Robbed hit of the week 5/20/19 - Arrested Development's "Ease My Mind"...
from the album Zingalamaduni (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: 45
This week's "robbed hit" comes from the alternative hip-hop collective Arrested Development, whose debut album 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... had been a massive success, scoring three top ten pop hits with "Tennessee", "People Everyday", and "Mr. Wendal". They also released a live record, MTV Unplugged, which reached a respectable #60 on Billboard magazine's albums sales Top 200 chart. In 1994, the group returned for their second studio album Zingalamaduni, trying to capitalize on that success. The first single "Ease My Mind" was released as a first single. Produced and written by group leader Speech, the song tried to expand on the sonics of the original, rolling on a smooth groove that differed from the soul that was on R&B radio at the time...
While "Ease My Mind" climbed to #14 on Billboard's R&B chart, the song stalled under the pop top-40 at #45 in June of 1994. A second single, "United Front", was a minor R&B hit at #66 and missed the pop Hot 100 altogether. After that, the group split, with Speech going on to attempt a solo career, with single "Like Marvin Gaye Said (What's Going On)" rising to #59 on the R&B hit. And former group friend Dionne Farris, who had sung on "Tennessee", outshined all their work on her top ten solo it "I Know" in 1995. Speech reformed Arrested Development in 2000 and continues to perform under the moniker ever since.
(Click below to see the rest of the post)
First up I have a live clip from the band promoting the single in 1994...
And here's the group in concert at the Kennedy Center in 2013...
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