Steven Wagner - Stevan Vagner, Podrum COLLEGIUM MELODIUM, World music museum in Belgrade, Mirko KLUZ, Natalija MANDIC PEDJA, RUDI, and SLAVKO, present "Smooth Operator" a song by the English group Sade, released as the fourth and final single from their debut album Diamond Life (1984). It was released (in both the US and the UK) 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. In the US it was the follow-up to "Hang on to Your Love".
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 is used by women to obtain his income. It is also clear that he does not hold affection for these women, as Adu sings near the end, "his heart is cold."