Songoftheday 7/14/15 - I looked at you you stole my heart, you were all that I anticipated...

"Rock Steady" - The Whispers
from the album Just Gets Better With Time (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's SOTD comes from the R&B/disco group the Whispers, who came together way back in the mid-60s in California, led by twin brothers Wallace ("Scotty") and Walter Scott. Their first hit on the R&B chart, "The Time Will Come", put them as a retro-style doo-wop/soul outfit, and made the top-20 on that list in 1969 during a rash of nostalgic soul offerings of that year. Their next single, "Seems Like I Gotta Do Wrong", did even better, reaching #6 on the R&B chart and finally crossing over to the Hot 100 pop list at #50. They had some minor success on the R&B chart until 1976, when "One For The Money" returned them to the top-10 on the R&B list and made it to #4 on the new "Disco" chart. They did the same with a disco treatment of Bread's soft-rock hit "Make It With You" the following year.

As the 80s came and the disco backlash ensued, the Whispers were just under the radar enough to avoid the scorn of the more major acts of the genre, and thrived even more, with their #1 R&B and Dance single "And The Beat Goes On" in 1980. That record became their first to reach the top-40 on the pop chart, followed by the ballad "Lady" and their ultimate jam "It's A Love Thing" in 1981.

But like many soul artists of the time, as the second "British Invasion" came in, their music went back to being delegated solely to R&B stations. By the time 1987 came, and urban dance music and "freestyle" took over, the Whispers were ready to come back, with their most successful single to date. Releasing their Just Gets Better With Time album in 1987. The first single from the set, "Rock Steady", was a mid-tempo club favorite that was one of the first successes for upcoming songwriters and producers Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds and Antonio "L.A." Reid...

"Rock Steady" became the Whispers' sole top-10 pop hit in August of 1987. It was also their first to reach #1 on the R&B chart, and even snuck in at #49 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary list. (Surprisingly, the jam didn't even make their Dance Club Play list.) Over in England, the song was their last top-40 hit there, reaching #38.

The group would continue to have success on the R&B stations, including three more top-10 hits with "Innocent" becoming a minor pop hit at #55 in 1990.  They most recently nicked the soul list in 1997 with "My, My, My" (#73)...

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Here's the group in 1998 on Sinbad's show (then a quartet, with Marcus Huston leaving from cancer, sadly passing in 2000)...

....and more recently in Vegas...

Up tomorrow: A songwriter with an unlikely name has a hit being misunderstood.