Songoftheday 12/27/15 - We've been friends real close friends for a long time, I can tell there's something heavy hanging on your mind...

"Say It Again" - Jermaine Stewart
from the album Say It Again (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #27 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 5

Today's song of the day comes from singer/dancer Jermaine Stewart, who had the safe-sex booty-shaking anthem of 1986 with "We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off". His follow-up single, "Jody" (dedicated to friend and fellow Soul Train alumnus Jody Watley), just missed the pop top-40, though it climbed into the dance top-10. In 1988, Jermaine issued his third solo album, Say It Again, produced by Andre Cymone (who did most of Jody Watley's debut album) and the team of Jerry Knight (of "Breakin'"'s Ollie and Jerry) and Aaron Zigman. Those last two produced the title track and first single from the set, which was written by R&B artist Bunny Sigler and Carol Davis. With a midtempo lite-reggae groove not unlike the later work of Boy George and Culture Club, the track was more for a beach chair than a disco floor, but it had his most relaxed and funky performance, and the breakdown at the end is quite nice...

"Say It Again" became Jermaine's second and final top-40 pop hit in May of 1988, while peaking at #15 on Billboard's R&B chart. Internationally, the song did very well in Britain, peaking at #7, while making the same level in Ireland (#8) and Norway (#10). 

Jermaine's next single, the new jack swing groove "Get Lucky", climbed to #12 on the dance chart, #69 R&B, and #13 in the UK. Also from the album, third release "Don't Talk Dirty To Me" (obvs a callback to his breakthrough single), made it to #13 dance but stalled down at #61 in England. By the 90s, though, he'd have fallen through the cracks as rock and rap ruled the airwaves, and sadly, in 1997, Stewart passed away from complications from AIDS.

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here's Jermaine returning to his start on Soul Train to promote the single...

...and here he is performing the song live in 1988..

Up tomorrow: another gay singer going for another time, this time to #1.