If we’ve learned anything from our writeup on L.A. Reid back in 2016, it’s that if there is a successful songwriter and producer from the last 30 or so years, they probably had a Jheri Curl album of their own in the mid-’80s. Well, here is Evan Rogers, one half of a hitmaking duo with Carl Sturken who would later produce for everyone from Evelyn “Champagne” King to Christina Aguilera, and even help to build thee Robyn Rihanna Fenty‘s career.
Sturken and Rogers would eventually form the group Rhythm Syndicate and score a couple of hits in the ’90s, but back in 1985, Rogers released his solo album Love Games, which contains the very System-sounding song “Don’t Jump to Conclusions.” That’s our pick for the day, but the whole album is a bounty of mid-decade Jheri Curl Music: including “Full-Time Lover,” a slow jam duet with the aforementioned Evelyn King, and even a cover of Prince‘s “Private Joy.” Now that we’ve discovered Sturken and Rogers’ place in the Jheri Curl June Extended Universe, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more from them, whether as artists or producers.
But for now, here’s this month’s playlist. We’ll be back on Monday for more Jheri Curl June!
Twicealready this week, we’ve remarked that an apparently secular Jheri Curl June selection could also work well as a gospel song. Well, for today’s song, we can do away with the subtext: Lucky Rosenbloom’s “Keep Your Faith in God” is, unequivocally, Jheri Curl Gospel–J.C. for J.C., if you will. The song first came to my notice in an Instagram post by the vinyl reissue label Numero Group, whose compilation Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound is basically a holy text in these parts. Numero, I learned, had repressed the obscure 1985 single; I took one look at the cover, depicting Rosenbloom posed casually with his Korg keytar and guns out, and I knew this song was making the playlist this year.
I’ll spare you an extended biography of Rosenbloom, if only because I’m already dangerously close to falling down a rabbit hole and I don’t want to be here all night; suffice to say that he’s something of a fixture in Twin Cities local media, his name cropping up frequently as a prominent Trump supporter and self-proclaimed “only African-American firearms instructor in Minnesota.” Back in 1985, though, he was a less controversial figure, best known as the host of cable access show Lucky Mania TV, where according to Numero he “encouraged kids to say no to drugs and take their vitamins.” This context helps explain “Keep Your Faith in God”‘s lo-fi, vaguely Tim and Eric-esque vibe, as Rosenbloom–over a primitive electronic pre-programmed beat–asks in his surprisingly high voice for “everybody who believes in God to get up out of your seat and stand up, because we’re about to have some fun.” The song proceeds with Rosenbloom continuing to placidly whip up the congregation over swathes of synthesizer (presumably the aforementioned Korg). Over the fade, he chuckles, “Who says that people who believe in God can’t have fun, huh?”
“Keep Your Faith in God” is unlike any other song we’ve ever covered for Jheri Curl June; it’s less “wet and silky ’80s R&B” than borderline outsider music. Had Lucky Rosenbloom been a fringe media figure in pretty much any other urban center, we’d probably never have heard of him; but he just happened to be from Minneapolis/St. Paul, and took cues from the local music scene when he recorded this weird, weird little record. As far as I’m concerned, this J.C.–I can’t speak for the other one–is a little bit richer for it.
More Jheri Curl Music, both sacred and secular, can be heard in the playlists below:
I have a theory that most, if not all, of the best music can be traced back to the Midwest. This is especially true of funk and R&B. In fact, if we put a dot on the map every time we inducted an artist into Jheri Curl June, the biggest clusters of dots would be in Ohio, Minnesota, and Michigan.
Alicia Myers is from Detroit, Michigan and was in the band One Way (who we previously inducted for their bouncy hit “Cutie Pie“) before going solo in 1980. She is best-known for the gospel-infused “I Want to Thank You,” a club staple, particularly in NYC. 1984’s “Appreciation” also sounds like it could be a praise song, but with an infectious synth riff, slap bass, and house music piano.
Here’s the playlist so you can appreciate the rest of this years’ Jheri Curl June songs! See you tomorrow.
In the almost-10 years since we started Jheri Curl June, I’ve learned to keep an eye out in the record store for potential discoveries in the Jheri Curlaverse. Sometimes, this habit pays off–as in the case of 2018 JCJ honoree Georgio. But sometimes, even the most promising-looking record can fail to live up to expectations.
