Robbed hit of the week 3/21/16 - Vanessa Williams' "The Right Stuff"...

"The Right Stuff" - Vanessa Williams
from the album The Right Stuff (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44

This week's "robbed hit" comes from Vanessa Williams, whose first claim to fame was being the first African-American woman to win the Miss America crown in 1983. However, after Penthouse magazine published a nude photoshoot of Williams done way before the contest, that she contended were private and in any means were not authorized to be published. Forced to step down only months before her "reign" ended (to be filled in by another African-American, runner-up Suzette Charles from New Jersey), her reputation was sullied so badly, it's a true testament to her talent and drive that she now is probably the most-remembers titleholder (and not for that reason).

In the years following the contest, she embarked on a singing career, releasing her debut album in 1988. The title track from The Right Stuff was released as the first single, and R&B radio took her in immediately. The song, written by producer Rex Salas with Kevin Jones, was a funky dance/new jack swing hybrid that wasn't the run-of-the-mill ballad you'd expect from a "beauty queen"...

While "The Right Stuff" made it all the way to #4 on Billboard's R&B singles chart, and topped their Dance Club Play list for a week, the song stopped just short at #44 on the pop Hot 100 in the U.S. in August of 1988. Internationally, the record made it to #21 in the Netherlands, and made two runs on the British singles chart, in 1989 reaching #62.

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Here's the extended version that topped the dance chart that August...

...and performing live at the Apollo in 1989...