This was the last song written for Evelyn's fourth album, was produced by Kashif who had Evelyn sing in a higher register, helping her sound younger with the new sounds she was creating.

You should know her story is pretty incredible, just working as a cleaner to have a job at Sigma Studio, the hottest production company at the time with Gamble & Huff, she started singing for her Mom cleaner at work to lift her spirits would end up being told that she was going to be a star. This happened before he made her a household name for her soulful interpretation of the disco hit "Shame" in 1978.

In the early 80's King was seen as an older artist due to her alto level vocals, but the producers felt she could sound younger and this newer vocal style burned a path to #1 R&B with a steady, driving beat and funky keyboards.

This is the catchiest tune I have heard in a while. 1988 brought Womack & Womack (Linda and Cecil) to pop #1 pop fame with "Teardrops" from their "Conscionce" LP in the Netherlands, Austria and New Zealand and #2 in Germany and Switzerland, #3 in the UK.

This was their fourth album since their 1983 success debut LP, "Love Wars" and had more success in the UK than the US. They scored a #4 Disco hit with "Baby, I'm Scared Of You" but failed with the disco-ey "Teardrops"in 1988. But I like it!

Someone suggested that I do it then I started hearing it a my local supermarket, so here is my take on this overlooked little gem.

THe GoGo's were formed in the 1978 New Wave scene in Los Angeles with Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin. Their first album topped the album charts giving them the distinciton of being the first all female band to do so and helping to usher in the New Wave era.

"Our Lips Are Sealed" became a #20 pop hit and was followed by the the #2 "We Got The Beat". The band began as the Misfits with Caffey and Carlisle who satrted the band just for the fun of it and after a string of successful club dates morphed into the GoGo's. They were intending to cover The Miracles, "Going To A Go Go" when Caffey realized that they should perform their own music and out of that came "Our Lips Are Sealed". She said the song was coming out faster than she could frantically write down.

Valentine was the last member added, replacing the hard rocking Margo Olivarra and the band was ready for stardom. The charts were full of women, the #1 song was Joan Jett's "I Love Rock And Roll" and the #2 song was "We Got The Beat" followed by the Pretenders, it was a great time to be a woman in rock and roll.

After their third album, the members decided to go out on their own with Carlisle becoming the most successful with her rendition of "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" that seemed to echo Bon Jovi but hit #1 on the Hot 100.

The band officially broke up and still get together every now and then to play their songs in concert. They got their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

The sisters endured some hard times on their way to fame, once they were brought into Austin, Texas for a recording session only to find there was no studio as the agent was not even involved in the records business. Panicked, Anita called David Rubinson who plunked down his AMEX card and brought the sisters safely home then arranged to get them signed to Blue Thumb records.

Then Jerry Wexler of Atlantic records caught the girls performance with Elvin Bishop and signed them. It was not a marriage made in heaven and Rubinson threw a fit when found out that the label turned all of their music into generic sounding R&B when he knew the women were capable of so much more.

Terminating the contract he turned to Blue Thumb records prez Bob Krasnow who loved the sisters sounds and fashion. Did you know that the sisters sang back up for the first Sylvester & The Hot Band album? They were working for the same label.

The Pointer Sisters began their careers entrenched in gospel. The older they got, the more they realized that they wanted to expand into other musical styles, much to the dismay of their parents. Bonnie and June started off as Pointers, A Pair and were having some success when Anita decided to join them.

From that point on, they started doing background vocals for Grace Slick, Sylvester James, Boz Scaggs and Elvin Bishop, which led to their being signed to Atlantic Records in 1971. They had no hits on Atlantic and by the time Ruth joined, they secured a new contract with Blue Thumb Records. Around this time they recorded for "Sesame Street" a song called "Pinball Number Count" which became very popular on the show.

The single "Yes We Can Can" opened them up to pop audiences and expanded their R&B fan base. Their 1978 LP "Energy" included their specially tailored Springsteen song "Fire" and this lesser known song "Happiness" which I always loved...written by Allen Toussaint. They became even more popular in the early to mid 80's with their electrifying singles "Jump (For My Love)", "Automatic", "Neutron Dance" and "I'm So Excited".

