Teena Marie, RIP

I love this album too! I'll never forget hearing "Behind The Groove" for the first time in early 1980. More than 30 years later it hasn't lost any of it's tough and funky groove. Speaking of Maya Rudolph, Maya actually appears on the track "Too Many Colors" when she was only 7 years old. You're right about the cover photo. She looked very sexy. The photo on the back cover was equally alluring. Teena was wearing a baseball jersey and cap with her hair in pigtails.

 

Just for clarification, her name was Alia Rose, not Ali...

Ed

 

Really? Why is Grant's statement untrue? I absolutely think he's right on the money.

Ed

 

What a great clip. Thanks, never heard that before.

R.I.P. Teena

 

The first time I heard that song was at a high school dance that I helped DJ.

 

Listened to some Teena last night. Couldn't help but shed a tear.
Love her voice.

 

Same here, was not into that era of R&B but she sure was a hottie.
I would watch her videos w/ the sound dimmed (I often played the tv silent and records were blasting in the next room back then so don't think I was singling her out) and they held your attention. A memorable mainstream performer for the era.

My mom died at the age of 50. You go when you go. It sucks whether you're 40 or 96.

 

The previous poster had it as Ali, I was merely responding!

 

Oh no, RIP.

 

I have a 12 inch of Behind the Groove mixed into I Need Your Lovin'(The I Need Your Lovin' 12 inch), a divine mix if there was one. You'd think that they wouldn't mesh together.... yet they did!

And she was wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates jersey( remember Pittsburgh Love) or at least one I've never seen before!

One more detail, Ms T was Maya Rudolph's godmother.....

On You Tube there are quite a few so-called instrumental breakdowns of her tunes ,great stuff.......they reveal certain instrumental nuances of the tunes particularly the bass part.

Square Biz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYOC0N_Qrog

I Need Your Lovin':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGs36i60TSw

I'm a Sucker For Your Love:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geTB7-ZZAIw

 

R.I.P.

I’ve always loved Teena Marie's music. Some of my favorite songs of hers are “Out On A Limb”, “Lovergirl”, “Robbery”, “I’m A Sucker For Your Love” , “I Need Your Lovin’”, “Behind The Groove” and many, many others.

What an incredibly powerful, soulful voice she had. Hard to believe she's gone. Definitely too young.

 

Any love for "Fix It"? The 45 mix is different from the album, as is "Lovergirl".

 

I'm listening to the 12" mix of it now and it's great. The backgrounds are off the chain! Groove for days...

Ed

 

Cool! That's exactly where I got my initial exposure and experience as a DJ. My 6th grade typing teacher played in a band and had a mobile DJ set up and used to play our dances.

Thanks for posting these links Butch!

BTW, I just found a promo 12" copy of Teena's "Behind The Groove". It also has The Temptations "Power" on the flipside. I do have the US promo 12" of "I Need Your Lovin'" also. You could very easily mix those two songs along with "Square Biz" and "I'm A Sucker For Your Love" together since they're all in the 112-116 BPM range.

 

Maybe now there will be some more reissues of Teena's Motown albums. I'd love to have the Lady T album reissued, especially if they finally used the original mix of Behind The Groove on it.

 

It's all good..

Ed

 

I'm a big time TM fan, I love her recent album Congo Square, still listen to it all the time!

She definitely will be missed!

 

Well, all but the second of the Motown albums have been released on CD, and "It Must be Magic" was remastered several years ago. I requested to Harry Weinger that he not squash it, and he didn't! Nice guy, too, BTW! It sounds very, very nice! I love it! I wish they would do the same for "Irons In The Fire" and "Lady T".

Hip-O select issues "Wild & Peaceful". http://www.hip-oselect.com/scr.public.product.asp?product_id=72962BE4-EE8A-4616-AAF7-7245258F7063 I haven't heard it, but I hope it sounds good.


Sony botched "Robbery" a few years ago. They snipped off the talking intro the the title track, and they used that copy protection crap on it, so I got rid of it and kept the older CD mastering. It didn't sound that great, anyway.

 

Agreed with everything you said Grant. I have all the originals and all the remastered versions (IMBM is pretty good actually) that were released, but overall, I'd say stick with the originals (I do not have a Motown Lady T however )

I have a Motown 2 on 1 version of "Irons in the Fire" and "It Must Be Magic" and a solo version of "Irons in the Fire". The original "Robbery" on Sony is better than the remaster.

 

No problem mate it was my pleasure. My late mother told me that out of something bad, something good can come out of it. Lady T's passing is so sad BUT we are all united in her passing. And it has also led us to share the gloriousness of her music with others who know her well or others who might be converted to the ways of the Ivory Queen of Soul!

Here is an inspired piano and voice version of Casanova Brown(which was about Slick Rick):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfQ_y6ThAMo

It Must Be Magic ,which was a sort of homage/nick to the music of Rick James(Teena even tells the Temptations to sing on this one!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtHzoplcmBs

 

I remember the original vinyl issue of It Must Be Magic from Motown sounding really good. One of the CD versions of that album sounded pretty decent as well. It sounded like there was no compression used at all.

 

Both CDs sound good. Neither one of them are brickwalled.

 

Which mix of "Lovergirl" is used on the original hit video, the 45 version?
Is it just an edit or a wildly different mix/recording?

As an aside, I remember back in the day only the single mix of "Goody Two Shoes" (Adam Ant) was heard on the video but by the time the 'Antics in the Forbidden Zone' video comp showed up, they had replaced the audio with the lp version (different drum track, no high harmony vocal). So when you see that video replayed these days you hear the lp version.

 

She was also the Godmother of SNL's Maya Rudolph as well.

I was trying to remember....she was playing bass in the "Lovergirl" video, was she not?

I remember a DJ saying, after playing that song, "I don't care what anyone says....that girl is black"; meaning, in her soul no doubt.

A shame, RIP.

Evan