I didn't see that happening. And, was it you that said you weren't paying a lot of attention to MTV in 1986? Yeah, because either the Black Music Departments weren't promoting them to pop radio, or the pop music departments were ignoring the music. And, i'm not pulling any of this out of my ass. There's plenty of documentation out there about how label A&R was run in the 80s. It was also about the time when the distribution deals started. Motown and A&M were among the first two labels to sign deals with MCA. DefJam was absorbed by CBS. The eventual absorption by labels, and the corporate merging later in the 90s and beyond would have an impact on marketing for R&B, but that time had yet to come in late 1986. I wouldn't hear any R&B station again until the year 2000.
Oh man this one was BIG. That doesn’t equate to good of course but it was everywhere for a while. Even inspired a lamer cover a few decades down the road. Upbeat as well
Not MTV but we did watch Friday Night Videos pretty often. I tended to be wiped by the end of the week and went out on Saturdays instead. The R&B acts were actually getting decently-budgeted vids in '86 and '87, I remember seeing quite a few from acts I hadn't heard of before. This didn't arise from the goodness of the label executives' hearts, because they didn't have any. It was chasing after Michael Jackson, Prince and Tina Turner dollars. And then Whitney and Janet.
What I'm reading about the R&B scene, and especially as far as the charts go, sounds like a replay of the late '50's after the initial rock 'n' roll onslaught and the established "good music" purveyors sought to bury it once and for all, and the charts went into a stupor that never really recovered until The Beatles came along.
And the final #1 of 1986: Girlfriend - Bobby Brown December 27, 1986 2 weeks HIs first #1 single as a solo artist. I've had this for years and never listened to it. It's a pretty nice inoffensive song. It's interesting to hear him transitioning from a teenager to a man. You can kind of hear the younger voice battling the older voice. It sounds like they did it on purpose. This song was no indication of what was to come in just two years. Don't be giving it away!
Sounds oddly retro, like something from 1971. Kinda surprising although not too far removed from the New Edition teen cheeze I suppose.
Actually, there are two "Don't be giving it away's" here. The other has to do with the song title. In just a year from hence.
Meanwhile . . . let us get to the year-end review of the Top 50 for 1986, shall we? Whatever numbers didn't make #1, as always, will have a YouTube link in the text. Let's go: 1. "On My Own" by Patti LaBelle And Michael McDonald (?!?!?!) 2. "Do Me, Baby" by Meli'sa Morgan 3. "Secret Lovers" by Atlantic Starr (peak position #4) 4. "That's What Friends Are For" by Dionne And Friends 5. "Nasty" by Janet Jackson 6. "Kiss" by Prince And The Revolution 7. "Rumors" by Timex Social Club 8. "There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)" by Billy Ocean 9. "I Have Learned To Respect The Power Of Love" by Stephanie Mills 10. "I Can't Wait" by Nu Shooz (peak position #2) 11. "Say You, Say Me" by Lionel Richie 12. "Your Smile" by René And Angela 13. "What Have You Done For Me Lately" by Janet Jackson 14. "All Cried Out" by Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam With Full Force Featuring Paul Anthony And Bow Legged Lou (peak position #3) 15. "Don't Say No Tonight" by Eugene Wilde 16. "The Rain" by Oran "Juice" Jones 17. "Word Up" by Cameo 18. "Closer Than Close" by Jean Carne 19. "Sweet Love" by Anita Baker (peak position #2) 20. "The Finest" by The S.O.S. Band (peak position #2) 21. "Do You Get Enough Love" by Shirley Jones 22. "The Sweetest Taboo" by Sade (peak position #3) 23. "Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent" by Gwen Guthrie 24. "Guilty" by Yarbrough And Peoples (peak position #2) 25. "Who's Johnny" by El DeBarge 26. "You Should Be Mine (The Woo Woo Song)" by Jeffrey Osborne (peak position #2) 27. "Tender Love" by The Force M.D.'s (peak position #4) 28. "Digital Display" by Ready For The World (peak position #4) 29. "How Will I Know" by Whitney Houston 30. "Saturday Love" by Cherrelle With Alexander O'Neal (peak position #2) 31. "Caravan Of Love" by Isley Jasper Isley 32. "Give Me The Reason" by Luther Vandross (peak position #3) 33. "Crush On You" by The Jets (peak position #4) 34. "Let Me Be The One" by Five Star (peak position #2) 35. "Go Home" by Stevie Wonder (peak position #2) 36. "You Don't Have To Cry" by René And Angela (peak position #2) 37. "If Your Heart Isn't In It" by Atlantic Starr (peak position #4) 38. "A Love Bizarre" by Sheila E. (peak position #2) 39. "Going In Circles" by The Gap Band (peak position #2) 40. "Count Me Out" by New Edition (peak position #2) 41. "(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind" by LeVert 42. "Headlines" by Midnight Star (peak position #3) 43. "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" by Billy Ocean (peak position #6) 44. "Shake You Down" by Gregory Abbott 45. "Do You Still Love Me?" by Meli'sa Morgan (peak position #5) 46. "Greatest Love Of All" by Whitney Houston (peak position #3) 47. "When I Think Of You" by Janet Jackson (peak position #3) 48. "I'm For Real" by Howard Hewett (peak position #2) 49. "Love Zone" by Billy Ocean 50. "Count Your Blessings" by Ashford And Simpson (peak position #4) Oddly, I remember #3, 10, 14, 19, 22, 27, 30, 33, 35, 38 and 43, among those that haven't been examined due to their missing the top spot, and outside of the more obvious (i.e. Whitney's hits). Anyone else available to chime in on those linked singles?
