Robbed hit of the week 8/4/14 - Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam's "Can You Feel The Beat"...

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force - "Can You Feel The Beat"
from the album Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #69

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the New York freestyle trio that was one of the biggest regional acts in the tri-state area, Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. Their debut album, produced and credited by the R&B collective Full Force, had already sent a single into the American Top-40 pop chart with "I Wonder If I Take You Home". The follow-up single, "Can You Feel The Beat", continued the sparse, electronic dance groove of the first hit, and Full Force again wrote, produced, and sang back-up on the single...

While "Can You Feel The Beat" was a big hit in the clubs, reaching #6 on Billboard's dance chart, the single didn't go any higher than #69 on the American pop chart in December of 1985, though it stayed on the Hot 100 for five months. The track also made it to #40 on the R&B list, and even popped into the British singles chart at #97.

"Can You Feel The Beat", despite its meager but longstanding showing on the chart, remains a freestyle classic, and the trio would be soon redeemed in the following year with a couple of #1 pop hits with "Head To Toe" and "Lost In Emotion".

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"Can You Feel..." did sort of manage some pop success as a sample as R&B duo Nina Sky interpolated it into the bridge of their #4 hit "Move Ya Body" ten years ago...

...and finally, here's Lisa Lisa live in 2008..