Song#: 3315
Date: 10/31/1987
Debut: 89
Peak: 66
Weeks: 14
Genre: R&B, Soul
Pop Bits: Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, Jones got his first taste of the music business as a teenager when he became lead singer for the gospel group The Modulations. They issued out a couple of albums on the Savoy label in '78 and '80. Around the time of the group's second album, Jones met Norman Connors, an R&B/jazz fusion drummer who used various vocalists to sing on his albums. Connors got Jones to do the lead vocals on "Melancholy Fire," a track from Connors' 1980 album Take It to the Limit. The song became the LP's second single and it reached #20 at R&B. Jones then toured with Connors and it wasn't long before RCA Records offered Jones a solo deal. A 1983 EP, Everybody Loves a Winner, generated a couple of minor singles on the R&B chart and that encouraged RCA to flip for a full album. Finesse came out in '84 and it featured Jones' first R&B Top 10 hit, "Show Me" (#3). A second LP for RCA was less successful and Jones then found himself over on Jive Records. He would then record a self-titled LP that featured this first single. The song became a smash hit over at R&B getting to #2. It would also make the AC chart at #36 while making a little headway at Pop. The album would be his best charting reaching #16 R&B and #94 Pop. Unfortunately, both the song and the album would be Jones' only ones to reach the Pop chart. Another album for Jive would generate a second R&B Top 10 (the #6 "Stay"). Jones would then move over to Atlantic Records for his fifth full-length studio album, 1992's Here I Go Again. The title track would become Jones' first and only song to top the R&B chart. After one more R&B Top 10, Jones' fortunes began to wane. Jones would continue to record and perform over the years in the R&B, gospel and smooth jazz fields.
ReduxReview: I was just writing about songs with the same title in a previous post and here is another one, although subtitled. I'm pretty sure they added the subtitle to make sure folks knew this was not a remake of the 1970 #2 Carpenters hit. This track falls in line with others by late-80s R&B crooners like Freddie Jackson and Gregory Abbott. It was a good song that had similar crossover appeal as tracks by the previously mentioned artists, but for some reason it couldn't make a bigger dent at Pop. Jones was a terrific singer and he was totally on and engaged in his performance, even tossing in some nice, high falsetto. While the production was about right for this style of song at the time, it sounds weak and a little cheap these days, but the actual song and Jones' vocals still shine.
ReduxRating: 6/10
Trivia: Double Shot! 1) The person that took Jones from gospel to R&B music, Norman Connors, had some good success in the mid-70s. His sixth album, You Are My Starship, featured the title track single that got to #4 R&B and #27 Pop. The hit, featuring vocals by Michael Henderson, would help make the album a gold seller (#5 R&B/#39 Pop). Henderson, who wrote the song, would go on to grab a couple of R&B Top 10 solo hits himself in the late 70s/early 80s. 2) Jones' 1990 hit "Stay" would later be covered by the British girl group Eternal. It served as their debut single in 1993 and became the first of twelve Top 10 hits in the UK. Unfortunately, the group wasn't as successful in the US. The song would make it to #19 (#12 Dance/#13 R&B), but it ended up being their only one to reach the US Pop chart.
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