Robbed hit of the week 9/15/14 - Isley-Jasper-Isley's "Caravan Of Love"...

Isley Jasper Isley - "Caravan Of Love"
from the album Caravan Of Love (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #51

This week's "robbed hit" comes from an offshoot of one of the most heralded and long-lasting R&B bands of all time, the Isley Brothers, who started out back in the fifties as a soulful vocal group of brothers Ronald, Rudolph, and O'Kelly, before adding younger siblings Ernie and Marvin Isley along with brother-in-law Chris Jasper in the early 70s. With the inclusion of the three who played guitar, bass, and keyboards, the Isleys evolved into a true rock/funk band, and scored a bunch of pop and R&B hits through the decade. However, tension within the band led Ernie, Marvin, and Chris to leave in 1984, and started up the trio Isley Jasper Isley. Their first album that year, Broadway's Closer To Sunset Blvd, scored them a minor pop and dance hit with "Kiss And Tell", while reaching the top-20 on the R&B chart with "Look The Other Way". But it was their second effort, Caravan Of Love, that brought the trio their biggest success. The title track, written and produced by the threesome, was an anthem of love and peace with a mid-tempo throbbing bassline and Chris Jasper's exposed chest for all to see...

While "Caravan Of Love" went to #1 on the R&B chart for three week, and even crossed over to #16 on the adult contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list in Billboard magazine, the single stopped short of the halfway mark on the Hot 100 pop chart in January of 1986. At that time, "pure" soul records were having a hard go at it on pop radio, so it's more of a case of the wrong time for the right song.

The trio managed three more top-20 R&B hits (concluding with "Givin' You Back The Love" in 1988) and one more album before Ernie and Marvin returned to the Isley Brothers. Marvin would pass away from diabetes in 2010, and with O'Kelly already dead from a heart attack leaving just Ronald and Ernie performing as the Isleys. Chris would continue on his own as a solo artist, going to #3 on the soul chart in 1987 with "Superbad", one of his three top-40 R&B hits.

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The same year as IJI hit the American pop chart, British alt-pop band the Housemartins (including future "Fatboy Slim" Norman Cook), released an a cappella cover of "Caravan Of Love", which made it all the way to #1 on the British charts at the end of 1986...

Divine indeed.