Robbed Hit of the Week 3/31/14 - Shannon's "Do You Wanna Get Away"...

Shannon - "Do You Wanna Get Away"
from the album Do You Wanna Get Away (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #49

This week's "robbed hit" is by the freestyle dance music singer Shannon (Greene), who had the first big hit of the genre when her jam "Let The Music Play" made the top-10 of the American pop chart in 1984. Her follow-up, "Give Me Tonight", missed the pop top-40, but remains a club classic.

The following year, Shannon released her sophomore album, Do You Wanna Get Away. Produced by the team that discovered her, Mark Liggett and Chris Barbosa, the title track captured the magic of her debut and seemed destined to repeat its success (well, at least in my mind)...

Well I was wrong about "Do You Wanna Get Away", as it stalled at the halfway point on the Hot 100 in May of 1985, while it made it up to #13 on the R&B chart in Billboard magazine. It did make good in the clubs, where the record topped the dance chart for two weeks. It also nicked the charts in Germany and Canada.

Her follow-up single, "Stronger Together", missed the Hot 100 altogether (it showed up on the "Bubbling Under" chart), though it climbed to the top-30 on both the R&B and dance charts. After that came a remake of Foreigner's "Urgent", which only was a minor soul hit. Her third album, Love Goes All The Way, managed to produce her last showing on the R&B chart with "Prove Me Right" (#82) and as a lead artist in the UK with "Dancin'" (#91). Even though her music was just as enjoyable, the mainstream pop radio world had moved on to late-80s bland-pop madness. After this she left the biz to head back to school.

In 1997 house music star Todd Terry enlisted Shannon to sing on his record "It's Over Love", which topped the American dance chart and headed to the top-20 of the UK singles list. A year later, German trance act Sash! went to #8 on the British singles chart with "Move Mania" with Shannon providing the vocals...

Confession: back in 1984 I was so sure that Madonna and Shannon both would grow to be superstars. Well, half-right...

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And here's Shannon's requisite appearance on Solid Gold...