Songoftheday 1/23/14 - Coffee tea or me baby touche' ole' my opening line might be a bit passe'...

Teena Marie - "Lovergirl"
from the album Starchild (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 13

Today's Song of the Day is by R&B singer/songwriter/guitarist Teena Marie, who after being led by producer Hal Davis to sign with Motown Records, came under the mentorship of funk star Rick James, who helped produce and sang on her first album, Wild And Peaceful, in 1979. The first single, "I'm A Sucker For Your Love", made the top-10 of the R&B chart, while her face was absent in the record covers (probably to not let on and Teena was a "white" performer), though the pair would come on Soul Train as the first Caucasian to appear on the show. The song also just missed the American Hot 100 (#102) and British Top-40 (#43).

She would remedy that the following year, as her jam "Behind The Groove" became her first big club hit, topping at #4, and reaching #6 on the UK singles chart. Her next single, the self-produced "I Need Your Lovin'", finally put her in the American pop top-40 at #37, as well as nearly topping the dance club chart in Billboard at #2. In 1981, she scaled to #3 on the R&B chart with "Square Biz". Teena would leave Motown (and brief fiance Rick) for Epic in 1982. It took until her second album there, but finally the release of her Starchild album gave her the big hit she deserved with "Lovergirl", written, produced and arranged by the multitasker herself...

"Lovergirl" became Teena's first and only pop top-10 hit in March of 1985, while making it to #9 on the R&B list and #6 on Billboard's Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, while the single went to #13 in neighboring Canada, but it fizzled out at #76 over in England.

It would be Teena's final appearance in the American pop top-40, though she would continue to have success on R&B radio, even scoring a #1 hit in 1998 with "Ooh La La". Her last top-10 soul hit came at the end of the decade with "If I Were A Bell". She last graced the pop chart altogether in 2004, with "A Rose By Any Other Name" with Gerald Levert (#97). Two years later, her single "Ooh Wee" was her final top-40 R&B hit, and in 2009, "You Baby" grazed the same chart at #100 (mind you, her albums were still making bank, reaching the top-ten on the genre chart).

Unfortunately complications from an accident in 2004 gave her seizures that eventually would claim her life in 2010 at the age of 54. But her legacy carries on as one of the foremost female soul artists of our generation, and the best thing to emerge from the Rick James camp (kind of like Sheila E with Prince).

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Here's Teena live at the Apollo with "Lovergirl" (click here to see the video)..

Up tomorrow: British mullet king is bad, bad.