I must admit, it’s getting harder to rank the songs as they keep getting better.
Truthfully, you could flip this portion of the list over and not lose much in quality. Every song here is a winner. Not to sound like a curmudgeon, but if you were to rank the #1 R&B singles of the ’10s so far (or even the ’00s,) the ratio of wheat to chaff would be inverse what it was in the ’70s and ’80s.
Anyway, let’s keep goin’…
70. Can’t Get Over You by Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly (2 weeks at #1, September ’89 | Amazon)
Frankie and Maze made their careers on consistency. You can’t really say one Maze album is better than another, but you can also say that none of them are especially bad. A little samey-sounding, maybe. 1989’s Silky Soul was one of their more inspired efforts. That might have to do with the fact that it was their first album on Warner Brothers Records after a long association with Capitol. Silky‘s title track was a tribute to Frankie’s former benefactor/buddy Marvin Gaye, but its lead single was it’s best song (and arguably Maze’s best–minus standards “Before I Let Go” and “Joy & Pain.” “Can’t Get Over You” is a perfect marriage of lyric, melody and groove, put together in Beverly’s famously non-fussy style.
How many of those baseball caps do you think Frankie owns?
Also, want to hear a fantastic cover of “Can’t Get Over You” by Joe? You’re welcome.
69. Word Up by Cameo (3 weeks at #1, October ’86 | Amazon)
Not many of the big funk bands were able to roll with the punches like Cameo. In the late ’70s, they were a hard-funk band with a slight commercial lean (on the alpha disco label, Casablanca.) Their lineup, perennially in flux, occasionally boasted a membership in the double digits. As funk moved away from a big band sound and more to a lean, synth-based aesthetic, band leader Larry Blackmon trimmed the fat from his roster, gradually reducing the band’s size until they were a manageable trio. The big hits started rolling in right around that time-starting with 1984’s monster jam “She’s Strange,” covered elsewhere on this list.
Blackmon and Cameo also took cues from hip-hop music, which was rising in popularity as the ’80s went on. “Word Up” didn’t actually contain any rapping (like “She’s Strange” did) but was full of hip-hop signifiers like “sucker DJs” and…well, the title phrase. That said, it’s pretty easy to construe the second verse as a dis of hip-hop culture. Who the hell knows?
Of course, what really sent “Word Up” over the edge (and made it the biggest hit of the band’s career) was the video. LeVar Burton playing a funky police chief, Blackmon’s outrageous performance attire, it was all too much to resist. Cameo’s core fan base loved it, the kids with the boomboxes loved it, MTV loved it, and of course it went on to become the band’s albatross and things went (commercially) downhill for Cameo shortly after “Word Up” was the toast of the town.
68. Joanna by Kool & The Gang (2 weeks at #1, January ’84 | Amazon)
“Too Hot” will always be Kool & The Gang’s best ballad (somewhat amazingly, not a chart topper,) but “Joanna”‘s no slouch. It’s a little corny, sure, but it doesn’t fall into the Lionel Richie trap of being so drippy it’s unlistenable. It’s a nice little laid-back groove with a memorable, simple lyric. I had a classmate in 3rd grade named Joanne that we teased unmercifully thanks to this song. What’s one letter (and syllable) between 7 year olds?
Charming video, too.
67. You Are My Lady by Freddie Jackson (2 weeks at #1, October ’85 | Amazon)
It’s easy to clown on Freddie in retrospect (the outfits, the bad acting in the videos, the melodrama of his performances,) but “You Are My Lady” holds up remarkably well after all this time. I could still see it becoming something of a hit today, and I find myself at kind of a loss for words as far as it not being more of a standard. Can’t you picture any vaguely soulful contestant on name-your-televised-reality-show taking a stab at it?
I hated this song (and Freddie, for the most part) when I was a kid. Needless to say, it grew on me. Still not his best song, though, or even his best #1. You’ll have to either backtrack to find out which one we missed, or just wait until it pops up!
My friend John can’t help but notice how…ill at ease the female actress in this video appears.
66. Rock Steady by The Whispers (1 week at #1, June ’87 | Amazon)
When “Rock Steady” hit in the summer of 1987, it had to be assumed that The Whispers were on their last legs. They hadn’t had a major hit in four years, and the face of R&B changed so much during that time. I guess the moral of this story is to never count out a group that has a fantastically written/produced song. More than a lot of other artists, The Whispers’ success seemed to be dependent on linking up with good producers. Leon Sylvers III helmed many of their early ’80s classics (“And The Beat Goes On”, “Keep On Lovin’ Me”, “It’s A Love Thing”) and “Rock Steady” was the first R&B chart topper (and first pop top ten) for L.A. Reid & Babyface. Somewhat amazingly, it’s also The Whispers’ lone top ten pop entry.
Any Whispers video immediately goes into the “what were you thinking with that facial hair?” Hall Of Fame.
