"Twist My Arm" by The Pointer Sisters

Song#:  2638
Date:  03/01/1986
Debut:  93
Peak:  83
Weeks:  5
Genre:  R&B, Dance-Pop



Pop Bits:  The Sisters' Contact album was not shaping up to be as big of a hit as their previous one, the multi-platinum Break Out. With the lead single "Dare Me" missing the Top 10 (#11 Pop) and a second single not even cracking the Top 40, there was little to help promote the LP. It would eventually go platinum, but that was a third of what Break Out did. They tried to light another fire with this third single, but it just didn't catch. The song couldn't get out of the basement at Pop while only reaching #61 R&B. It saw some better action at Dance where it got to #15, but it wasn't enough to help it elsewhere and that closed the book on Contact.

ReduxReview:  This album opener had some good energy and the standard solid production from Richard Perry, but the song wasn't all that strong. It had various hooks throughout yet when pushed together they didn't add up to much. And the "woo-woo-woo" part quickly became grating and annoying. Contact just didn't have the same quality of songs as Break Out and the results proved that.

ReduxRating:  4/10

Trivia:  This song was co-written by Andy Goldmark and Bruce Roberts. Roberts had written songs for several artists including two major disco hits by Barbra Streisand in 1979 - her #3 movie theme "The Main Event/Fight" and her #1 duet with Donna Summer "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)." Long before that pair of hits, Roberts wrote songs for and produced an album by young teenage star Danny Bonaduce. Bonaduce was on the hit TV show The Partridge Family and after the "family" began to have hit songs and albums, someone thought it was a good idea to have Bonaduce do a solo LP. His 1973 self-titled debut album went nowhere and that ended his music career. Many years later, Bonaduce was asked about the album and he stated that he barely sang on it and that Bruce Roberts had pretty much done all the vocals. In the interview, Bonaduce said that the album "should have been called Danny Vanilli" (a reference to the infamous Milli Vanilli lip syncing scandal).

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