Me and Thomas are back on the scene, bringing you a fresh episode of the Jheri Curl Chronicles podcast.

This episode finds us knee-deep in 1983, a year chock full of R&B goodness. The 5 songs we cover in this show are:

Save The Overtime (For Me) by Gladys Knight & The Pips

Juicy Fruit by Mtume

She Works Hard For The Money by Donna Summer

Get It Right by Aretha Franklin

Cold Blooded by Rick James

In between, we cover…

Gladys Knight & The Pips’ fall from their mid ’70s heyday, including a separation that briefly saw them recording as two separate entities.

The smooth production of the SOLAR Records camp; members of whom contributed to Gladys & The Pips’ #1 success. The album Visions, which “Overtime” appeared on, also marked one of the first records to feature a Jam & Lewis  credit.

Did you know that Gladys Knight & The Pips were the first act to record “Wind Beneath My Wings”?

“Juicy Fruit”‘s risque (if you read between the double entendres) lyrics and how the Mtume camp manages to corral The System, Bernie Worrell, Miles Davis, Roberta Flack, Madonna and The Notorious B.I.G.

Mtume singer Tawatha’s occasional side hustle as a background diva for The Dave Matthews Band.

Donna Summer’s extreme versatility, which one does not always consider when discussing The Queen of Disco. Let it be known, though, that Donna was capable of singing new wave, Springsteen songs, standards and even adapting opera.

The Aretha & Luther Vandross disaster of ’83; the diva fight to end all diva fights.

Rick James adapting to minimalist synth-funk with “Cold Blooded”.

For the second time, we point you guys to the amazingness of the Rick/Smokey Robinson duet “Ebony Eyes”…and we again contemplate how much cocaine was involved in the recording of this song.

There’s so much more…but you have to listen. Check us out in the player below, or you can download this to your computer to listen at your leisure. Our friends at LibSyn also have the show available for streaming, or you can subscribe to us on iTunes. So many choices!