Songoftheday 4/28/14 - Hey girl long time no see do you have a little time to spend with me? I wanna know what's been going on In your life talk to me baby...

Freddie Jackson - "Rock Me Tonight (For Old Times Sake)"
from the album Rock Me Tonight (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #18 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's Song of the Day introduced America to soul singer Freddie Jackson, who started out singing gospel in church, but later turned to mainstream R&B, doing a stint as backup singer for Melba Moore. In 1985, Freddie released his debut album Rock Me Tonight, and his emotive, seductive flourishes seemed like the more lascivious answer to Luther Vandross, and the title track would take no time climbing to the top of the R&B and pop chart. Written by long-time collaborator and producer Paul Laurence, "Rock Me Tonight" made Freddie an adult-R&B star as "Sweet Love" would make Anita Baker a year later...


FREDDIE JACKSON- Rock Me Tonight by sofresh305

"Rock Me Tonight" went to #1 on Billboard's R&B (then called "Black Singles") chart for six weeks, tying with Stevie Wonder's "Part Time Lover" for the longest run at the top that year, and was named the mag's top R&B single of 1985. It became his first pop hit after that, reaching the top-20 in August of 1985. It did the same over in England, where it was Freddie's sole top-40 hit single in that country.

I adored this from the get-go, not only for the over-the-top vocal performance but possibly a smidge due to the small crush I had on the singer. Oh well.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


In 1991, alt-rap act Brand Nubian named-checked the song on their #63 R&B hit "Slow Down" at around the three minute mark..

...as did stoner-rockers Subline on "Smoke Two Joints" almost at the end (just before the 2 1/2 minute mark)...

"Dogg Pound" rapper Daz Dillinger interpolated the song on his "Rocc Wit Daz" track in 2005...

Two years later, The Pack would do the same for their own "Rock N Roll"...

Finally, back to the man himself, with a live performance...



Up tomorrow: A Canadian rocker remembers the year he was actually nine.