Robbed Hit of the Week 6/26/12 - One Way's "Cutie Pie"...

One Way - "Cutie Pie"
from the album Who's Foolin' Who (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #61

(Sorry for the delay, lost my FIOS for a day)...

This week's "robbed hit" that surprisingly didn't make the top 40 comes from a funk outfit from Detroit. One Way, led by singer Al Hudson, started out as the Soul Partners, where they had their biggest hit under that name on the R&B chart with 1978's "How Do You Do". The next year they dropped the "Soul" from the name and scored with a mid-level R&B hit, "You Can Do It", which while it didn't reach the top half of the chart, stayed on there for 23 weeks, and also made the top-10 on the dance chart, grabbing a club audience that would help them start out the 80s.

After changing record labels and their name to One Way, their records started gaining steam. In 1980, the group had their first top-40 ("Music"), then their first top-20 ("Pop It"). Their funk/post-disco hybrid drew an audience that followed the Gap Band, The Time, and the Dazz Band. 1982 brought them their biggest hit, "Cutie Pie", which had an undeniable hook and a great sleazy dance beat.

(Click below to read the rest of the post)





"Cutie Pie" made it to #4 on the R&B chart, and top-30 on the dance chart, but managed only to stall in the lower half of the pop chart. Perhaps it was because it was a little too slow and slinky for pop radio, but would be fodder for sampling for lots of 90's records, like Brandy's "Sitting Up In My Room"...

...and Monica's "Skate"...

...while 90's R&B powerhouses Boyz II Men covered the song in total on their Throwback CD in 2004...

 Meanwhile, One Way continued to hit through the 80s on R&B radio, even having two more top-5 hits with "Lady You Are" in '84 and "Don't Think About It" in '86, the latter being a big jam when I lived in Chicago. But "Cutie Pie" would be their last appearance on the pop charts.