‘Smooth Operator’ by Sade – Classic Hit or Miss

"Smooth Operator" is a song by the English group Sade, released as the fourth and final single from their debut album Diamond Life (1984).

This was Sade's first Top Ten hit in the US, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks in May 1985. The song 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 biggest hit in the UK to date, "Smooth Operator" is the band's breakthrough hit on the US charts, and their most successful single internationally.

"Smooth Operator" is about a fashionable man who lives a jet-set lifestyle. He is popular with women and breaks many hearts. The lyrics "Coast to Coast/LA to Chicago/Western Male/Across the North and South to Key Largo/Love for sale" imply that he uses women to sustain himself. It is also clear that he does not return the affections of these women, as Adu sings near the end, "his heart is cold."

Still a Hit today? It was in 1984!