Songoftheday 8/8/15 - When I'm alone in my room sometimes I stare at the wall, and in the back of my mind I hear my conscience call...

"I Need Love" - LL Cool J
from the album Bigger And Deffer (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8

Today's SOTD comes from the rapper LL Cool J, who was the first solo artist in the genre to break big. Though not from the boroughs but rather the Long Island town of Bay Shore, which was going through hard time when the man born James Smith was growing up. Adopting the moniker LL Cool J (for Ladies Love Cool James), he released his debut album Radio in 1985, which would go on to sell over a million copies and become one of the top-selling albums of the year. Two top-20 R&B hits came from the set, "I Can't Live Without My Radio" and "Rock The Bells", both which incorporated rock elements like east-coast peers Run-DMC. He even appeared on American Bandstand, setting up his exposure for his sophomore disc Bigger and Deffer. The lead-off single from the set, "I'm Bad", went all the way to #4 on the R&B chart and gave him him first pop hit at #84 while it marked one of the first "storyline music videos" of rap to hit the airwaves. But it was soon overshadowed by another of the records' cuts, the "love rap ballad" "I Need Love". The novelty of a good looking rapper seducing his lady won the essential female vote earning it a spot on mainstream radio...

"I Need Love" became LL Cool J's breakthrough single, reaching the pop top-20 in September of 1987, while topping the R&B chart in Billboard for a week. Internationally the record did even better, climbing into the top 10 in the UK, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

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here's LL performing live at the Apollo in 1987 (you can feel the enthusiasm in the room)...

..and at the Soul Train Awards in 1988, where it won best rap single..

Up tomorrow: a Motown icon has a single pulse.