Songoftheday 7/22/14 - You glance my way I almost lost control, anxiety has taken hold...

Starpoint - "Object Of My Desire"
from the album Restless (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 9

Today's Song of the Day comes from a funk/soul collective who started out in central Maryland in the late 1960s, but it wasn't until 1980 that Starpoint released their self-titled debut album under the big disco label Casablanca Records. A single from the set, "I Just Wanna Dance With You", became a top-40 hit on the R&B and dance club play charts in Billboard magazine. They continued with moderate success throughout the early 80s, as their sound evolved to a more slick funk from the disco they started with. In 1984, their single "It's All Yours" from the album of the same name returned them to the top-40 on the soul chart and even became a minor hit in England. With their next album, Restless, the band fit more with the sound of the other "star" groups (Atlantic, Midnight) with a touch of the freestyle growing in popularity with Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam and the like. Their single "Object Of My Desire", written by band members Ernesto Phillips and Kayode Adeyemo along with producer Keith Diamond, gave the band their biggest pop hit ever...

"Object Of My Desire" became Starpoint's first and only top-40 pop hit in December of 1985, while scaling to #8 on Billboard's R&B chart, and making it to #12 on the dance club play list. It also skimmed the British chart at #96, their last time on that list. Their next single, "What You Been Missing", also hit the top-10 on the R&B chart (though missing the Hot 100), and in 1986 the title track from the album almost returned them to the pop top-40 at #46.

Two years later Starpoint released their follow-up album, Sensational, and the lead-off single "He Wants My Body" returned them to the top-10 on the R&B chart, while being their last appearance on the pop chart in America at #89. Another record in 1988 put "Say You Will" at #18 R&B. Their last album together, Have You Got What It Takes in 1990, brought the band their biggest club hit when "I Want You You Want Me" climbed to #9 on the dance chart (and was their final top-40 R&B single at #32). The title track was their final hurrah that same year before breaking up. Lead singer Renee Diggs would record a solo album, but sadly passed away in 2005 from heart trouble after battling multiple sclerosis since the early 80s. The year before, guitarist (and boyfriend of Diggs) Ernesto Phillips also died from a stroke. The song's co-write Adeyemo would go on to co-write Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True"...

Up tomorrow: Boston new wavers await her arrival this evening.