Jody Watley
and
Shalamar
    As my faithful readers know, I'm from Chicago and that I'm always pleased to feature a former or current Chicagoan. Jody was born here on Januray 30, 1959. This makes her even more dear to my heart as we are only 38 days apart in age and both born here.
     Jody, who grew up on the city's tough southside, got her first break into the entertainment business in 1975 when she audtioned for a spot on Chicago's own "Soul Train."
     "Soul Train" was the brainchild of radio announcer Don Cornelius. After studying broadcasting in college, Cornelius got a job at WVON, one of Chicago’s most popular urban radio stations. During this time, he pondered breaking into television with a dance and music show from an African-American perspective. In 1969, he produced a pilot episode and dubbed it "Soul Train" after a local radio promotion he had done in Chicago. The pilot impressed the Sears Roebuck Company, which gave Cornelius funding in exchange for the rights to use "Soul Train" to promote a line of record players. With this help, Cornelius launched "Soul Train" on WCIU-TV, a Chicago UHF station. Cornelius himself hosted the dance-stravaganza, which took place on a club-style set. The show featured performances by soul music acts, appearances by guest hosts, and scorching dance numbers from the "Soul Train Gang." Local word-of-mouth made the show a big hit in Chicago, which won it another sponsor in The Johnson Products Company, makers of "Afro-Sheen."
     By the mid-1970’s, "Soul Train" was a force to be reckoned with. Each week, the latest hits and coolest dances were served up in a slick package that had kids of all ages and races dancing around the TV-room floor. Enter the agile Jody Watley. Stylish and super slick with her dance moves made Jody a favorite from the start. The exposure she gained on the show led to her big break in 1977, when Soul Train's booking agent, Dick Griffey, asked Watley to join the newly formed group Shalamar.
     Shalamar was the creation of Griffey and British disco producer, Simon Soussan. Based on the studio group of the same name, the performance group included vocalists Watley, Jeffrey Daniels and Howard Hewitt.
     The first Shalamar album, "Uptown Festival," was a major hit. The kitschy "Inky Dinky Wang Dang Doo" leads off the album with it's prominent bass vocal track. The album does however have it's moments that give us less than danceable results. Tracks like "Ooh Baby Baby," "Forever Came Today" and "High On Life" were meant to broaden the groups appeal and pander to R&B radio.
     The real masterpiece and disco classic is the medley. The title track is swirled into an eight and half minute frenzied tribute to Motown. The cuts range from: "Going To A Go-Go" and "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch (I Can't Help Myself)" to "Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart" and "Really Sayin' Something."
     The cover art sums up disco and the music at the time, it was larger than life and was all about boogying. And at the time no one boogied like Shalamar. Shalamar would change direction as would disco and that would be the key to their longevity.
     By 1978 disco had ramped up and Griffey had moved Shalamar to his own SOLAR Records (Sound Of Los Angeles Records). Their second album "Disco Gardens" had Watley, Daniels and Gerald Brown as the line-up. It would be Brown's only album with the group. It spawned their second club hit and Billboard charter (R&B #-11 Pop #-79) "Take That To The Bank."
     Exit Brown and enter Howard Hewitt. With its third album, 1979's "Big Fun," Shalamar unveiled its best-known and most successful lineup. Both creatively and commercially, this album would take Shalamar to new heights and establish the trio as one of the best soul-pop-disco groups of 1979-1983. The album had two major hits. "Second Time Around" (Billboard #-1 Club single) and "Right In The Socket" (also a Billboard #-1 Club single). These two hits alone garnered them disco immortality, however a third single "I Owe You One" failed to ignite club-goers and only reached #-60 on Billboard's Black singles chart.
     By 1981's "Go For It" the group was in a slump. The release of the title track as a 12" single failed to compete with their prior successes. Shalamar was suffering from the beginnings of inter-band strife that would eventually cause the demise of it's classic line-up. This is evidenced in the quailty of this album.
     By the time of Shalamar's fourth release, "Three For Love," the group had rebounded. Largely thanks to producer Leon Sylvers III. Once again they had two more club/radio hits with "Full Of Fire" and "Make That Move." The added bonus of a radio breakout hit, "This Is For The Lover In You," makes this their overall best album.
