Sophistipop/R&B hybrid. The impact of Private Dancer still being felt 3 years on. '86-'87 was her career peak, although she'd score a couple of big R&B hits as late as 1990. I'm actually kinda surprised she never crossed over to the pop charts, only coming close once, with a cover of "You Stepped Into My Life" by The Bee Gees back in '78 (#47).
The only song of hers I have any familiarity with in terms of actually having heard it, though I never knew the title until the last year, was "Pick Me Up, I'll Dance" from 1979.
With stylistic nod to the younger generation. '86-'87 was her career peak, although she'd score a couple of big R&B hits as late as 1990. I'm actually kinda surprised she never crossed over to the pop charts, only coming close once, with a cover of "You Stepped Into My Life" by The Bee Gees back in '78 (#47).[/QUOTE]
I only have one Melba Moore song in my collection and that's "Livin' For your Love" from 1984. I don't even remember what motivated me to buy the 45. I never played it. but, think about it, she was on the Capitol label, the same one that Freddie Jackson and Peabo Bryson were on at the time. The furthest out Capitol got into serious R&B music was O'Bryan, Tina Turner notwithstanding, as she was always more of a pop/rock artist, and i'm sure that's what was in her contract.
Yes. My point with that post was that Capitol's R&B division seemed to be old-fashioned and conservative compared to even the staunch-imaged Columbia Records who were by that time releasing plenty of hip-hop from Full Force, Lisa Lisa & Full Force, signing Public Enemy, and distributing DefJam Records.
Wasn't RCA (by this time now owned wholly by BMG) a bit more "progressive" in the R&B field compared with Capitol, or is it my imagination? We know about MCA . . .
Well, W.B. knows an lot, too. He's on one side of the country and i'm on the other. Up until about this time, R&B music was regional, and even the rappers were territorial with the east coast and the west coast thing.
Next: Have You Ever Loved Somebody - Freddie Jackson February 21, 1987, 2 weeks And the sleeping pills keep flowing...
And once again, your point about the gulf between East and West . . . don't remember this at all . . . hearing one portion, I thought it was sampled off of The S.O.S. Band's "Tell Me If You Still Care."
what's not to love about a.. mighty love. a #1 on r&b charts in '74 The Spinners - Mighty Love (Part 1) (1974 Music Video) | #17 Rock & Roll Song
G-E-N-E-R-I-C. This guy was on fire on the R&B charts...and couldn't get arrested on the pop charts. His 4th - and final - Pop Top 40 hit would come later this year, but he'd be scoring Top 10 R&B hits thru '92. I know his name but had NO IDEA he was this big on the R&B charts. It was really unusual - especially during this era - for an act to be huge on the R&B charts but virtually absent from the pop charts.
Are we? My recollection from this era is that - post MJ, Tina, Whitney and Mariah, plus as rap became a commercial monster - there was a lot more crossover between major R&B acts and major pop acts. Not saying that everyone who hit #1 on the R&B charts did well over on the pop charts, just that major R&B acts were no longer unknowns over on the pop charts. But it'll be interesting to see how that actually plays out...
I'm also wondering if, come the end of '87 and the year-end review, we'll have other songs that "missed" the top that were an improvement over what we're seeing thus far.
