The irony was that a broadcasting professional had already helped the musician to tone them down. Walker playing the sax break) and Journey, even as some radio programmers were dubious about his song’s raunchy lyrics.
The competition was intense: Rick James was battling hot new 45s by Stevie Nicks, Foreigner (“Urgent,” with Jr.
It was released through UMe in 2012.DAY & DATE: Debuts in the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart for the week ending Saturday, August 15, 1981.īACKSTORY: “Super Freak” was exploding on radio stations across the country during the summer of ’81, from WRBQ Tampa to KRLA Los Angeles, from WBBQ Augusta to KFRC San Francisco. Marie's daughter Alia Rose subsequently oversaw the mixing, mastering, and release of Beautiful, an album recorded prior to Marie's passing. On December 26 the following year, Marie died in her sleep at her home in Pasadena, California she was 54 years of age. Though both La Doña and Sapphire peaked at number three on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, she switched to Stax for her next album, 2009's Congo Square. Ten years later, she signed to Cash Money and released La Doña, featuring assistance from Gerald LeVert, Rick James, and MC Lyte. In 1994, the singer released Passion Play on her own Sarai Records label. Unfortunately, Marie's popularity had faded considerably by the late '80s, and Epic dropped her. Three more Epic albums followed: 1986's Emerald City, 1988's Naked to the World (which contained her smash hit "Ooh La La La"), and 1990's Ivory. Ironically, Marie was a white singer who had enjoyed little exposure outside the R&B market prior to "Lovergirl." Switching to Epic in 1983, Marie recorded her fifth album, Robbery, and had a hit with "Fix It." In 1984, Marie recorded her sixth album, Starchild, and had her biggest pop hit ever with "Lovergirl." Though Marie had often soared to the top of the R&B charts, "Lovergirl" marked the first time she'd done so well in the pop market. Marie got out of her contract with Motown, and the case ended up with the courts passing what is known as "The Teena Marie Law" - which states that a label cannot keep an artist under contract without putting out an album by him or her. It Must Be Magic turned out to be her last album for Motown, which she had a nasty legal battle with. That album boasted the major hit "I Need Your Lovin'," and Marie went gold again with her next album, It Must Be Magic (which included the major hit "Square Biz"). But to many of the black R&B fans who were eating her music up, it really didn't matter - the bottom line was she was a first-rate soul singer whose love of black culture ran deep.īy her third album, 1980's gold Irons in the Fire, Marie was doing most of her own writing and producing. When her second album, Lady T, came out, much of the R&B world was shocked to see how fair-skinned she was. That LP, which boasted her hit duet with James, "I'm Just a Sucker for Your Love," didn't show Marie's picture - so many programmers at black radio just assumed she was black. It was at Motown that she met her mentor and paramour-to-be, Rick James, who ended up doing all of the writing and producing for her debut album of 1979, Wild and Peaceful. The singer/songwriter/producer was in her early twenties when, around 1977, she landed a job at Motown Records. Marie grew up in west Los Angeles in a neighborhood that was nicknamed "Venice Harlem" because of its heavy black population. No white artist sang R&B more convincingly than Teena Marie, whose big, robust vocals were so black-sounding that when she was starting out, some listeners wondered if she was a light-skinned African-American.
0 kommentar(er)