     Despite the happy looking cover on this album all was not well in the Shalamar camp. Bickering, jealousy and rivalry were all played out behind the scenes. Jody and Jeffrey Daniels were already considering "other options."  Still contracts and hits kept the trio together.
     Perhaps the title of their sixth album was meant to squash the industry rumours about the group? In any case "Friends" comes through on most levels. The 1982 release only had one major club hit with "A Night To Remember" but the rest of the album is laced with excellent R&B and pop confections. While listening to this album one realizes what a powerful impact the trio had not only on disco, but pop and most certainly R&B music at the beginning of the 1980's.
     At this point, the separate skills of the trio were beginning to supersede the act. Hewitt got involved in writing for the group and with his charismatic good looks started becoming the stand-out member. Jody being the only female stood out in her own right. This left Daniels slipping more and more into the background. Still the members, as a group, continued making money doing concerts and touring to delighted audiences. Even if all was not well in SOLARland.
     By 1983 the group had run it's course. At least the classic line-up had. Music had changed so radically since "Uptown Festival" and so too had the members. By the release of "The Look" they even looked more mature and changed.
     The album saw the group experiment with new wave beats and bizarre pop sounds. It yielded one club hit. "Dead Giveaway" hit #-18 on Billboard's Club play charts and would be Jody's swan song with the group she had helped launch.
     Shalamar continued on with new members Micki Free and Delisa Davis to have other hits with "Dancing In The Sheets" and "Don't Get Caught In Beverly Hills" in 1984. They limped along for two more albums and finally called it quits in 1990.
     By then Howard Hewitt had also left and was replaced by Sidney Justin. Most fans had abandoned Shalamar when Watley left so it was not a surprise to find the group faltering at the end.
     Watley on the other hand took a couple of years to plan her solo attack on the music business, a very wise move. When Jody signed with MCA Records in 1986 she had no idea that she would find tremendous success as a solo artist. Her self-titled debut hit the stores in 1987 and literally exploded on the scene! She not only scored five hit singles, but also a Grammy for Best New Artist from the album. The album featured "Lookin' For A New Love," which spent four weeks perched at number two on the U.S. pop charts, as well as the Top Ten hits "Don't You Want Me" and "Some Kind Of Lover." The album also contained the club favorites "Still A Thrill" and my favorite, "Most Of All" as well as a forgotten duet with George Michael ("Learn To Say No").
     Besides earning her numerous awards the album also made her a club favorite to a whole new generation of dancers, many of whom were unaware of her stint with Shalamar.
     Having milked her first album for hits for over a year and a half it was 1989 before a whole new disc of material was released. "Larger Than Life" earned her another set of awards but failed to match it's predecessor.
     Jody, perhaps tired of her years of commercial dance hits, chose to spread her wings with this release. Staying close to her dance roots she incorporated rap into the 12" single "Friends" by adding Eric B. & Rakim on the set. Her other 12" single "Real Love" was danceable but again steered clear of the glossy pop veneer that had defined her career for years. A third 12" single, "Precious Love," was yet another example of her diversity within the dance realm but club goers were fast losing interest in Watley.
     Radio however was more forgiving. She scored a Top Ten R&B hit with "Everything" which made her total of radio sucesses from this sophmore effort a smooth four.
     Riding the wave of her success Jody found herself on talk shows, in concert appearances and being interviewed for numerous publications. Naturally MCA Records sought to cash-in on there latest "star" hence her next release. "You Wanna Dance With Me?" presented "fresh" versions of Jody's smashes "Don't You Want Me," "Friends," "Most Of All," "I'm Looking For A New Love," "Real Love" and "Still A Thrill." It was the 1990's version of a "Greatest Hits" package.  A home video companion was also released entitled "Video Classics: Volume 1" using the same artwork.
     Having found her niche in the video medium Jody also cashed in on the aerobics market with a workout video that featured her excersizing to her own hits.....go figure?
     Without a doubt Jody was the hottest thing on the market in the mid to late 1980's....the only female to outshine her was Madonna.
     By 1991 Watley had not only matured as an artist but she seems to have come full circle and found some sort of inner peace in a chaotic business. Her junior release "Affairs Of The Heart" is without a doubt the most pleasing of her entire output.
     She has her club hits here, both "I'm The One You Need" and "I Want You" had trial runs on 12" singles before the powers that be at MCA Records decided to give them both overhauls. The remixes are much more pleasing and feature bonus tracks not featured on the album. They once again brought Jody to the pinnacle of the clubgoers scene with stunning results.
