EVERY Billboard #1 rhythm & blues hit discussion thread

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

  1. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Compleat Beatles was a favorite of mine as well. Easily my most rented vid in that period. It was all we had until the Anthology project around a decade later rendered it obsolete
     
    sunspot42 and Grant like this.
  2. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    You could rent Beta back then too but I seldom did. I was always worried about gumming up my deck with a contaminated tape. Not that I couldn't open it up and clean it myself by that point.
     
  3. Grant

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

    I always hated renting a movie and finding a spot where the tape was stretched.
     
    sunspot42 and pablo fanques like this.
  4. Grant

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

    Since I am responsible for the thread drift in my own thread, and it seems like no one has much to say about El DeBarge's song, i'll post another new #1 right here. I'll post another one in a few days, as I won't be posting one next week. I expect to be sick.

    So, anyway...

    New #1:

    Rumors - Timex Social Club Week ending July 19, 1986 2 weeks




    The song was produced by Denzil Foster and Jay King. I once read a wiki page that incorrectly stated that Nile Rodgers was the producer. Obviously this has been fixed. As some of you may notice (paging @W.B.) that a future hit-making group will also be produced by this duo. Don't give it away, guys!:tsk:
     
    Willow and pablo fanques like this.
  5. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I vaguely remember this from "the time," but my memory's been jogged hearing it here. The chorus for sure.

    The group name, however, reminds me of another group way into the future whose music was way different - Buena Vista Social Club.
     
  6. Grant

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

    I didn't care for "Rumors". I preferred the satirical version by Bobby Jimmy & The Critters,

    Roaches - Bobby Jimmy & The Critters

     
    Willow, sunspot42 and pablo fanques like this.
  7. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Damn you beat me to it @Grant. I was just gonna post that vid. Great minds again
     
    Grant likes this.
  8. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    "Rumors" did tend to drone on and on, now that you mention it . . .
     
  9. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    I certainly hold to The Process . . . but I dread anyone who gives away the plot in any event.
     
    Grant likes this.
  10. Grant

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

    Yup. "Rumors" didn't do anything for me, but "Roaches" sure did. It was so popular at the time that I had trouble finding the "12 single.
     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  11. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Vaguely recall this one. Pretty basic...

    :shrug:
     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  12. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Looks like we're on track to move on . . . given that it's over a week and no other comments about "Rumors" (other than my remembering the melody and lyrics but little else) . . . let's see if anyone'll remember this one . . .
    "Closer Than Close" by Jean Carne
    (#1 for 2 weeks - August 9-16, 1986)

    (This number, produced by Grover Washington, Jr., had an edited 45 version, but it couldn't be called up.)
     
  13. Grant

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

    I never heard of it until now. Remember when I said that there was a battle between the older generation and the newer generation? Songs like these are part of that battle. But this song does not rise to the quality of Anita Baker's hit, not Sade's hit.
     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  14. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    We're in this same boat. Don't know if I heard this "back then," either.
     
  15. pablo fanques

    pablo fanques Somebody's Bad Handwroter In Memoriam

    Location:
    Poughkeepsie, NY
    Holy under the radar Batman! No memory at all of this one
     
    Grant likes this.
  16. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Rings no bells, but I was headed off to college at the time and was hardly listening to the radio. Busy running around Tempe on foot, didn't have a radio in my Walkman...

    Missed nothing in this case. Decent vocalist, utterly predictable and generic slow R&B groove.
     
    pablo fanques and Grant like this.
  17. Grant

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

    I had stopped watching Soul Train in mid-1986, so if I didn't hear a song on the local top 40 station or on MTV, I just didn't hear it.
     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  18. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    She also seemed to have taken a page from Dionne Warwick in the early 1970's and added an 'e' to the end of her surname. Back when she was recording for Philadelphia International later in that decade, she was billed on the label as Jean Carn.
     
    pablo fanques and sunspot42 like this.
  19. Grant

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

    Marvin Gaye is another singer who added the "e" to their surname.
     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  20. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    So I see there's a long tradition. Only Dionne Warwick flailed when going that route.
     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  21. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Dionne's astrologer told her to do that. I don't think she had a single hit during the period where the extra "e" was tacked onto her name. You'd have thought that would have been enough to cure her of astrologers.
     
    pablo fanques likes this.
  22. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    Although in a sense, we are jumping a bit ahead here . . . :winkgrin:

    But in fact, she only had one hit in that period - the "Then Came You" duet with the Spinners. But that was it.
     
    Grant likes this.
  23. Grant

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

    Warwick did it because she was into numerology and believed that adding an "e" to the end of your name was supposed to be good luck, so i've been told. But, when she did that, she had a falling out with Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

    According to David Ritz's biography, if IIRC, Marvin Gaye added the "e' to the end of his name supposedly to separate himself from his abusive father, and, even back in the 50s, the word "gay" meant, well, you know...

    I have no idea why Jean Carne did it.

    She only had one hit, and that was with the Spinners in 1974. "Then Came You".

    When she removed the "e", she got a new contract with Arista and got on the charts again. So, superstition, or was there more to it?

    Marvin Gaye: He was professionally successful, but lived a tortured life, never finding happiness, and always in some kind of trouble.


    Who knows why people believe in what they believe in. I quit trying to figure it out years ago and decided that it's their burden, not mine, as long as they don't try to push it on me. I may not believe in someone's path, but it's not my path.
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2021
  24. W.B.

    W.B. The Collector's Collector

    Location:
    New York, NY, USA
    You and me both.
     
    Grant likes this.
  25. sunspot42

    sunspot42 Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Francisco
    I think it was recorded & released under "Warwicke" but she'd changed it back to "Warwick" before it hit #1. The whole "Warwicke" phase didn't last long, and because she had only one hit - a duet at that - went largely unnoticed by the public.
     

Share This Page

molar-endocrine