Robbed hit of the week 8/14/14 - New Edition's "Count Me Out"...

New Edition - "Count Me Out"
from the album All For Love (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #51

This week's (belated) "robbed hit" comes from a Boston-area vocal soul group that broke through big in 1985 with their self-titled second album New Edition, which produced three top-40 hits with "Lost In Love", "Mr. Telephone Man", and the top-ten pop smash "Cool It Now". However, due to a shady contract that had them actually subcontracted to their record company MCA, the quintet had to borrow money from the latter to bail themselves out. The first of the new albums to repay the debt was All For Love, released at the end of 1985. The first single from the project, "Count Me Out", recalled the retro Motown-ish soul of previous hits like "Cool It Now" and "Candy Girl"...

While "Count Me Out" climbed to #2 on Billboard's R&B chart, becoming their sixth top-10 on that list, the single stalled out right under the halfway point at #51 on the Hot 100 pop chart. It was an unexpected disappointment considering the success of their last record, but they would be back in the top-40 (barely, though) with their next single.

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But by the time of the release of the record, Bobby Brown bailed (or was booted, depending on who you ask) from New Edition, so the remaining four would appear on Soul Train...