This Sony 3-CD collection (40 songs!) from 2002 includes plenty of songs I like starting with Mtume’s sexy “Juicy Fruit” and continuing with one of my favorite Luther Vandross songs, “Stop to Love.” Isley Jasper Isley’s classic “Caravan of Love” and Teena Marie’s “Lovergirl” (produced by the infamous Rick James) rub up against the too infrequently played “Shake You Down” by Gregory Abbott. Disc One concludes with the Philip Bailey/Phil Collins duet, “Easy Lover.”
The surprise (to me) on Disc Two is Stanley Clarke’s haunting “Heaven Sent You.” I associated Clarke more with the Jazz world, but here is a bona fide pop song well worth listening to. Shalamar’s “Dancing in the Sheets” is another song that seems to have disappeared from the radio airwaves.
Disc Three features one of my favorite Regina Bell songs, “Show Me the Way.” This disc is jazzy with Herbie Handcock and Grover Washington, Jr. represented. All in all, Soul Hits of the 80s contains enough good songs to make it very listenable. Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACKLIST:
| 1-01 | Mtume– | Juicy Fruit | 5:56 |
| 1-02 | Marvin Gaye– | Sanctified Lady | 5:25 |
| 1-03 | Regina Belle– | Baby Come To Me | 5:42 |
| 1-04 | Luther Vandross– | Stop To Love | 5:10 |
| 1-05 | Deniece Williams– | Let’s Hear It For The Boy | 4:20 |
| 1-06 | Isley Jasper Isley– | Caravan Of Love | 5:44 |
| 1-07 | Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam– | All Cried Out | 4:45 |
| 1-08 | Teena Marie– | Lovergirl | 4:50 |
| 1-09 | Manhattans– | Shining Star | 4:44 |
| 1-10 | Earth, Wind & Fire– | Fall In Love With Me | 5:53 |
| 1-11 | Gregory Abbott– | Shake You Down | 4:08 |
| 1-12 | Tony Terry– | Lovey Dovey | 3:32 |
| 1-13 | Philip Bailey & Phil Collins– | Easy Lover | 5:04 |
| 2-01 | Cheryl Lynn– | Encore | 4:33 |
| 2-02 | Teena Marie– | Ooo La La La | 5:16 |
| 2-03 | Surface– | Shower Me With Your Love | 4:54 |
| 2-04 | Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam– | Lost In Emotion | 5:07 |
| 2-05 | Earth, Wind & Fire– | Magnetic | 4:21 |
| 2-06 | Full Force– | All In My Mind | 4:42 |
| 2-07 | Champaign– | How ‘Bout Us | 4:34 |
| 2-08 | Stanley Clarke– | Heaven Sent You | 5:59 |
| 2-09 | Luther Vandross– | Here And Now | 5:25 |
| 2-10 | Mtume– | You, Me And He | 4:29 |
| 2-11 | Shalamar– | Dancing In The Sheets | 4:05 |
| 2-12 | Tawatha– | Thigh Ride | 4:56 |
Disc 3
- Rockit — Herbie Handcock
- Summer Nights — Gover Washington, Jr.
- Wishing Well — Terence Trent D’Arby
- Oh Yeah! — Bill Whithers
- Save the Overtime (For Me) — Gladys Knight & The Pips
- Sweat (Till You Get Wet) — Brick
- Hydraulic Pump — The P-Funk All Stars
- Love Attack — Isaac Hayes
- It’s Gonna Take a Miracle — Deniece Willians
- Show Me the Way — Regina Bell
- Nights (Feel Like Getting Down) — Billy Ocean
- Just Got Paid — Johnny Kemp
- Fake — Enchantment
- It’s No Crime — Babyface
I like soul but mostly from the 60’s and 70’s. The 80’s stuff I find mostly bland and boring. Not much here I like. A lot I’m not even sure I’ve ever heard . And Phil Collins? Ugh.
Steve, the 1980s featured a lot of “crossover” artists. I admit that Phil Collins and Philip Bailey made an Odd Couple.
I like some of the songs here—“Easy Lover,” “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” “Wishing Well,” “Lover Girl” (I think Teena Marie and Rick James were in a relationship at the time), but some of these are new to me. I was listening to a lot of New Wave music in the 1980s, so many of the songs on this CD didn’t ping my radar back in the day.
Deb, I’m a little surprised Prince doesn’t show up on these CDs. He was a dominant star of R&B and Soul music in the 1980s. Maybe Sony couldn’t secure the rights to his songs.
I might recognize more if I heard them, but on the whole in the eighties I listened to what my kids played or what Phil played (classical) and not much else.
Patti, I listened to a lot of classical music back in the 1980s, too. But driving to work, I’d listen to WBLK, the Soul/R&B radio station so I heard most of these songs.
I knew we’d eventually get to a compilation without a single song that was familiar to me, and here it is. This just isn’t my kind of music.
Michael, I have very little Soul/R&B scheduled in the next few months. You’ll see more familiar artists in the weeks ahead.
While I wouldn’t go quite as far as Michael – I do recognize about half a dozen – I certainly agree with the sentiment.
There is nothing for me here.
Jeff, our Oldies radio stations occasionally play some of these songs. And I hear a few on the SOUL TOWN channel on Sirius/XM Radio. But many of these “hits” are slowing being lost in Time.
The only songs here I know are ones that were on MTV. No, wait, I didn’t have cable yet (Baltimore City got it years after Baltimore County), so I watched late-night video packages on over-the-air stations. I liked Herbie Hancock, but I couldn’t get into “Rocket.” The video was energetic, though.
Jeff, MTV hit cable TV on August 1, 1981. Soon, every pop song had to have a video so it could get airplay on MTV and other video programs. I’m sure many of the 40 songs on this 3-CD collection had video versions.
“Video killed the radio star…”
Jeff, The Buggles had it right.
Although I enjoy a lot of soul music and several hit collections, I wasn’t familiar with most of these songs. Nothing made me want to look for this CD.
From 1986 to 2013, I only listened to classic rock/soul/whatever. Joe dragged me kicking and screaming to contemporary music after that.
Beth, I listened to a mix of contemporary music, Oldies, and classical music on my way to work (and the ride home). I bought a surprisingly few music CDs during the 1990s and 2000s.
Mostly not-bad work here for me…Jody Watley was most of the reason I liked Shalamar. “Easy Lover” was nicely recorded, but with some of the most obnoxious lyrics of the decade. Interesting mix of decades-long-career vets and newish artists. And of course I’m a fan of Herbie Hancock among a number of others…no Klymaxx?
Robert Napier can use his favorite dismissive line against Stanley Clarke, of course.
Todd, I was familiar with the jazzy side of Stanley Clarke, but not the pop side. I’ve got some catching up to do!
Stay out of my lane.
Todd, even with 40 “hits” on this set, there are a lot of artists not represented. I mentioned Prince, but what about Michael Jackson and Barry White?
Hadn’t heard most of the names here and remember just a few songs – in Europe there was a different selection played on radio, whether I was driving and listening in Germany, Austria, France,the UK …
But the ones I heard didn’t fascinate me – always was a Rock&Blues fan.
PS and a bit OT maybe. I just thought it through which concerts I visited, not too many …
The only one I remember from the 80s was …
Tina Turner on her European tour
That was fantastic!
Wolf, no Tina Turner on these SOUL HITS OF THE 1980s, either.
Stanley Clark is a Scientology asshat. Other than Phil Collins, the rest are unknown to me and I have no interest in them.
Bob, I appreciate your frankness.