65. Da’ Butt by E.U. (1 week at #1, April ’88 | Amazon)
For a hot second, it looked like go-go music was going to be R&B’s next big thing. The subgenre, wildly popular in the Mid-Atlantic region (specifically D.C.) had a danceable bounce and achieved its first major ink with Chuck Brown’s #1 smash “Bustin’ Loose” in 1979. It quickly crawled back into the margins until the end of the following decade, when filmmaker Spike Lee sought out E.U. (Experience Unlimited) to record the theme song to his college-based movie, School Daze. “Da’ Butt,” in addition to bringing go-go to a mass audience for only the second time in its history, also was one of the first in a long line of songs about the posterior that peaked with Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” and continues through this day with “All About That Bass” and “Anaconda.”
Go-go didn’t fare as well commercially in the long-term. E.U. scored a pair of follow-up hits (the “Da’ Butt” ripoff “Buck Wild” and the traditional ballad “Taste of Your Love”) and producer Hurby “Luv” Bug produced a series of go-go centric hits on his proteges Salt ‘n Pepa and Kid ‘n Play, but by the early ’90s, go-go was once again strictly a D.C. thang.
Random factoid: The video for “Da’ Butt” was shot in my high school cafeteria (a year before I started attending said high school.)
64. Man In The Mirror by Michael Jackson (1 week at #1, March ’88 | Amazon)
I really don’t know where to put “Man In The Mirror.”
Back in the day, the song used to move me to tears. As I was first getting familiar with Bad, it was my favorite song. Then, of course, there was the mind-bending performance at the 1988 Grammy Awards. Michael won the night even if he didn’t get any Grammys for Bad (and in a year that gave us Sign ‘o The Times, an album that was 10X better and also didn’t win any Grammy Awards, maybe his shutout wasn’t as unfair as many of us Michael stans may think.)
Over the years, “Man In The Mirror” has dropped a few points in my book, enough that another single from Bad places ahead of it on this list. Granted, it still ranks relatively high, and may have moved a few points back up in light of Michael’s death. Regardless of my (only slightly) conflicted feelings about the song, it’s still well-written (thanks Siedah Garrett & Glen “You Oughta Know” Ballard,) Michael sings the shit out of it, and it’s still got a relevant message. And a testament to MJ’s genius that a song that would be a defining statement for any number of other artists barely crests his top ten artistic statements.
63. Sign ‘o The Times by Prince (3 weeks at #1, April ’87 | Amazon)
As minimalist as Prince got. Also, as topical as Prince got. This was one of, if not the, first song I can remember that directly addressed AIDS. The apocalypse-themed lyrics recalled “1999,” but with a much more somber attitude and a much mature viewpoint (“hurry before it’s too late…let’s fall in love, get married, have a baby…”) The lead track to one of the best albums ever made by anyone was a daring choice for a first single, from the stark instrumentation to the Curtis Mayfield-inspired bluesy guitar licks at the end.
Something that got as many tongues wagging as the song itself did? The single cover, which featured an attractive woman dressed in peach and holding a heart over her face, caused a bit of chatter when it was rumored that the “attractive woman” was, in fact, Prince. While adrogyny has been Prince’s M.O. for his entire career, I’m pretty sure that Prince is not the cover model in question. Have you ever seen the dude with his shirt off? He’s damn near Robin Williams. I don’t think all the electrolysis in the world could’ve made him smooth enough for that photo.
62. Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run) by Billy Ocean (4 weeks at #1, September ’84 | Amazon)
By the time “Caribbean Queen” hit the top spot in the fall of 1984, Billy Ocean had already come and gone twice. He scored pop success in the U.S. and U.K. in the mid Seventies, fell off the map for a bit, returned with a club banger called “Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)” in 1981, then fell off the map again. “Caribbean Queen” kicked off his third and most consistent run of success-it was followed by a Grammy, an American Music Awards, a handful more #1s and a good run as the British Lionel Richie before hip-hop and new jack swing knocked him off the charts for good.
I’m pretty sure “Caribbean Queen” was Jive Records’ first major hit. Not a bad start to a label that would later be responsible for (in relative order) Whodini, Samantha Fox, Boogie Down Productions, A Tribe Called Quest, R. Kelly, Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync & Britney Spears.)
61. Love Saw It by Karyn White (2 weeks at #1, April ’89 | Amazon)
“Love Saw It” doesn’t get the same level as props as “Superwoman” or “The Way You Love Me”, but I think it’s a superior song to either. The secret weapon? Babyface. He’s (strangely) uncredited as the second vocalist (which I think happened again with Pebbles’ “Love Makes Things Happen”) but his voice adds much to this track. Actually, can we petition for Babyface to do a duets album? This, “Love Makes Things Happen”, “Take A Bow,” the recent album with Toni Braxton…something tells me he’d be able to pull off a killer collabos record. I just want my executive producer’s credit and we’ll be OK.
Previous Entries
2 comments
John says:
Oct 13, 2014
I got a shout-out…woot!
“Sign o’the Times”…the whole album truly shook my musical identity to the core. I was solidly in a post-New Wave pop cloud when “Sign” dropped, and I quickly took a left and realigned with the current R&B and hip-hop movements. Which is funny, because in hindsight, a good chunk of “Sign” could be argued to be more pop/rock than R&B. Then again, “Adore” is the ultimate Quiet Storm song. (Don’t argue with me…just smile and nod)
I whole-heartedly support a Babyface duets album with you as exec producer.
MJ says:
Oct 13, 2014
I made a list of the best love songs of all time for another site about ten years ago. “Adore” was #1. We are in agreement, sir.