Bet you did not know that they worked with Mauice Gibb on this album.... you can hear it for yourself.

The Osmonds began performing in 1958 when Alan, Merrill, Wayne and Jay sang in a barbershop quartet to help make money for hearing aids. They performed at Disneyland where the Osmonds were vocalizing with the Dapper Dans on Main Street and caught the attention of the entertainment director who hired them for the next summer.

Disneyland After Dark selected them to appear in 1962. That led to a stint on the Andy Williams show and they became regulars up to 1967 earning the moniker "One Take Osmonds" due to their professionalism. It was at this point that Donny joined the group making them a quintet.Releasing their first single in 1967, "Flower Music" on UNI records it did not chart.Next came Producer Mike Curb, who was the one that brought them into the American Mainstream with the Jackson Five like "One Bad Apple" that spent five weeks at #1. They went through a few changes and record sales began to slip, especially after Donny left to become a solo teen star.

My friend Human Numan who is program director for Sirius XM filled me on some little known facts about who actually sang lead. "What most people don't realize is that Merrill was always their lead vocalist. Donny added the "falsetto" with his young voicing. Later Donny went on with his own solo career and proved he could hold a song together alone. But all of the great '70s hits... they were all Merrill on lead. Because Donny did his vocals as the equivalent of Michael Jackson, Merrill's career never really took off. Same with Jermaine. They both were in a situation where even though they were singing lead parts, their little brother was the focus.

Merrill is the "unsung" hero of the Osmond Brothers...One Bad Apple (#1) is a perfect example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLtqJQx_V6U, Yo Yo (#3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlA-z0du1Pg Down By The Lazy River (#4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8-gezTsrxs Double Lovin' (here he is much older) https://youtu.be/X5g9IP0hJe0?t=801Here you can see Donny is not the lead, he was a co-lead singing certain phrases. So it was all perception that Donny was the frontman.

Merrill got upstaged.What's strange is Merrill's accent grew more country as he got older.In 1979, they did a one off album for Mercury Records, 1979's "Steppin' Out" Human notes that "Produced by Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees and Steve Klein - Definitely some Bee Gees vocals in the hook. Keyboards: Blue Weaver who was keyboards for Bee Gees, Joe Lala on drums. George Terry on guitar. Donny is credited with vocals while Merrill handled the leads."Recorded at Criteria Studios Miami, home of the disco classics they created from "Jive Talkin'" to "Tragedy" it has that classic Bee Gees sound but the Osmonds were credited as vocalists and Maurice added some Bee Gees magic to the track that was sadly overlooked back in da day.

Human mentioned that the song is as hooky as any other Bee Gees hit and it sounds like it would have mixed nicely with Love You Inside Out, which was out a short time before the Osmonds release. What do you think? Missed opportunity here? Family group member produces family group, it should have been promoted its just so catchy! It was there last official release as the classic line up as Donny left the band in 1980. Human also relates this story, "I have a story of how I almost met Merrill. (I've met Donny on numerous occasions, super guy, very kind). Right before Covid struck, I went on the '70s Rock & Romance Cruise to get familiar with what we were promoting on the air. Occasionally I would walk by this guy who seemed to be around a lot but travelling solo, I'd smile and nod or say hi, and keep on walking. But all the while I kept thinking "That guy looks strangely familiar. He looks like one of the Osmond Brothers." But they weren't performing on this cruise so I dismissed it. Near the end of the week, I was having dinner with the cruise executive producer, and he mentioned that the Osmonds were booked for the next cruise. I told him I thought I saw one of them on the cruise. He said, that's Merrill. He is for the group gathering intel on how its conducted in order to build a show. I said is he still here? I would love to meet him! He said, no he was only on for 3 days, and jumped a plane back to the States. So that would have been cool."

After the massive success of "Miss You" the Stones took a step back into soulful R&B with "Emotional Rescue" a beat driven tune that peaked at #3 for two weeks it was the highest new entry that week at #33. It could not get past Diana Ross's "Upside Down" at #1 and Christopher Cross "Sailing" at #2 the first week and then Air Supply "All Out Of Love" the second.

