Robbed hit of the week 1/21/19 - Levert's "abc-123"...
from the album For Real Tho' (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #46
This week's "robbed hit" comes from the R&B group Levert, who had landed a big pop hit in the fall of 1987 with the bouncy new jack lite of "Casanova" from their Big Throwdown album. The following year, brothers Gerald and Sean Levert along with Marc Gordon returned with their next record, Just Coolin'. While the album was a big success with urban audiences, spinning off five top-20 singles on the R&B chart including two #1s with "Addicted To You" and "Just Coolin'" with Heavy D, none of the five was able to make even a dent on the pop Hot 100 (I personally blame some underhanded counting shenanigans at the mag at the time). The same happened with their 1990 set Rope A Dope Style, which granted them yet another #1 R&B hit with "Baby I'm Ready", though none of its four singles hit the pop chart. Gerald started his own solo career concurrent to the group, and finally returned to the pop top-40 with a duet with his dad Eddie (from the O'Jays) on "Baby Hold On To Me" in the spring of 1992.
In 1993, Gerald, Sean, and Marc reunited for their next album For Real Tho'. The lead single "Good Ol' Days", missed the R&B top ten at #12, but the nostalgic new jack track did return the trio to the pop chart for the first time since "Casanova", peaking at #78. With the second release from the set, they did even better, almost claiming a second top-40 hit. "abc-123", written by Gerald with producer Edwin Nicholas along with Terry Scott, was a adult soul ballad in the mode of Boyz II Men's "End Of The Road" that captured mainstream radio once again, but with lyrics that were the opposite of the Boyz II Men classic...
While "abc-123" climbed all the way to #5 on Billboard's R&B chart, the song stopped a few notches short of the pop top-40 in July of 1993. A third release from For Real Tho', "Do The Thangs", wasn't even able to scrape the R&B top-40, stopping right at #41. Gerald went back to his solo gig, releasing another solo album in 1994 then a collaboration set with dad Eddie the year after. Then he returned for one final record with Sean and Marc, The Whole Scenario, in 1997. Two singles were issued from the album, both "bubbling under" Billboard's pop Hot 100, with "Sorry Is" with Terry Ellis from En Vogue "bubbling" at #113 and reaching the R&B top-40 at #33. Gerald then continued his solo recordings until his death from an overdose in 2006. Sadly, Sean died two years later in jail.
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And here's the trio singing "abc-123" live at Showtime At The Apollo in 1993...
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