We have now crossed into the second half of the 1980s! The 17th episode of the Jheri Curl Chronicles podcast (which does a deep dive into every song that hit Number One on Billboard’s R&B singles chart during the 1980s) finds Mike Joseph and Thomas Inskeep discussing two chart-topping songs by New Edition (“Cool It Now” and “Mr. Telephone Man), as well as smash hits by Chaka Khan, Eugene Wilde, Midnight Star, and Ashford & Simpson. As usual, there are also a million side tracks and detours (including discussions about Ray Parker Jr.’s blatant plagiarism, the two OTHER cover versions of “I Feel For You” and the queerness of Nick Ashford), but it all ties together! Thanks for listening!
Songs covered in this episode:
“I Feel For You” by Chaka Khan (original video)
“Cool It Now” by New Edition
“Mr. Telephone Man” by New Edition
“Solid” by Ashford & Simpson
Ashford & Simpson – Solid by trashfan
“Operator” by Midnight Star
“Gotta Get You Home Tonight” by Eugene Wilde
You can listen in the player below OR download the episode to your device OR stream it via Liberated Syndication OR subscribe to us on iTunes. And thanks as always for listening!
2 comments
John says:
Mar 14, 2017
– I got the I Feel For You album for Christmas ’84 while the single was still hot, so the facts about the year-end straddle makes perfect sense to me. I LOVED that album.
– I can’t hear Eugene Wilde’s version of Gotta Get You Home Tonight without Foxy Brown saying “uh oh, uh ohhhh” in my head
– I may need to work the night shift to figure out what I’m missing in the next episode
MJ says:
Mar 14, 2017
Totally spot on about Eugene Wilde/Foxy. And about “I Feel For You”. I wasn’t as familiar with the album tracks, but there was a point in the mid ’90s when I used to go to this gay “sports” bar called Champs…the DJ played a LOT of this album. It’s all solid.
And you may be on to something regarding the next episode…hmmmm…