"Can't Wait Another Minute" by Five Star

Song#:  2858
Date:  09/13/1986
Debut:  89
Peak:  41
Weeks:  14
Genre:  R&B, Dance-Pop



Pop Bits:  This British sibling vocal group's debut album, Luxury of Life, performed well in the US spawning two R&B Top 10's including the #2 "Let Me Be the One" (#57 Pop/#9 Dance). The LP would be a platinum seller in the UK and that set them up well for their follow-up Silk & Steel. Again using a variety of producers and songwriters, they would hit a high mark on the Pop chart in the US with this first single. It would just miss out on the Top 40 peaking at the dreaded #41. It would be their best performing single on the chart. It would do better at R&B (#7) and Dance (#5). In the UK, the single would be the second in a streak of four Top 10 hits there.

ReduxReview:  This group had the ability to push out likable, catchy, well-produced, dance-pop, but in the US they never had that one exceptional track that would break them out beyond the dance and R&B chart despite being major stars in the UK. Their second LP was a better effort and this song was a quality track from the Pearson siblings. It featured an urgent, solid lead vocal from sister Denise. It probably should have made it into the Pop Top 20, but it just didn't have that extra zing to make it catch on wider.

ReduxRating:  6/10

Trivia:  Double Shot!  1) This song was released in April of '86 in the UK. It wouldn't get to the States as a single until September even though it had already been heard in a film earlier in the year. The tune was used in the 1986 Ron Howard flick Gung Ho. There was no official soundtrack album released from the film.  2) This is actually a remake, but just barely. The tune was written by Sue Sheridan and Paul Criten and originally recorded by another set of UK siblings, a trio called Lewis (Dee, Shirley, and Linda). According to the song's producer, Bobby Eli, the trio had recorded the song and intended to release it as a single, but then they heard that Five Star had recorded it and were pushing it out, so they opted to use it as a b-side to another tune called "If the Love Fits" (not the 1982 hit "If the Love Fits Wear It" by Leslie Pearl). Apparently, that single was issued out a month before Five Star's, which then made it appear like the Five Star version was a remake. Linda Lewis had already had a successful solo career before joining up with her sisters. Lewis scored six charting singles in the UK between 1973 and 1979 including her lone Top 10 hit, a #6 remake of "It's in His Kiss," aka "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" a #6 hit in the US in 1964 by Betty Everett

_________________________________________________________________________________