Mick Jagger wrote and recorded a demo with an electric piano and sang it in falsetto like Marvin Gaye had done with "Got To Give It Up" and brought it to the band,keeping the piano and vocal with the rest of the Stones adding their parts to the song finishing off with saxophonist Bobby Keys adding his part.

Billboard noted that the song may have been influenced by the music of Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions but updated with the tough talking lyrics of Jagger who explained that the song was about a girl who was a bit messed up and a man who wanted to help her to get involved with his emotional rescue.

Gossip had it that Keith Richards was not enamoured of this new direction and limited his involvement with guitar and his backing vocals near the end of the song. The result is a hot funky dance track that was not played in concert until 2013. It did peak at #9 on the Hot Disco/Dance chart that summer of 1980.

Diana remixes for ya! Diana's vocals on "No One Gets The Prize" displayed her vocal talent and she really let loose her gospel pipes, full throated at the verses and sounding like the Diana in the Supremes. It was a real treat to find the 12 that had No One Gets The Prize/The Boss with the sharpest edit I would ever hear and comes close to her vocals on "Love Hangover" but with Ashford & Simpson providing the right funky track with a thumpin and insistent disco beat.

I didn't really care for the mixed for that reason 12" and finally found another longer version that I used here and give the song a well deserved remix, Diana in top form with Valerie Simpson and Nickolas Ashford also in top form for a song that deserves a second, third or fourth listen. It's really great cat -fighty dust up between two friends who compete for the attentions of the same guy. Might have made a great duet with another female star, my money would have been on Chaka Khan....

Shalamar started out as a studio group to record a novelty single that would stitch together a whack of Motown chestnuts put to a bright disco beat and call it Uptown Festival. The response was unanimous, we LOVED it! Hey it was 1978 and nostalgia was rampant, remember "Grease" and "Happy Days" were huge back then so the Simon Soussan arranged disco revival of Motown classics made sense and it peaked at #2 disco for four weeks!

Dick Griffey and Gene Page had worked on the first LP and Leon Sylvers joined them for their second LP, "Disco Gardens", helping to mold their new dance groove sound and bring them the faces everyone wanted to know; Jody Watley, Jeffrey Daniels and Howard Hewett who became the permanent members.

"Right In The Socket" rocked them good with that funky bass behind it all that landed up becoming a #11 Top Disco/Dance hit in 1980.

John Waite was born July 4, 1955 in Lancaster, England. He was already an accomplished musician by the age of 14 by playing harmonica and bass guitar in several bands before he formed the Babys in 1976.

The British band was heavily marketed to the US including a $10,000 budget to make a music video that helped them get signed to Chrysalis records and helped make their first hit, "Isn't It Time" a #13 pop success in December of 1977.

The Babys broke up after their third album with Jonathan Cain joining Journey and Waite being the last one find success on his second solo album, "No Brakes" with the #1 pop single "Missing You".

John was in a reflective mood when it came time to write the lyrics so he wrote about his personal feelings, making word associations and finally working out the entire song. Written quickly, the former art student released the song explaining that it was about the breakup of his relationship and how it helped him to get through that rough time. The adage of the best love songs being written with a broken heart still holds true here.

Champaign gets their name from their hometown of Champaign, Illinois with charter members Micheal Day, Leon Reeder, Michael Reed and Dana Walden. Vocalists Pauli Carman and Rena Jones soon joined the band just in time for their golden moment, "How 'Bout Us" a 1 Adult Contemporary song for two weeks, peaking at #12 pop and #4 R&B.

The song was recorded in a number of various styles until it approached the version that was finally released, the gossamer dream of a song floated into the consciousness of the radio listeners all over the world. The next single, "Can You Find The Time" missed the charts entirely but two years later "Try Again" hit the charts #6 AC, #23 pop and #2 R&B but failed to maintain their momentum and the band broke up in 1985.

Betty Wright and Grayson Hugh released their version of "How Bout Us" in 1990, peaking at #15 AC, #67 pop and #30 R&B. Pauli went on to work in the supergroup Asia and Reeder went on to work with Chicago.