This was the case when, back home in Michigan two summers ago, I came across Confess It Baby, the 1985 sophomore album by Prime Time. “Promising-looking” didn’t even begin to describe it: Posed in front of the skyline backdrop from a local public access talk show, dressed in the finest selections from the Steve Harvey menswear line, the motley crew assembled on the album cover (see below) looked like they stepped out of a production of Guys and Dolls with a cast comprised entirely by the lineups of the Whispers and DeBarge. This–combined with a tracklist full of suggestive song titles like “What’s That You Slipped Into My Wine,” “Sex-o-logical,” and “Baby Don’t Break My Back“–basically put my expectations through the roof.
Likely because of these sky-high expectations, I was underwhelmed when I got home and gave Confess It Baby a spin. It isn’t a terrible record, by any means, and certainly not below par for Jheri Curl June; remember, this is coming from someone who counts discovering Georgio as a success. But it was generic enough that I’d all but forgotten about Prime Time until this Jheri Curl June rolled around and I remembered, “Oh yeah, what about that one record by the goofy-ass Whispers/DeBarge knock-offs?”
All of which is to say, I have good news and bad news about today’s JCJ pick. The bad news is, Confess It Baby isn’t officially streaming, and while we’ve included some YouTube-only tracks in past years, I can’t be bothered doing it for Prime Time. Which brings me to the good news: the group’s 1984 debut album Flying High is streaming, and it’s actually a damn sight better than Confess It Baby.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s also hilarious. The group shot on the back cover (see above) is almost as goofy as the one on Confess It Baby, except this time the assorted Whispers and DeBarge castoffs are in a production of The Outsiders. Meanwhile, 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. But the electro-lite groove and sunny melody ensure that you leave with a smile on your face, even if you don’t have as overdeveloped sense of irony as yours truly.
Anytime is Prime Time to listen to Prime Time… and the rest of the artists on these playlists:
We have long extolled the virtues of both Steve Arrington‘s actual Jheri curl and his Ohio-grown bouncy funk in relation to the three–timeJCJ-inducted band Slave. However, not only could I easily put Arrington on the playlist every single year, but this year, I specifically wanted to give attention to his second group, Steve Arrington’s Hall of Fame, with this 1984 jam, “What Do You Want from Me.”
Released the same year Arrington converted to Christianity (he would later become a licensed minister), this is a love song, but on closer listen also sounds like it could be a gospel song about serving Christ. At least the first verse does; then it devolves into moaning and talking about making love. But for my money, this song has a lot of the same love/sex/god themes that Prince was working with throughout his career, though with a lot less angst. 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!
And with that, Steve Arrington’s Hall of Fame has officially entered the JCJ (and just plain J.C.) hall of fame. As always, playlists are below:
As we rapidly approach the 10-year anniversary of Jheri Curl June, one of the most exciting things for me is the thrill of “discovering” an artist who I frankly should have known about already. This year, that artist is Gwen Guthrie: a former back-up vocalist, elementary school teacher (!), and commercial jingle singer from Newark, New Jersey, whose series of 1980s club hits led to her being dubbed the “First Lady” of New York City‘s legendary Paradise Garage.
Listening to “Peanut Butter,” the opening track from Guthrie’s 1983 album Portrait, it’s easy to see why she earned the title. Like the rest of her first two albums, it’s produced by Sly (Dunbar) and Robbie (Shakespeare)–also known for their work with previous JCJ inductee and all-around badass Grace Jones–and it’s funky as hell, with the Jamaican production duo’s dub influences showing through in the highly percussive groove. Likewise, Guthrie’s sultry vocal and exhortations to “spread yourself over me like peanut butter” feel precision-engineered for the dance floor–particularly in the even dubbier extended club mix by Paradise Garage house DJ Larry Levan.
I’m not gonna lie–sometimes I worry that we’ve scraped the bottom of the barrel, and that we’ll run out of exciting music to spotlight for Jheri Curl June sooner rather than later. But if after nine years I can still randomly stumble across somebody like Gwen Guthrie, it’s a reminder that there’s still a lot left to learn about and explore.
Speaking of exploring, remember to check out our playlists! We’ll be back for the second full week of Jheri Curl June 2023 on Monday.
Tokoko Aran is a City Pop artist who put out a slew of albums on Warner Bros. during the 1980s, including this track, “ひと夏のタペストリー(Hitonatsu no Tapestry)” from 1983’s Fyukukan.
