade. For other uses, see Smooth operator (disambiguation).
"Smooth Operator"
Single by Sade
from the album Diamond Life
B-side
"Spirit"
"Red Eye"
Released
28 August 1984 (1984-08-28)[1]
Recorded
1983–1984
Studio
Power Plant (London)
Genre
Quiet storm[2]
sophisti-pop[3]
bossa nova[4]
smooth jazz[5]
Length
4:58
Label
Epic
Songwriter(s)
Sade Adu
Ray St. John
Producer(s)
Robin Millar
Sade singles chronology
"When Am I Going to Make a Living" (1984)
"Smooth Operator" (1984)
"Hang On to Your Love" (1984)
Music video
"Smooth Operator" on YouTube
"Smooth Operator" (12″ version) on YouTube
"Smooth Operator" is a song by English band Sade from their debut studio album, Diamond Life (1984), and was co-written by Sade and Ray St. John. It was released as the album's third single in the United Kingdom as a 7-inch single with "Spirit" as its B-side, and as a 12-inch maxi single with "Smooth Operator" and "Red Eye" on side A and "Spirit" on side B. Released on 28 August 1984, it reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart.
In the United States, "Smooth Operator" was released in February 1985, serving as the album's second US single. The song became Sade's first top-10 entry in the US, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in May 1985. It spent 13 weeks in the top 40, and also topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart for two weeks.
Although "Your Love Is King" remains Sade's highest-peaking single in the UK to date, "Smooth Operator" is the band's breakthrough single on the US charts, and their most successful single internationally.
^"New Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 25 August 1984. p. 20. ISSN 0265-1548 – via World Radio History.
^Harvey, Eric (19 May 2012). "The Quiet Storm". Pitchfork. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
^"Sophisti-Pop - The Bluffer's Guide". Stylus Magazine. 4 September 2011. Archived from the original on 4 September 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
^Harrington, Jim (2005). "Sade - Diamond Life". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. London: Cassell Illustrated. p. 518.
^Pitchfork Staff (10 September 2018). "The 200 Best Albums of the 1980s". Pitchfork. Retrieved 25 April 2023. Diamond Life, the group's debut, is impeccably balanced between honeyed smooth jazz and gripping pop—as its blockbuster singles, "Smooth Operator" and "Your Love is King," demonstrate.
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