Songoftheday 7/30/13 - I caught you smilin' I know I've seen you here before, how come you're hiding hey girl don't you wanna hit the floor...

Shalamar - "Dancing In The Sheets"
from the albums Footloose (Original Soundtrack) (1984) and Heartbreak (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #17 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 10

Today's Song of the Day is by the disco/soul group Shalamar, who went into 1984 with almost a completely different lineup than the one that hit the top-40 the year before with "Dead Giveaway". Both Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel left due to differences with singer Howard Hewett and their label, leaving Hewett to recruit guitarist Micki Free and keybordist Delisa Daniels to the trio. Shalamar's first album with the new lineup would include a track that would also be in the movie Footloose, and was written by that movie's screenwriter Dean Pitchford along with session musician Bill Wolfer. "Dancing in The Sheets" would become the soundtrack's fourth top-40 hit after the title track by Kenny Loggins, Bonnie Tyler's dramatic "Holding Out For A Hero", and Deniece Williams' jubilant "Let's Hear It For The Boy". Surprisingly, the video didn't include anything from the movie, but rather continued the plotline from "Dead Giveaway"...

 (nice co-op of the Pan-Pacific, the venue seen in the movie Xanadu)

"Dancing In the Sheets"  reached the top-20 on both the pop and R&B charts in the US, while going to #9 on the dance club play chart in Billboard magazine. In England, where the band had a lot of success, the success nonetheless stalled out at a frustrating #41.

Shalamar would have one more pop hit from the album, "Amnesia", that would be the group's last time in the Hot 100. After the third single reached the top-40 on the R&B chart ("My Baby Loves Me"), and another minor soul single that would be used in the first Beverly Hills Cop movie ("Don't Get Stopped In Beverly Hills"), Hewett would leave the group, leaving no members from their classic lineup left. Adding new singer Sydney Justin, Shalamar would release Circumstantial Evidence in 1987. That album would spin off two top-30 R&B singles with the title track and "Games", but that would be the last success the group would have, with nothing since a followup album in 1990 went nowhere. In the meantime, both Hewett and former member Jody Watley would go on to have successful solo careers, with Watley winning the Best New Artist Grammy for her first solo album in 1987.





The classic lineup of Hewett, Watley, and Daniels would be reunited (but not in their band name) on Babyface's 1996 remake of their soul classic "This Is For The Lover In You".

Here's the 1984 version of Shalamar promoting "Dancing In The Sheets" on Soul Train....

..and again on American Bandstand...

Up tomorrow: Madge's big break on MTV.