Songoftheday 12/18/15 - A summer love is beautiful but it's not enough, to satisfy emotions that are shared between us...

"Two Occasions" - The Deele
from the album Eyes Of A Stranger (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 12

Today's song of the day comes from the R&B band the Deele, who came together in Cincinnati, Ohio in the beginning of the 80's. Led by Antonio "L.A." Reid and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, the group released their debut album Street Beat in 1983. The first single, "Body Talk", which fit in the mold of the post-disco funk groups like Cameo and Midnight Star, went to #3 on Billboard's R&B chart, while hitting the pop Hot 100 at #77. They has a little more modest success after that, and after their second album, Babyface released a solo record, Lovers, that scored him a top-10 R&B single with "I Love You Babe", which sported a more slick, dance-pop arrangement. That sound also carried over to L.A. and Babyface's burgeoning production/songwriting career, penning big hits for the Whispers ("Rock Steady") and L.A.'s future wife Pebbles ("Girlfriend"), the latter featuring the Deele doing backup. So when it came time for the Deele to record their third album, Eyes Of A Stranger, the Deele went soft, with more romantic fare like the second single, "Two Occasions". Written by Babyface with bandmate Dee Bristol and songwriter Sid Johnson, the mid-tempo love song relies on its chorus hook, name-checking those two darn occasions...

"Two Occasions" became the Deele's first and only top-40 pop hit in the U.S., reaching the top ten in May of 1988. The single also climbed to #4 on Billboard's R&B chart, while crossing over to #21 on their Adult Contemporary (or easy listening) chart. While their follow-up single, the smooth ballad "Shoot 'Em Up Movies", also reached the R&B top ten at #10, it missed the Hot 100 altogether. L.A. and Babyface would leave the Deele shortly thereafter, with Babyface going on to a lucrative solo career. The rest of the band carried on in some shape or form, but it just wasn't the same.

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Here's the Deele appearing on Soul Train to perform the song and interview afterwards...

R&B group Next hit #14 on the pop chart and #4 R&B with "I Still Love You", which interpolates "Two Occasions" on the bridge...

Mariah Carey's mega-hit "We Belong Together" had her singing a little of the song at the minute mark in the remix...

In 2009, hiphop artist Plies and R&B vocalist Ashanti sampled the record for his single "Want It, Need It", which peaked at #96 on the pop chart...

...and finally, a live version of "Two Occasion" that appears on Babyface's solo collection A Closer Look...

 

Up tomorrow: British sophisti-pop group has some wishes broken.