Robbed hit of the week 3/16/15 - Freddie Jackson's "Tasty Love"...

"Tasty Love" - Freddie Jackson
from the album Just Like The First Time (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41

This week's "robbed hit" comes from soul singer Freddie Jackson, whose debut album Rock Me Tonight was one of the biggest traditional R&B releases of the decade, spinning off three top-40 pop crossover hits with "You Are My Lady", "He'll Never Love You", and the title track. The following year, Jackson released his self-explanatory second album, Just Like The First Time, with the same mix of smooth soul and booty-call classics that made his first record such a big success. After a duet recording with label-mate Melba Moore, "A Little Bit More", topped the R&B chart, his first solo single from the album, "Tasty Love", came out at the end of 1986. With a slinky backbeat like his "Rock Me Tonight" (and "Sexual Healing", for that matter), and with more direct sexual overtones, this record written by the artist with producer Paul Laurence was an out-of-the box smash on R&B radio...

While "Tasty Love" became Freddie's fourth #1 R&B hit in November of 1986, by the time the record crossed to pop radio, it stopped frustratingly short at #41 at the end of December (maybe the sensual sound didn't click in the Christmas holiday season programming). The song also was a minor hit in England as well at #73.  But hell, if you want to put on a guaranteed boot-knocker for your bedroom antics, this one takes the cake.