Songoftheday 9/21/15 - Eyes so deep you send me melting, and then you smiled as if to say oh yeah...

"Don't You Want Me" - Jody Watley
from the album Jody Watley (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #6 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day comes from Jody Watley, whose debut solo album after she left Shalamar had scored her a huge hit with "Looking For A New Love". However the follow-up single, the outstanding "Still A Thrill", shockingly stiffed in the States, not even making the pop Top-40. Luckily the album (one of the very best of the decade) was chock full of worthy choices including the third single, "Don't You Want Me". Another rhythmic uptempo dance-pop number (with the fastest tempo of her three singles at the time), the song was written by Jody with David Bryant and Franne Golde, and produced by Chic/Power Station bassist Bernard Edwards (which is why it is vaguely reminiscent of the Station's "Some Like It Hot" rhythmically)...

"Don't You Want Me" returned Jody to the top-10 on the American pop chart in December of 1987. The single also climbed to #3 on Billboard's R&B chart, while the remix went all the way to #1 on their Dance Club Play list for two weeks. Internationally, the song wasn't as big, reaching #24 in Canada and stalling at #55 in Britain.

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Here's the remix that topped the dance chart...

...and finally Jody singing this live (over a backing track) for TV...

In 1990, the Italian Eurodance act 49ers reinvented "Don't You Want Me" using sped up clips from the record for the chorus of their single "Don't You Love Me". It topped the American dance chart and reached the top-10 on the singles charts in Ireland and Switzerland and #12 in the UK...

Up tomorrow: A former "Bad Boy" goes properly solo and gets a little religion.