UB40 - "Here I Am (Come And Take Me)"

crapfromthepast wrote: The Radio Edit also appears on the promo sampler Hitmakers Vol. 31, January 19, 1990, which is well over a year before it was actually a hit. "The Way You Do The Things You Do" was a hit in late 1990, and "Here I Am" was a hit in summer 1991 - failed the first time out and rereleased, perhaps?

According to Whitburn, the catalog number for this single was 99141. Virgin's U.S. distributor at the time was Atlantic, and this was part of a catalog number sequence that Atlantic used for all of its subsidiary and distributed labels. Like the sequences used for singles by other Warner Music labels from 1982 onward, it ran backwards, starting at 99999 and going in descending order.

Looking at the chart debut dates of other singles in the Atlantic 90000 sequence, catalog number 99141 would appear to have been assigned in late 1989. Most of the singles with numbers around there look like they were released in late '89 or early '90. 99140, for example, was "Swing The Mood" by Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers. A couple of sources that I checked also show the Labour Of Love II album, from which this song was taken, as having a 1989 release date.

All of this seems consistent with the suggestion that "Here I Am" was out as a single sometime around early 1990, didn't chart, then was re-released after "The Way You Do the Things You Do" (which has a sequentially later catalog number than "Here I Am"), had become a hit. Does anyone know any of the backstory behind this?