Author: zachary.hoskins@gmail.com
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Jheri Curl June: Prime Time’s “Anytime is Prime Time (Theme Song)”
Lead singer Jimmy Hamilton kicks off closing track “Anytime is Prime Time (Theme Song)”–yes, Prime Time end their debut album with a song about themselves–by yelling, “What time is it?” as if that catchphrase didn’t already very clearly belong to Morris Day of the Time.
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Jheri Curl June: Steve Arrington’s “What Do You Want from Me”
It radiates so much warmth that it could only be on an album called Positive Power. I mean, just look at that beautiful backlit curl! It’s enough to make anyone a believer!
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Jheri Curl June: Gwen Guthrie’s “Peanut Butter”
Guthrie’s sultry vocal and exhortations to “spread yourself over me like peanut butter” feel precision-engineered for the dance floor.
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Jheri Curl June: Tomoko Aran’s “ひと夏のタペストリー (Hitonatsu no Tapestry)”
By 1983, R&B was shedding the remnants of Post-Disco and sounding much more cold and synthetic as it entered into the Jheri Curl golden age of the mid-’80s.
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Jheri Curl June: Surface’s “Falling in Love”
For the past nine years, we’ve harped on a lot about the sonic signifiers that make Jheri Curl Music what it is: your clean bass and rhythm guitar, your programmed drums, your layered synths, and so on. But one sound we’ve never had cause to mention is the flute… that is, at least, until now.
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Jheri Curl June: Circle City Band’s “Magic”
1983’s “Magic” is one of the funkiest deep tracks I’ve found, with zapping synthesizers and rumbling drums that could only originate in the bowels of the Midwest.
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Jheri Curl June: D-Train’s “‘D’ Train Theme”
“‘D’ Train Theme” may not teach you the names of the 150 original Pokémon, but it is funky as hell, and really, that’s what matters most.
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Jheri Curl June: Masayoshi Takanaka’s “Chill Me Out”
A perfect way to cool down on a hot summer evening, with the tinkling synthesizer that hits like ice cubes in a drink on a hot, balmy day.
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Jheri Curl June: Tom Browne’s “Funkin’ for Jamaica”
It’s finally time to unleash a new mutation that’s been sitting in my “JCJ ideas” playlist for years: I’m talking, of course, about Jheri Jazz.