Songoftheday 9/22/12 - I've got to know where I stand, I've just got to know where I am with you...

Tavares - "A Penny For Your Thoughts"
from the album New Directions (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #33 (four weeks)
Weeks in the top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day is by sibling R&B group Tavares. The five brothers of Cape Verdean parents along with brother Victor had their first hit in 1973 with "Check It Out", which made the US pop top-40 and R&B top-5. After Victor left after the first album, the group continued as a five-piece, and the following year the group scored their first R&B #1 hit with their version of Hall & Oates' "She's Gone", which predated the duo's success with the song.

As disco came on the scene, Tavares evolved into more of a dance club act, and their "It Only Takes A Minute" not only topped the R&B charts again for them, but also was a top-10 pop and top-5 dance hit in 1974. By the following year, they went to the top of the dance charts, as well as crossed over to adult-contemporary as well as in Britain for the first time with their classic "Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel". They even made their impression in the movies, as their version of "More Than A Woman" was on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

But as disco waned, their time on pop radio did as well, and even though they still were doing well on R&B stations, they went five years without a top-40 hit. That break ended with "A Penny For Your Thoughts", a light soul number "A Penny For Your Thoughts", written by singer/songwriter Kenny Nolan, known for his own hit "I Like Dreamin'", as well as co-writing such hits as "Lady Marmalade" and "My Eyes Adored You"...

The single returned the family to the top-40, where they hung out for more than two months, and spent a total of 21 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, and they reached the top-20 on both the R&B and the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) charts with the song. It would be their last pop hit, though they would reach the top-10 on the R&B list with "Deeper In Love" in 1983.

(Click below to read the rest of the post)


The song was sampled in 2003 by Polish rapper Adam Ostrowski (O.S.T.R.) on "Mówisz" ("You Say") ...

Up tomorrow: An Osborne that does something else to wings besides biting them off.