Robbed Hit of the Week 5/7/12: Shalamar's "A Night To Remember"...

Shalamar - "A Night To Remember"

from the album Friends (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44 (two weeks)

This week's Robbed Hit of the Week is by R&B/Dance trio Shalamar. The group started out as a studio creation commissioned by Soul Train host/producer Don Cornelius, and added two dancers from that show, Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniels, as backup vocalists in the group, while lead duties shifted singers twice before settling in with Howard Hewett in 1979, in time for their US top ten hit "Second Time Around". But if you ask me for my favorite Shalamar tune, hands down it's "A Night To Remember". Unabashedly disco, and bringing Jody to the forefront, it's a crime it just missed the top-40.

At the the British knew better, making the song their biggest hit there (at #5), and Jeffrey Daniels' appearance on BBC's Top Of The Pops introduced the world to the moonwalk, which Michael Jackson would draw inspiration from and bring back to the States the following year (Jackson hired Daniels as his choreographer on his "Bad" and "Smooth Criminal" videos). 

All three members would eventually leave the group, with Watley going on to release her debut album in 1987 and winning a Grammy for Best New Artist. The band reunited once for the UK's Top Of The Pops in 1996 backing Babyface and LL Cool J on a remake of their "This Is For The Lover In You".

 (Click below to see the rest of the post)





The song would go on to hit the British top-40 two more times in cover versions, first by Popstars alums Liberty X (a top-10 hit there)...

and then by UK boy-band 911...

But give me the original any day of the week.