     However my real favorite is the tender moving ballad "It All Begins With You." One of the few tracks that Watley did not co-write. She did co-write nine of the eleven tracks and even co-produced the album, along with four other producers. The material remains fresh and cohesive despite the multi-producers. The album did not chart as high as her previous ones and failed to garner her any awards.
     Jody was without a doubt one of America's biggest pop stars in the late 1980's and early 1990's. But by the time of her next album release in 1993 she had a staggering awakening. Her album "Intimacy" peaked at 164 on the Top 200 and 38 on the R&B charts. It seems the pop culture wasn't buying what Watley was peddling. The dance club scene however was more forgiving. "Your Love Keeps Working On Me" raced to number 2 on the club play charts in early 1994.  Her second single fared almost as well. "When A Man Loves A Woman" peaked at number 8 on the club charts. A highly sought-after remix cleverly edited the lyrics into a version entitled "When A Man Loves A Man." Which seemed to fit the songs lyrics more appropriatley which dealt with the dangers of A.I.D.S.
     A moving version of Stevie Wonder's "Too Shy To Say" ranks a mention on this otherwise unremarkable album. The album actually sounds better today than when first issued.
     As the 1990s took shape, Jody's popularity took a drastic downward turn, to the point where, by 1995, she had to release her fifth solo album, "Affection," on her own label. The album came and went quickly, without scoring any hit singles. This act of releasing material on your own label became a staple of many older recording artists in the 1990's, most particularly country acts. And just as they found out, so too did Jody, that without the major label promo departments and all the cash they could spread around, hits were not forth coming.
     "Affection" has it's moments. Tracks like "The Beat Don't Stop" and "The Way" smolder and sizzle but then you have the cuts "Faithful" and "Stay" that just sorta belong in the "outtake bin." Watley takes full control of this production from writing nearly every cut to producing and even the art direction. An odd adendum to the album is a jazzed up live version of "Looking For A New Love"..perhaps that was supposed to make people buy the album?
     Jody, unlike many others, was given a second chance of sorts when she secured a deal with Atlantic Records in 1998.
     "Flowers" was a comeback album and Watley took no chances. She hauled in top notch producers and writers to help her move her sound into the 1990's. The results were stunning! Her smooth urban soul tracks proved to be just what the public wanted. She scored a Billboard number one club track with "Off The Hook," her first in many years. She even cracked into the HOT 100!
     Despite the success of her Atlantic Records release the label inexplicably dropped her and it would be three more years before Jody would release another record.
     By 2001 things were very different. Not only had Jody matured, audiences had shifted and much of the fan base Jody had enjoyed were now out of the club scene. A wise Watley decided that a return to her club roots was essential for any type of success. So she enlisted Masters At Work (Gonzalez-Vega) to help her bring in a complete project. She even sought out jazz icon Roy Ayers to add his magic vibraphone to the sessions. The album has lush arrangements and full-out singing from Watley. The main hit was "Photographs" and is featured in it's original album version along with a spiffy remix on the C.D.      "Midnight Lounge" was released on the small but tasteful label Shanachie. It's still in print and an excellent starting point for collecting Jody on compact disc.
     Jody has had a spectacular career. Most people only realize her musical achievements. Jody stepped into the role of "Rizzo" on Broadway in 1996 in the hit musical "Grease." This made her the first afro-american woman to play that coveted role. She has also had a stunning modeling career with her beautiful face gracing hundreds of magazine covers ("Harper's Bazaar," "People" and a sensational "Playboy" spread) and highlighted ad campaigns for Saks Fifth Ave. and The Gap, to name a few.
     Jody, a mother with young adult children hass taken time off lately to relax and enjoy the fruits of her years of labor. She still performs concerts, but not for money or promotion, but when she feels the creative urge. Television appearances are more common, as Jody has always been comfortable in that medium. Look for Jody to release another disc soon and their is word that producer Babyface has been pestering Watley, Daniels and Hewitt to let him produce a Shalamar reunion album. Jody seems to be the hold-out.....but that may change.
     As always we are honored to feature another diva that has given so much pleasure to myself and millions of others. We wish Jody the best and look forward to more music from her.......
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