170. “Being With You” by Smokey Robinson (#1 for five weeks, April/May, 1981 | Amazon)
Criticizing Smokey Robinson for being laid back is like criticizing fellow Detroiter Eminem for being aggro. “Being With You,” Smokey’s biggest hit of the ’80s, is so smooth and mellow it almost threatens to float away. Despite its lightweight nature, “Being With You” does manage to almost perfectly hit the sweet spot between mellow soul and yacht rock (not that there are many differences.) It’s a testament to Smoke’s mastery of melody and turns of phrase that he was able to pull off a song like this so well–it would’ve been creamed corn in the hands of just about anyone else.
Was “Being With You” Motown’s first video of the ’80s? I know Berry Gordy didn’t like shelling out dough for clips. I guess Smokey pulled the VP card. This isn’t awful production value for 1981.
169. “Little Walter” by Tony! Toni! Tone! (#1 for 1 week, June 1988 | Amazon)
Raphael Wiggins (later Saadiq), his brother Dwayne and their cousin Timothy Christian went on to record some of the best music of the ’90s, but when Tony! Toni! Tone! debuted in the ’80s, they were pets of production team Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy. Descended from Club Nouveau (whose atrocious version of “Lean On Me” thankfully did not make #1 R&B,) the twosome would become best known for creating En Vogue. “Little Walter” is a pleasant enough song that has a bit of New Jack Swing swagger, and somewhat successfully manages to sneak in an interpolation of the gospel standard “Wade In The Water.” Then there’s the video that sortaplayed a serious message for laughs, courtesy of comedian Sinbad. I mean, who’s gonna take Sinbad as a drug dealer seriously, anyway. Can you imagine?
Embedding is apparently disabled by request. Damn it.
168. “I Need Love” by LL Cool J (#1 for 1 week, September 1987 | Amazon)
I think “I Need Love” more for what it represents than for the actual song itself. After all, this ballad marked the first time a rap song ever hit #1 on Billboard’s “Hot Black Singles” chart. Swing forward 27 years, now it’s hard for an R&B song to make it to #1. Regardless, LL’s song was a watershed moment in Black music history. It was also a canny move designed to mobilize LL’s female fanbase (remember “99% of your fans wear high heels” from that Canibus dis record?) He suffered a little bit of street cred loss with “I Need Love,” but before you know it, everyone from Big Daddy Kane to Heavy D was making slow jams (and truthfully, those were even more embarrassing than “I Need Love.”)
From a musical standpoint, “I Need Love” kinda stinks. However, it’s one of those songs that those of us who were around for can still recite beginning to end. And it laid the foundation for one of hip-hop’s longest running success stories. Actually, let’s break this down for a second.
Let’s say that LL’s run of hits started in late ’85/early ’86 with “Rock The Bells” and “I Can’t Live Without My Radio” and ended in 2006 with “Control Myself.” That’s 20 years. Who else has been able to stay that relevant in hip-hop for that long? The Beastie Boys, I guess. I mean, it’s very likely that Jay will usurp LL as hip-hop’s longest-running hit rap act (and Nas might be able to lay claim as well, if his next album is successful) but seriously. Two decades of hits in hip-hop. That shit is unprecedented. Let’s give LL a hand.
167. “Fishnet” by Morris Day (#1 for 2 weeks, March 1988 | Amazon (re-recorded version)
A mini-Time reunion, “Fishnet” was actually the first time Morris, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis actually played together on a record. Of course, we all know that The Time consisted of killer musicians and that their shadow loomed large when it came to live performance, but pretty much every instrument on every Time record was performed by Prince. So, “Fishnet” has an added factor of weirdness when you think of it that way. Otherwise, it’s a pleasant jam that’s got a bit of an auto-pilot vibe to it, certainly when judged against music like, say, Hearsay, the album Jam & Lewis helmed for original Time lead vocalist Alexander O’ Neal.
How excited were folks to see Morris, Jimmy, Terry, Jerome and Jellybean together in the video? And where the hell is Monte Moir? Can’t imagine he had another commitment…
166. “There’s Nothing Better Than Love” by Luther Vandross & Gregory Hines (#1 for 1 week, May 1987 | Amazon)
Speaking of “pleasant”…
Does anyone remember that Gregory Hines-at this point best known as an actor and a dancer, tried out a recording career for a minute? He even had a top ten solo hit with “That Girl Wants To Dance With Me”-a song I have absolutely no recollection of.