Absolutely adore ‘A Love Bizarre’. Prince has his fingerprints all over it of course but it was a killer single that is sadly forgotten today. I need to give that one a spin soon
I'm not familiar with a bunch of those cuts. I spun a few of them that hadn't hit #1 and most weren't all that great - most felt pretty paint by numbers. But a few of them that I am familiar with are stellar tracks and better than most of the #1s from '86 10. "I Can't Wait" by Nu Shooz (peak position #2) It's rare a Caucasian act scores a hit in the year-end Top 10, especially a hit that never made it to #1 on the R&B charts. One of the best R&B cuts of the year - definitely feels like a preview of the future. 19. "Sweet Love" by Anita Baker (peak position #2) Sophistipop-tinged R&B - the classiest thing in that countdown. I'm surprised this wasn't a much bigger hit (and a #1 on the R&B charts). 22. "The Sweetest Taboo" by Sade (peak position #3) The women were really bringing the class to the R&B charts this year, weren't they? 33. "Crush On You" by The Jets (peak position #4) Another song I'm shocked didn't get to #1 on the R&B charts - probably their best-known single. 35. "Go Home" by Stevie Wonder (peak position #2) This was a big R&B number but only got to #10 on the pop charts - I have no memory of it from the time at all. 38. "A Love Bizarre" by Sheila E. (peak position #2) This really should have been a #1. Anyone who's following the Prince album-by-album thread knows I'm not a huge fan of her "singing", but on sexy talk tracks like this her voice really works and after "The Glamorous Life" this is easily her finest single and one of Prince's better side projects. 43. "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" by Billy Ocean (peak position #6) Shocked this only made it to #6 R&B. Billy Ocean really knocks this one out of the park. 47. "When I Think Of You" by Janet Jackson (peak position #3) A pop #1 if I recall correctly - her first - I'm surprised it could only manage #3 on this chart. Great single, if not the best off Control. But really, almost the entire record plays like a hits collection.
Now that you mention it, "A Love Bizarre" is the one Sheila E. track hardly any radio station plays today. Only "The Glamorous Life."
Yeah, I was wondering how this failed to make it to Number One whereby you had some where I've hardly ever heard of them that got to the top.
Here we go: 1987 First up: Control - Janet Jackson Week ending January 10, 1987 1 week Never saw this before. The got The Time on this.
Haven't seen the full video in years. Damn she had the moves. Loved this song. It's funny because the "Minneapolis sound" was just something Prince made up, it was really all just acts he Svengali'd, until Jam & Lewis broke off and - to some degree - bested the master at his own game, at least when it came to churning out pop hits with multiple acts. It also felt like Prince had sort of abandoned his signature sound by this point, at least to some degree, while Jam & Lewis - and another Prince spin-off producer - doubled down on it. Audiences, as it turns out, couldn't get enough of the Minneapolis sound, and it seems like it was riding higher in '87 than it had been even in '84-'85, during Purple Rain mania.
Those two guys would be Andre Cymone, and Jesse Johnson. Both were in The Time. And, as we will see, the Minneapolis aka the Prince sound would remain big into the early 90s. The title track "Control" wasn't my favorite, though.
And to think the first big hit out of Minneapolis was "Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc., which I don't think had even the remotest collection to Prince . . . no . . . ?
Oooh! Now that I think about it, that song does have a blueprint for the Minneapolis sound. It's in the guitar and keyboard bass.
Uh, yeah, that's what I meant by keyboard... Anyway, it's about this time where it seemed to me like they were going to milk this album for all it was worth.
You'd said "keyboard bass". I'm thinking the twerpy synth melody line. We're at single #4 for Control - 3 more are coming. She really took off like a rocket with this one, at least in America.
