Shalamar!

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What, no Shalamar thread to date?...for shame!...they were only the best band on the SOLAR label and the launching pad of one Jody Whatley...(admit it, you thought she was pretty hot)...they got us into the Now Club, convinced our broken hearts that love was, indeed, better the second time around, made their move, right there in the socket, and took it to the bank...sure, they made the standard ill-fated ventures into new wave and hard rock (but didn't everybody and doesn't this make them all the more charming?), and their line-up completely changed over by the time they had run their course, but dang it, the mere mention of them makes people smile...and isn't "Shalamar" in fact a pretty cool name, calling to mind both tasty marshmallow treats and amusement parks?

people, let's make this a thread to remember!

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 20:22 (nineteen years ago)

now you're talking my language.

teh classic lineup: Jody, Howard Hewett and Jeffrey Daniels.

Uptown Festival predates that trio, it's a good disco LP.

but the ones to search are: Three for Love, Friends and the rare but excellent Go For It. Also Big Fun has its moments and The Look is their new wave move, it sorta flopped with the US R&B audience but hit big in the UK IIRC.

Heartbreak is the Howard Hewett experience, minus Jody and Jeffrey. If you only know Jody Watley's solo work, these albums just may surprise you, the girl can definitely sing.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

I think of the Indian restaurant on Polk although I think that might spelled differently.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

I am sadly underfamiliar w/their work. I do swear by "Take That to the Bank" (probably my favorite disco hi-hats ever), but that's '78 and precedes the classic lineup by a few years. I want the albums Mark mentions of course but will probably start w/the CD best-of from, I think, a decade ago. How do y'all rate that?

And of course Alfred and Thomas and Andy K to thread.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 20:42 (nineteen years ago)

Mickey Free: great guitar player, had kind of a metal edge. "Dancing in the Sheets": huge hit in my high school senior year, yay yay yay.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

Friends and Disco Gardens are two of my favorite records!

― mucho (mucho), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 20:52 (nineteen years ago)

I remember thinking the cheesey stereo effect on Friends was awesome.

How about a Shalamar v. Imagination FITE?

― DV (dirtyvicar), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

Right In The Socket - 12 remix... heavy disco dub magic...

― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 21:21 (nineteen years ago)

their version of inky dinky wang dang doo is so essential. uptown festival is awesome. all their records are pretty good.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 21:27 (nineteen years ago)

What everyone said.

The involuntary flinch that just happened must be the sign of an impending appearance from Vahid.

― Andy_K (Andy_K), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 21:29 (nineteen years ago)

Ha, I was about to post, "Wait, no Andy K on this thread yet?"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 21:44 (nineteen years ago)

the CD best-of from, I think, a decade ago. How do y'all rate that

Michaelangelo there's a 2-CD set called Anthology, I think from this century, that really is all you need. Any of the several 1-disc sets floating around will no doubt wet your appetite.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 22:55 (nineteen years ago)

Carefully phrased.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 22:58 (nineteen years ago)

2 metaphors for the price of 1

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 23:03 (nineteen years ago)

http://foreverspice.com/spicediscography/2become1-uscd2.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 23:11 (nineteen years ago)

Shalamar were equal parts bubblegum and disco, and I think it is this quality that keeps their music fresh, outliving your Midnight Stars, Lakesides and Deeles...roller-rink anthems like "Second Time Around" just bounce out of your speakers, immediately transporting you to a happy place...

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 23:15 (nineteen years ago)

The run of Big Fun-Three For Love-Go For It-Friends is stuffed with greatness. Why they didn't at least partially take over the r&b/pop charts in the 80s along with Slave (and maybe Raydio) is one for the ages.

I still can't believe "Some Things Never Change" was not a single! It would be near the top of my POX.

Also: "I Can Make You Feel Good" was sampled to great use on Steve Angello's filter disco diamond "Feel Good."

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

Friends is super-great, but the awful "new wave" (sic) misfire of The Look killed them dead (on both sides of the Atlantic, despite intially strong UK sales). I was lucky enough to see the Hewett/Watley/Daniels line-up perform live in Autumn 82, with a full band, at the height of their success (and after Daniels had ditched the curly perm of the Friends sleeve). It infuriated me that Michael Jackson took all the credit for the "innovative" dance moves that Jeffrey Daniels was popularising 12 months earlier - and then, to add insult to injury, MJ hired a by-then past-it Daniels as an anonymous extra on the "Bad" video! Grrr!

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Wednesday, 30 August 2006 08:56 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

Has Go For it EVER been released on CD in the US? WTF, bizzers - when opportunity knocks...

― Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, 5 October 2008 20:39 (seventeen years ago)

iTunes doesn't even have it. What's up with this album? Why is it so obscure?

― Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, 5 October 2008 20:47 (seventeen years ago)

Viz Christgau, it's "the one they wrote themselves [that stiffed]." Solar switched distro from RCA to Elektra afterwards; maybe that affected it, too.

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Sunday, 5 October 2008 22:25 (seventeen years ago)

eight months pass...

Documentary on TVOne right now about Shalamar, but I can't watch it. Hoping it will show up online somewhere. Does anyone get that network?

Coincidentally, I just pulled out The Look and Fun for Three and am totally hot for Jody Watley right now. THEN I found out about this. CRIPES!

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 June 2009 00:05 (sixteen years ago)

Fun for Three = Three for Love, der.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 June 2009 00:09 (sixteen years ago)

Sigh. I always wished I'd liked Shalamar more than I did. :(

― A Breath of Fresh Culture (Bimble), Monday, 22 June 2009 08:08 (sixteen years ago)

Johnny you got any You Tube clips to back up your fandom? Thanks. I die over Jody Watley.

― A Breath of Fresh Culture (Bimble), Monday, 22 June 2009 08:09 (sixteen years ago)

The bassline to There It Is just bounces on and on, love it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_3_EdxODcY
(with added bonus of John Peel)

― Originally opened in 1964 (Ned Trifle II), Monday, 22 June 2009 08:35 (sixteen years ago)

Oh my god! When they finally show Jody Watley up close in that I just die! Die! She is cute as a BUTTON oh my god.

Not a bad song, either. Thanks.

― She's A Witch, You Son Of A (Bimble), Monday, 22 June 2009 08:49 (sixteen years ago)

AND IT's JOHN PEEL AT THE BEGINNING MY GOD! WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED?

― She's A Witch, You Son Of A (Bimble), Monday, 22 June 2009 08:50 (sixteen years ago)

"Work it Out" from Three for Love is probably my favorite Shalamar track, and this is the only representation I could find of it on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkHjE4xJIws

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 June 2009 08:50 (sixteen years ago)

Also, someone's already got some of that TVOne show from last night up on Youtube too. Weeeee!

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 June 2009 08:51 (sixteen years ago)

Check out the guitarist's hair, too. In that previous clip. I mean is that hair or waht?

― She's A Witch, You Son Of A (Bimble), Monday, 22 June 2009 08:53 (sixteen years ago)

Wait, what? Is that Jody Watley in that clip, Johnny? Really? If so, I'm kind of in shock.

― She's A Witch, You Son Of A (Bimble), Monday, 22 June 2009 09:00 (sixteen years ago)

It is indeed. She would've been about 20 there.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, 22 June 2009 09:01 (sixteen years ago)

Well I'm sorry but my brain doesn't agree with that. LOL

― She's A Witch, You Son Of A (Bimble), Monday, 22 June 2009 09:16 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/04/arts/music/04griffey.html?adxnnl=1&src=un&feedurl=http://json8.nytimes.com/pages/arts/music/index.jsonp&adxnnlx=1286211355-gBWWWJLbL900JGiM+LVFrA

Shalamar's Solar label prez Dick Griffey just died

― curmudgeon, Monday, 4 October 2010 16:58 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, tried to revive this thread but nobody followed up:

Solar - Search and Destroy

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 4 October 2010 17:07 (fifteen years ago)

Oops, missed it.

― curmudgeon, Monday, 4 October 2010 17:10 (fifteen years ago)

nine months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guB_jQkCzCo

― Telephoneface (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 05:59 (fourteen years ago)

I fuck with Shalamar. I listened obsessively to "Sweeter as the Days Go By" during the summer of 2005. Jeffrey Daniel apparently introduced breakdancing to England during a TV appearance in the early '80s, and as as a result he became the breakout star of the group over there for a while despite singing lead on precisely none of their hits.

― thewufs, Thursday, 21 July 2011 00:58 (fourteen years ago)

Right In The Socket - 12 remix... heavy disco dub magic...
― Kirk Degiorgio (Kirk), Tuesday, August 29, 2006 9:21 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm

― Gatsby was a success, in the end, wasn't he? (D-40), Thursday, 21 July 2011 01:00 (fourteen years ago)

as long as "Dancing in the Sheets" is in the "dud" pile.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 21 July 2011 01:57 (fourteen years ago)

And of course Alfred and Thomas and Andy K to thread.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I still haven't bought the damn comp.

― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 21 July 2011 02:04 (fourteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-lOm3iLLkU

― A Chuck Person's Guide to Mark Aguirre (Andy K), Thursday, 21 July 2011 02:07 (fourteen years ago)

thirteen years pass...

Second Time Around Hithouse Club remix a masterpiece of light and sunshine

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 23 February 2025 15:32 (eight months ago)

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