This Luther Vandross duet was his intro to the music scene, and it’s a buddy duet done right–or at least done capably. As far as dude/dude duets go, I’ll take “There’s Nothing Better Than Love” over “The Girl Is Mine” if not “Ebony and Ivory.” Hines was clearly overmatched on the vocal tip, but some of Luther’s gift as a songwriter was the ability to write well for voices not his own. Not to mention the ability to pick others’ material that was perfectly matched for his voice. But that’s another story…
165.“Lucky Charm” by The Boys (#1 for 1 week, April 1989 | Amazon)
“Lucky Charm” was the second of three (!) #1 hits for the quartet of brothers, all of whom were under 16 when initially tasting success. Qualitatively, it’s the third best of the three (“Dial My Heart” and 1990’s “Crazy” being the others.) I think The Boys were the only kid act L.A. and Babyface ever worked with, and it’s hard to imagine a song like “Lucky Charm” working as well with any of the La’Face regulars. The exuberance of the Abdulsamad brothers’ vocals is what puts “Lucky Charm” over the top. It’s happy without being too cutesy–which is sort of a tricky balancing act when it comes to music.
164. “Just Because” by Anita Baker (#1 for 1 week, March 1989 | Amazon)
Amazingly, not one of the singles from Anita Baker’s Rapture album-a Grammy winning opus that spent over two years on the Billboard charts-topped the R&B list. After that set’s groundbreaking success, Anita was due for some big-time chart love, and “Just Because” was the second of the two chart-toppers from 1988’s Giving You The Best That I Got LP. In similar fashion to Smokey’s “Being With You,” “Just Because” aims for the easy listening/adult contemporary audience without sacrificing so much soul that it becomes as saccharine as, say, Atlantic Starr’s “Always.” I also feel like this is the only hit single ever to contain the word “regimented” in its lyric.
Random question: when is Michael McDonald going to do an album of Anita Baker covers? Or a duets album with her? How come no one has thought of this yet?
163. “Dance Floor” by Zapp (#1 for 2 weeks, August 1982 | Amazon)
Zapp’s schtick got kinda lame after this song hit. There’s only so many times you can repeat the vocoder meets rubbery funk groove without shit getting old. The only essential Troutman songs following “Dance Floor” are “Computer Love” and “I Want To Be Your Man”-both ballads.
162. “Another Part Of Me” by Michael Jackson (#1 for 1 week, September 1988 | Amazon)
By the time “Another Part Of Me” hit the top spot in summer ’88, the “Michael Jackson sound” already had an element of dated-ness to it. R&B radio had officially moved into another era, and seeing MJ on the charts next to Keith Sweat, Bobby Brown and artists of that ilk kinda made the King of Pop seem a little dated. The fact that “Another Part Of Me” was over two years old at the time of its ascension to the top might have also had something to do with it sounding a bit out of time. It made its initial appearance in Mike’s Disney mini-movie Captain EO in 1986. Hard to believe that Michael was considered not as contemporary around this time, considering he’d barely turned 30 when “Another Part” hit.
That said, even slightly dated sounding MJ is good MJ, especially when we’re referring to the more danceable stuff.
Random fact: “Another Part Of Me” was the fifth of Bad’s five #1 hits. On the pop chart, it only hit #11, marking the first single from a newly recorded Michael Jackson album to miss the top 10 since “You Can’t Win” from 1979-a streak that lasted through 17 singles. Not bad at all.
Mike was quite fond of the “people going apeshit at my shows” footage, wasn’t he?
161. “(Pop, Pop Pop) Goes My Mind” by LeVert (#1 for 1 week, September 1986 | Amazon)
This nifty midtempo jam was my introduction to LeVert. Check out the Soul Train performance of this song. Did Gerald and Heavy D. usher in the era of the dancing big man! They were both smooth as shit, too. Although, as you’ll see from this clip, Gerald wasn’t that big a dude initially. Those are some regrettable-ass outfits, though. They look like they’re on their way to karate class.
Awkward Don Cornelius interview coming right up!
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6 comments
John says:
Aug 31, 2014
The good of this post was eclipsed by the greatness of the Baker/McDonald duet album. I need this in my life. Then again, I need ANY Anita in my life. Hopefully she starts taking her medication and puts out that whole album we’ve been waiting on for almost five years now.
MJ says:
Aug 31, 2014
I realize she was taking time off to parent, but her kids should be grown by now. She’s teased us too long, time for something real! And McDonald is wasting his golden years doing country covers with the Doobies. I need to be a musical life coach.
John says:
Aug 31, 2014
I would support that career path, but I would be fighting you for clients if that was an actual job.
MJ says:
Sep 1, 2014
We can go into business together. #teamwork
John says:
Sep 2, 2014
Deal! East Coast and West Coast divisions.
MJ says:
Sep 2, 2014
I’m okay with that!