"You Should Be Mine (The Woo Woo Song)" by Jeffrey Osborne

Song#:  2734
Date:  05/24/1986
Debut:  84
Peak:  13
Weeks:  19
Genre:  R&B, Pop, Adult Contemporary



Pop Bits:  Over the course of three solo albums, Osborne scored seven R&B Top 10's and was able to take six songs into the Pop Top 40. Surprisingly, none of his Pop chart tracks made the Top 20 with the #25 "Don't You Get So Mad" being his best effort in 1983. He was still in search of his first Pop Top 10 when he recorded his fourth album Emotional. This first single would end up being the closest he would get to the Top 10 on his own. The tune would peak a few spots shy of the Top 10 while getting to #2 at both R&B and AC. The hit made the album his third gold seller in a row. Three more single from the album would be issued out, but even though they made the R&B chart, none would cross over to the Pop chart.

ReduxReview:  I really thought this would be the song to get Osborne into the Pop Top 10. It's a silky smooth tune with a lovely 80s production and that indelible "woo woo woo" chorus. If he couldn't break into the Top 10 with this one, then it just wasn't going to happen. And ultimately it didn't. His career started to fizzle after his next album. I think it was a case that his style of music was on the wane and he didn't do much to move along with trends of the day. When an artist doesn't do that, their career can have a limited shelf life. Still, Osborne had a solid run in the 80s and for me this song was  a career peak.

ReduxRating:  8/10

Trivia:  The second single from the Emotional album was the anti-apartheid song "Soweto." It was co-written by Elizabeth Lamers, Frank Musker, and Hamish Stuart. Stuart had been a member of the Scottish R&B/funk group Average White Band. He co-wrote the band's biggest hit, the 1974 instrumental "Pick Up the Pieces" (#1 Pop/#5 R&B). "Soweto" was written from the point of view of children who were caught up in the fight to end apartheid in South Africa and the recording featured a children's choir. The single would get to #18 at R&B, but it did best at Dance where it reached #11. The political-based tune wouldn't make the Pop chart.

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