Robbed hit of the week 2/23/15 - Midnight Star's "Midas Touch"...

"Midas Touch" - Midnight Star
from the album Headlines (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #42

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the soul/funk band Midnight Star, who had finally scored their big pop crossover with their first #1 R&B hit "Operator" in 1985. A year later, the group released their sixth studio album, Headlines. The title track climbed to #3 on the R&B chart, and was a minor pop hit as well. The second single, "Midas Touch", was much more in the post-disco vein of "Operator". Written by band keyboardist Bo Watson and featuring the production of the Calloway brothers from the group, it seemed to be destined for pop radio as well...

While "Midas Touch" went to #7 on the R&B chart, the single stalled right under Billboard's top-40 at #42 in November of 1986. Not long after that, the Calloway brothers would leave Midnight Star to form their own self-named act, which hit the top-10 with "I Wanna Be Rich". Meanwhile, the rest of the band eked it out for a couple more albums, returning to #3 on the R&B list with "Don't Rock The Boat" in 1988. They last appeared on the singles chart with "Luv-U-Up" in 1990 (#58). The Calloways reunited with the band in 2002 for one album that got unnoticed.