Paradise

By 1988, Sade had already scored a chart-topping debut with Diamond Life and a Grammy-winning follow-up with Promise, and the London-formed band were putting together their third album, Stronger Than Pride. From those sessions came "Paradise", released in May 1988 by Epic as the record's second single. The band, comprising Sade Adu, Paul Denman, Stuart Matthewman and Andrew Hale, had worked without a drummer since 1986, relying on session musicians for recordings.

In the United Kingdom the single peaked at number 29, the only track from Stronger Than Pride to reach the Top 40. America responded more warmly. "Paradise" spent a week at number one on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, making it the band's most successful track there, and it also reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 21 on the Dance Club Songs chart.

A music video arrived in June 1988, directed by British creative director Alex McDowell. It featured Sade joining a celebration in a Mexican village, where she danced with a young girl. Critics took notice of the track too, with Music & Media describing it as a brooding, percussion-orientated, summery number carried by a persistent groove. The song has since been grouped with the band's most recognized work, alongside "Smooth Operator", "The Sweetest Taboo" and "No Ordinary Love".