Songoftheday 8/20/15 - Your name was Patty but now it's Kay, girl you seem to change it everyday...

"Fake" - Alexander O'Neal
from the album Hearsay (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's SOTD is by R&B singer Alexander O'Neal, who once sung lead for the band that would evolve into the Time in the early 80s. But members Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis repaid the favor by producing his debut solo album, and scoring him a top-40 pop hit already in 1986 with his duet with Cherrelle, "Saturday Love". After the success of that track, another single from his own album, "What's Missing", gave him his first solo top-10 R&B hit at #8. But that what just a warm-up to what would be arguably my favorite soul album of the decade, Hearsay. Alex's second album came out in 1987, and clearly was produced as a counterpart to Janet Jackson's incredibly successful Control album, this time through a man's perspective. With interludes alluding to a concept album recorded at a party, the fiery delivery O'Neal could deliver was a perfect match to the extra-funky grooves and sassy lyrics Jam and Lewis provided. The first single, "Fake", was the culmination of the drama of the set, with O'Neal setting the record straight with his not-so-real girl...

"Fake" danced into the American top-40 in September of 1987, a month after spending a couple weeks atop the R&B singles chart in Billboard. The remix also climbed to #7 on their Dance Club Play chart as well. Internationally, the original version hit the top-40 in Belgium (#15), New Zealand (#16), Germany (#17), the Netherlands (#20), and the UK (where he's had his biggest success in total) (#33).

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A year after its release, O'Neal released his All Mixed Up dance album, and the remix of "Fake", titled "Fake '88", did even better abroad, reaching #16 in the UK and #23 in Ireland...

...and here's Alex performing live in 2012 in concert...

Up tomorrow: more fakery, this time requested by this iconic rock band.