“Hitonatsu no Tapestry” would sound great in a mix with George Duke’s “Shine On” from 1982 and George Benson‘s “Give Me the Night” from 1980. Though “Hitonatsu no Tapestry” shares some similarities with both of these songs, it incorporates more synths instead of a horn or string section, which is consistent with how Jheri Curl Music sounded after Prince’s 1999 album was released, and would sound for the rest of the decade. 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.
But, you can relive the first couple of years of J.C.M. by listening to our playlists, here:
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.
“Falling in Love” was the debut single by the New Jersey-based group Surface: a vehicle for EMI Records staff songwriters David “Pic” Conley and David Townsend, with Conley’s girlfriend, Karen Copeland, on vocals. It is, at first glance, little more than a pleasantly chill midtempo J.C.M. trifle–imagine an S.O.S. Band album track, and you’ve basically got the picture. But then, the flute enters the mix–just a taste at first, then gradually growing in prominence, until all the sudden we’re treated to a full-blown solo. And you know what? It fuckin’ rules.
I’ll admit, we’re not exactly unbiased when it comes to flute in pop songs. Callie’s other podcast dedicated a whole episode to flute jams; I spent a not-insignificant part of my youth listening to a cassette compilation called Funky Flutes and Sexy Sitars; at least one of us (I won’t say who) spent actual U.S. currency to see Jethro Tull in concert. But the flute adds so much to “Falling in Love,” it kind of begs the question why it wasn’t a more common sound in songs of its genre. Clearly, at least someone at Surface’s record label Salsoul agreed, because the single’s European picture sleeve prominently featured Conley serenading a bemused-looking Copeland with the instrument (see above).
Unfortunately, “Falling in Love” didn’t kick off a whole new era of woodwind-mania in ’80s R&B. The single made it into the lower reaches of the Billboard R&B chart, peaking at Number 84 in summer 1983; the following year, electro-lite follow-up single “When Your Ex Wants You Back” reached the same position, after which Conley and Copeland broke up, marking the end of the group’s original lineup. Surface would eventually (ahem) resurface in 1986 with a new singer, Bernard Jackson, and a smoother sound heavily indebted to the likes of Babyface. It’s fine–we may even write about Surface Mark II in a future Jheri Curl June–but I think we all know what’s missing. Luckily, the version of “Falling in Love” on streaming services is an extra-long remix by Shep Pettibone, so you can wet your whistle and then some.
Speaking of streaming, here are those playlists again:
This is gonna be a short post because I can barely find a damn thing about this group except for the fact that they are a “Mid-80s Boogie-funk Band from Indiana,” according to Discogs, and that they were founded and coproduced by a man named Stanlee Paul whose real name is, get this, Paul Stanlee Thomas (not to be confused with Paul Stanley.)
Circle City Band only had three singles spanning from 1983-1985 until 2012, when Luv N’ Haight put out an album including remastered versions of their singles and previously unreleased tracks. Thank God they did, because 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.
Hear the magic of Jheri Curl Music on our playlists here:
It’s been a while since we last spotlighted James “D-Train” Williams–since 2015, to be exact, when we wrote about Paul Hardcastle‘s 1985 remix of D-Train’s 1981 breakout hit, “You’re the One for Me.” And frankly, that’s too long to go without some Vitamin D–especially now that we know it was Williams who sang the much-more-soulful-than-required hook to the original Pokémon anime’s “Pokérap,” thus completing the weirdest possible Venn diagram of Callie‘s interests and most likely fulfilling an ancient prophecy that will ultimately lead to the apocalypse.
Unfortunately, the Pokérap does not count as an example of Jheri Curl Music; but 1982’s “‘D’ Train Theme” decidedly does, and folks, it is a banger. Recorded when “D-Train” was not only Williams’ stage name, but also a full-fledged duo comprising the singer and keyboardist/producer Hubert Eaves III, the “Theme” opens with a recorded announcement from the New York subway line, before launching into a nasty bass and drum-machine groove that lays the foundation for a synth hook positively dripping with J.C. juice. The lyrical content is just about what you’d expect–a series of exhortations to “get up on the funky D-Train”–but fans of the aforementioned Pokérap will be excited to hear Williams lay down some capable bars himself. “‘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.
You can get on board the funky JC-train with the playlists below; see you tomorrow!
