"I Want My Girl" by Jesse Johnson's Revue

Song#:  2392
Date:  07/20/1985
Debut:  88
Peak:  76
Weeks:  8
Genre:  R&B



Pop Bits:  After Johnson left The Time, he embarked on a solo career with his own band. Signed to A&M Records, Jesse Johnson's Revue issued a self-titled debut album earlier in the year. The LP's first single, "Be Your Man," would be a #4 hit at R&B while getting to #61 at Pop. A second single, "Can You Help Me," would do a tad better at R&B getting to #3, but it failed to make the Pop chart. However, this third single got the band back on the Pop chart for a couple of months. It was also their third R&B Top 10 hitting #7. The singles would help the album sell well and it would get to #8 at R&B and #43 Pop. By the fall, it would received a gold record certification.

ReduxReview:  Although they called this the Minneapolis sound, to me it was just another variation on Prince's tracks. And like a lot of that stuff, this one couldn't compete with the master's work. Having worked a lot with Prince, I'm sure it was difficult to break free from his influence. Still, if you are gonna use those influences, you better have some solid material that gives you some kind of identity and I don't think Johnson had it at this point. Like "Be Your Man," this one sounds like something Prince recorded one afternoon for kicks and then dumped it in the vault.

ReduxRating:  4/10

Trivia:  In addition to his own solo/band career, Johnson began to write and produce for other artists. One of his first major gigs was writing and producing two songs for Janet Jackson's second LP Dream Street. He wrote and produced the songs "Pretty Boy" and "Fast Girls" for Jackson. "Fast Girls" would end up being the second single from the album released. It would do moderately well getting to #40 at R&B. Johnson's own original (demo) version of the song would end up as the b-side to the "I Want My Girl" single.

_________________________________________________________________________________