Robbed hit of the week 6/4/18 - TKA's "Maria"...
from the album Greatest Hits (1992)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44
This week's "robbed hit" comes from Latin freestyle dance music trio TKA, who came together in New York City in the mid-1980s. With the TKA standing for their names, Tony Ortiz, Kayel Sharpe, and Aby Cruz, they released their debut single "One Way Love" in the spring of 1986. The single hit the pop chart at #75, crossed over to the R&B chart at #56, and was a big club hit, climbing to #8 on Billboards Dance Club Play list. That was followed by "Come Get My Love", which also made it to #8 on the dance chart. The trio's third single release didn't arrive until the late summer of the next year, as "Scars Of Love" previewed their forthcoming debut album of the same name that October. But as the fourth single from the set, "Tears May Fall", dropped, so did Aby from TKA, to be replaced by Angel Vasquez. Nevertheless, that single became their highest-charting club hit at #6 (and was their second R&B hit at #63), and was followed by two more dance hits, giving TKA a total of six top-40 dance hits from just their debut album alone.
In 1989, Tony, Kayel, and Angel contributed a song to the Morgan Freeman movie Lean On Me, and the result, "You Are The One", also served as the lead single from their sophomore effort Louder Than Love. That song got to #26 on the dance chart, and rewarded the group with their second minor pop hit at #91. The more mainstream midtempo track "I Won't Give Up On You" also hit the pop chart at #65 (and #15 dance), followed by the house music throwdown "Crash (Have Some Fun)", which featured former Seduction singer (and future RuPaul's Drag Race diva) Michelle Visage; that one hit #7 on the dance tally and #80 on the pop Hot 100. Finally, the title track from Louder Than Love , a return to "old school freestyle", hit #62 on the pop chart in the U.S.
Even though they had scored eleven charting singles from just two albums, the "freestyle" genre was going out of style, and the trio ended their first incarnation with a greatest hits set, with bonus new track and single "Maria" included. Written by Kayel with Joey Gardner, it would not only be their final pop hit, but their highest-ranking single...
While "Maria" was a huge hit in the tri-state area around New York City, the single fell short of the pop top-40 on Billboard in June of 1992. Kayel would go on to a solo career, landing his own top-40 pop hit in 1994 with "Come Baby Come". Tony, Kayel, and Angel reunited in 2001 for a third album, Forever, and since Aby replaced Kayel in the group as they perform on freestyle tours as the "original" TKA, while Kayel does his own version.
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And speaking of, here's Kayel at one of those freestyle shows in 2015..
...and Aby and Angel doing their own thing in NJ in 2009...
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