EVERY Billboard #1 rhythm & blues hit discussion thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by tomstockman, Mar 4, 2016.

  1. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Yeah, I'd noticed that before as well. Similar melody.
     
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  2. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    :sigh: For all the talk about Whitney Houston, the members could be doing the same here, too. Next #1:

    Your Smile - Rene & Angela Week ending March 15, 1986 1 week



    This one of the better mid-80s ballads. I don't expect most of this forum to like it.
     
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  3. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Never heard this one before. They were hugely successful on the R&B charts for a 2-year period but never crossed over to the pop charts.

    Those late-'80s keyboards still sound dated, and not in a charming way, either.

    Meh. Inoffensive. But if I want mellow mid-'80's, I'm gonna reach for sophistipop every time. Sade farted out better songs than this.
     
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  4. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Speaking of Sade, this summer they will have a hit that is my favorite by them.
     
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  5. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Never really heard this one, either . . . but the sound is quintessential '80's for sure.

    In Britain, they had a few minor hits, but I wonder how many confused them with Renee & Renato of "Save Your Love" fame. Or Rene & Rene ("Angelito," 1964; "Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero (The More I Love You)," 1969).

    I have the feeling, with this outfit, we'll be hearing a lot from at least one half in the future.
     
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  6. ILovethebassclarinet

    ILovethebassclarinet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Great Lakes region
    I recall reading in Arnold Shaw's Honkers and Shouters that the royalties from the Walker song went to the writers of the song recorded by Hines/Eckstine for quite some time. Honkers and Shouters is also a good read on the period "by someone who was there."
     
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  7. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    But, you have to admit that it is a quality recording, at least a lot better than the usual pack of R&B ballads we got in the 80s.
     
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  8. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Oh, I'm not arguing sonically, for sure . . .
     
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  9. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    I meant as a production and song, as well as the sonic quality.
     
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  10. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I'll grant (no pun intended) that.
     
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  11. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Damn it! :)
     
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  12. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Last edited: Jan 8, 2021
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  13. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
  14. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Her famous brothers, minus one, were pretty much done, as far as i'm concerned.
     
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  15. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Who would have guessed the queen of the Minneapolis Sound would end up being Janet Jackson? Michael's kid sister manages to out-protégé any of Prince's direct protégés with the help of former collaborators Jam & Lewis. I actually loved this one right from the start - has a nice clean spare sound that harks back more to '83 and '84, but the beat is very '86. Totally Prince-inspired but doesn't sound anything like a ripoff of one specific Prince track to me, more like another planet in that purple universe. It's just an amazing, herky-jerk dance beat. And Janet can't really sing well, but she multitracks great and she's the best sexy sly talker since Diana Ross. So it's like The Supremes meet Purple Rain.

    The video is amazingly cheap - one set, shot like a sitcom, clearly a ton of money wasn't dumped into this thing from the label or from the Jackson clan, but the choreography from baby Paula Abdul (who's there in the background) is absolutely iconic and made the Laker Girl a rising star (at least on the video choreography front) overnight. So many great and memorable dance moves in this one, many of which make me chuckle now but they were fierce at the time and I still love them. Important to note that Janet's dance style was affiliated with but also distinctly different from her brother's, and I've always thought she rapidly eclipsed him thanks to shots like this (and the fact she pumped out much better dance tunes). His videos were more overblown and epic, but I thought she ultimately had better practical moves.

    Surprisingly Janet wouldn't break big in the UK and even much of Europe for several years, but after this she was an American giant for well over a decade, competing right up there with Madonna, Whitney, Mariah and her brother, and with a career as a major chart act that would far outlast Prince's.

    The Control album is a lot of fun even if it's not the smartest thing ever made. Still, it's brighter than Whitney's or Mariah's stuff, with "Lately" being one of its more cutting - and for that matter lasting - pieces. The spoken intro is hilarious, true and iconic, and it's the first - and probably best - of many male takedowns Janet would spin onto the charts.

    Used to go to dinner almost every night
    Danced until I thought I'd lose my breath
    Now it seems your dancin' feet are always on my couch
    Good thing I cook or else we'd starve to death
    Ain't that a shame?


    The little Jackson girl could dish out a mean, funk-tinged slice of poppin' dance music. After this, I always thought her brother was at best only her equal on his subsequent effort, and beyond that second-rate in comparison.

    We talked over on the pop thread about how the mid-'80s is when women seemed to suddenly take over the pop charts. Well, here's another reason why. This is wild, I swear!
     
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  16. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    Great post! I love it! And, i'm sure that there was a part of Michael that was really pissed off that his kid sister became some major competition. But, their albums were spaced far enough at first that he had nothing to worry about. But she still upstaged him. And, at least she wasn't weird. It also must have sucked to be Jermaine.
     
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  17. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Yeah I meant that her sound wasn’t trying to mimic them. It would have been easy for her to obviously but I always felt she had her own sound right from this point on. Maybe similar to Jody Watley but nothing like MJ or the five. Jam/Lewis was definitely the right way to go
     
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  18. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I think her rise destroyed Jermaine's career. She was so much better than him.

    Although I loved "Do What You Do", and they actually spent a bundle on the video for that, which starred Iman.



    It plays less like R&B and more like sophistipop though. Which was kind of an odd space for Jermaine to head into. It's very Stevie Wonder as well. I didn't realize it at the time.
     
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  19. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    The problem with Jermaine was always that he was too laid back, easy-going, smooth. That didn't work in a time when the audience wanted radical and brash sounds, and that included the disco and the 80s eras. He struck gold like four times, but that was it. his style is too cautious.
     
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  20. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Ironic, since wasn't Jermaine a huge p***y hound who shagged like a million groupies? Or am I getting him confused with one of the other Jackson brothers?

    Maybe he thought the laid-back stuff pulled more chicks?
     
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  21. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I heard both Jacksons' songs.

    As for "What Have You Done For Me Lately?," in the UK it made #1 on the Melody Maker chart, and #3 on Gallup's "official" chart (the forum that brought all their charts to the fore is offline at this time, so I can't tell you at this time how it charted in NME).
     
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  22. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I forgot this one and a couple of other early Janet singles actually did OK in the UK, but mostly she was scraping around the Top 20 after this for several years - nothing like her chart dominance in the US.

    Oddly she was noticeably bigger in the Netherlands during this period than in the UK. That's odd, because the Dutch took a lot of their cues from UK radio.
     
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  23. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    NME also had it at #3.
     
  24. Grant

    Grant Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me!

    New #1:
    Kiss - Prince & The Revolution Week ending April 5, 1986 4 weeks

     
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  25. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    What a comeback from the overbaked, underwritten Around The World In A Day. Killer melody, slammin' beat and just enough accompaniment. The video is equally incredible - stripped down, sexy, funny, and some of the finest dancing of any '80s video. All of it is iconic. Probably on my shortlist of the ten best #1 singles of the decade. Lead single from the even more eclectic than Around The World In A Day LP Parade, which unlike its predecessor actually works and is an amazing piece of art. Purple Rain gets all the attention, but this is probably my favorite Prince LP.
     
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