Songoftheday 6/13/16 - If you believe in love and all that it can do for you, give it a chance girl you'll find romance...

"Roni" - Bobby Brown
from the album Don't Be Cruel (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's song of the day comes from R&B singer Bobby Brown, whose second album after leaving New Edition, Don't Be Cruel, was being quite good to him with the top ten title track followed by his first #1 pop hit in "My Prerogative". The third single from the set was the laid-back groove of "Roni", written by the team of Babyface along with his Deele bandmate Darnell Bristol. With production by the former along with usual collaborator "L.A. Reid" (also from the Deele), the synth-heavy love track glided along like maple syrup and riffed on the abbreviation of the slang word "Tenderoni", the word to call a hottie in the late 80s. Surprisingly, the song didn't sport a proper video (MTV would end up showing a live clip); perhaps it wasn't forseen how much a success this album would be to budget a third video...

"Roni" became the third top-10 pop hit from Don't Be Cruel in March of 1989. The song also spent two weeks at #2 on Billboard's R&B chart. Internationally, the single reached #21 in both the UK and New Zealand.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


Here's Bobby performing the song live on the Arsenio show to promote the album...

Next, twenty whole minutes of throwdown (starting with a guitar solo) of the 1991 tour's version...

...and yes, Bobby on Sirius radio at the beginning of the year...

Up tomorrow: Thames trio wants the truth.