Robbed hit of the week 12/29/14 - Mary Jane Girls' "Walk Like A Man"...

"Walk Like A Man" - Mary Jane Girls
from the album A Fine Mess (Original Soundtrack) (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #41

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the Rick James pet project Mary Jane Girls, which he put together as a group act to visually support lead vocalist JoJo McDuffie, one of his backup singers, in the early 80s. With their debut album Only Four You that spun off a top-10 pop hit with "In My House" (something Rick himself couldn't even do), the act had a great start, but didn't keep momentum on pop radio, with their follow-up "Wild And Crazy Love" stopping two notches short of the top-40. With a couple of personnel changes, the Mary Jane Girls contributed a cover of the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons classic "Walk Like A Man" to the soundtrack to the Blake Edwards movie A Fine Mess, which starred Ted Danson and Howie Mandel (how 80s can you get?). Like many of the soundtrack fare released by R&B artists in the decade, this cover whitewashed the Rick James sound right off and sounded like any of the interchangable comedy movie hits of the 80s, with just the disjointed keyboard chords suggesting a Rick James approximation...

Their cover of "Walk Like A Man", like their last hit, stalled right under the top-40, peaking at #41 in August of 1986. However, this was relatively shunned by R&B radio, peaking at #91.

The group didn't last for another record; McDuffie left for a solo career, and the most notable other member was Yvette Marine, who sued Paula Abdul claiming she provided more than just "guide vocals" on Abdul's Forever Your Girl album (she lost).

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...and to cleanse your palette, here's the original "Walk Like A Man" from the Four Seasons, which went to #1 in 1963..

...and Divine's campy cover from 1985 that made the top-40 in England...