80: 80's 24: The S.O.S. Band

My entire 80's list could comprise of songs just by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who are two of the greatest music producers of all time in my opinion. Here's one of their most classic moments. In 1983 they wrote and produced Just Be Good To Me for The S.O.S. Band. It was an r'n'b hit and featured on the album On The Rise which is pictured above. They released several singles in the 1980's including The Finest which Richard X and Kelis reinvented years later. This week I saw Now That's What I Call Music 75 in a record shop. Back in 1984 that series was just on it's 4th album release and around that time here in Ireland and in the UK there was another best of the UK charts series called The Hits Album and I still own the very first one which is pictured below. The Hits Album featured all the songs that weren't on the Now album and in fact kept Now That's What I Call Music 4 off the top of the album charts. I didn't even buy Now... 4 as The Hits Album was so good. If you can make out the photos on the cover some of the songs included on the double album were Prince & The Revolution's Purple Rain, Michael Jackson's Thriller, The Cars' Drive and Wham!'s Freedom which shows just how many great pop songs were in the chart in 1984. I remember I got that album for Christmas and it was a much loved present. Just Be Good To Me was also one of the great songs on The Hits Album. Maybe Enda, David and other UK and Irish pop fans remember that album?

Here's The S.O.S. Band and Just Be Good To Me.

The song has been covered by several artists including Shayne Ward. Mariah Carey sang Just Be Good To Me on her Music Box tour back in the 1990's and her version is below. It's a live version so the audio isn't perfect but I think it's a real passionate version.

Something Happened Along The Way

Someday if I ever meet that someone there are of course a few songs that he has to like. One song is After The Love Has Gone by Earth Wind & Fire. It was a hit in 1979 and is a song that always takes me back to hearing it from that year onwards. Pop music is so important to me, I couldn't imagine not being able to share it with the person most important in my life but I have known many couples who have very different music tastes and it dosen't bother them at all. I guess the key is to also have friendships where a mutual love of music is part of how that bond came about.

Here's Earth, Wind & Fire and their glorious original version of After The Love Has Gone.

David Foster co wrote After the Love Has Gone with Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin. David Foster has produced or written dozens of songs that I love and below he introduces After The Love Has Gone which is sung by Brian McKnight and an excellent version it is too.