Late Singer's Fifth U.K. Top 5 Posthumous Release
EVA CASSIDY'S "SIMPLY EVA" ACOUSTIC CD
RISES TO #4 ON U.K. MUSIC CHART
10 YEARS AFTER 'SONGBIRD' ALBUM REACHED NUMBER ONE
Late Singer's Fifth U.K. Top 5 Posthumous Release
SIMPLY EVA, the newest collection from the late singer Eva Cassidy, rose to #4 on the U.K. music charts today (Sunday, February 13), becoming the artist's fifth Top 5 posthumous release in the U.K. It is ten years since her CD debut SONGBIRD reached Number One in Britain. Sales of SIMPLY EVA were only surpassed by top-sellers Adele, Bruno Mars and Rihanna. In the U.S., SIMPLY EVA was the #1 best-selling album at Border Books and Music national chain this week and is #8 on the Billboard Folk Chart. SIMPLY EVA, from independent Blix Street Records, comprises 12 acoustic versions of previously-unheard guitar and vocal only performances.
The songs on SIMPLY EVA are alternative acoustic versions of known Cassidy songs with the exception of the redefining performance of “San Francisco Bay Blues,” which is already picking up radio airplay in the U.S. These “Eva only” recordings are straight from the original tape without any alteration.
Born in Washington, DC, Eva Cassidy recorded and performed in the area for several years until her untimely death from melanoma in 1996. She left behind a small, but impeccable body of recordings that have been meticulously curated and compiled by Blix Street Records with the support of her parents, Barbara and Hugh Cassidy.
In April, 1998, Blix Street posthumously released SONGBIRD, a collection chosen primarily from two other Cassidy albums, LIVE AT BLUES ALLEY and EVA BY HEART. It featured Sting’s “Fields of Gold” and Eva’s unqualified signature performance of “Over the Rainbow,” the video of which triggered Eva’s rise to #1 on the U.K. charts in March, 2001. Eva Cassidy became an “overnight sensation.” By the end of that year, the album had been certified triple-platinum in England (for sales of more than 900,000 sold) and gold in the U.S. (more than 500,000 units); the album, now six times platinum in England and platinum in the U.S., eventually hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Internet Albums chart and topped the publication’s Pop Catalog survey for 32 weeks.
Eva Cassidy has now sold over eight million records and achieved an unprecedented three consecutive posthumous U.K. No. 1 albums as well as the No.1 single, “What A Wonderful World” (a posthumous duet with Katie Melua).
