Jeffrey Osborne - C or D

Not an official c or d for him...

On the Wings of Love is MASSIVE, amirite?

"Stay With Me Tonight" is massive; "Love Power" and "You Should Be Mine (The Woo Woo Song)" less so.

I picked up a copy of Emotional for 50 cents late last year, liked most of it pretty well, and my wife started railing about how much she hated "The Woo Woo Song" back in the '80s. I don't think I'd ever heard it before. It is pretty ridiculous, though.

No big shock since I'm admittedly probably something of a balladaphobe, but the tracks I'm liking most on Emotional are the dancier, more uptempo (or at least midtempo) ones -- "Soweto," "Love's Not Ready" (which is actually pretty frenetic), the title cut. "Soweto" is the only one of those to have charted as a single (#18 r&b, didn't cross over), and I swear its rhythm track reminds as much of Yello as of anything I've ever heard from Africa. Suddenly I'm curious about the albums Osborne made with L.T.D. in the '70s -- have always kind of loved "(Every Time I Turn Around) Back In Love Again" (#4 pop in 1976, easily their biggest hit); just never really gave it any thought beyond that.

On the Wings of Love is MASSIVE, amirite?

I always imagined it as the perfect pre-Gershwin United travel ad campaign theme. (This is actually a compliment.)

xgau kinda dug it:

Emotional [A&M, 1986]

I'm trying to figure out what it means to say I kind of like this record, a big-budget multiproducer job of the sort suddenly standard in crossoverland. It's not just that I'm impressed with all the heavy equipment, from Osborne's dolomite voice to the usual phalanx of hitmen turning out materiel. I respond--that's one thing kind of liking it means. And though the response feels synthetic, it's not unreal. Which is just what I'd say of the emotions on display, from be-mine to Soweto-must-be-free. B

he's no freddie jackson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg9gB8p6ACY

his s/t album is pretty fantastic, the album opener "New Love" is a pretty funky smooth soul number.

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

Track he did for "The Toy" is a jam

ya, soweto's pretty great. i picked up the 12" a while back and it had a big handwritten "Larry Levan" sticker on it

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44d-TuE-ksU&feature=related

don't think many male R&B singers have as powerful a voice as Osborne and many and his peers did back in the 80s (though arguably they don't really need em as the style of music doesn't require it).

we may never hear a Lenny Williams "Cause I Love You" again other than by somebody named Winans.

(not a 'good ole days' post by a long shot).

Osborne had an unusual voice: gravelly and -- unusual for eighties R&B singers -- more suited to slightly uptempo material.

Osborne popped up on the Soul Train Music Awards last year, singing in a tribute segment on Ronald Isley. El Debarge and Freddie Jackson sang with him. His voice still sounded strong. I'd say ripe for rediscovery amongst the Urban R&B crowd. The last album he put out was a covers one in 2005. If Freddie Jackson can still put out albums, then Osborne definitely should get picked up by some label.

^ love him, bulletproof voice. he still sings at some of the biggest laker games like he did in the 80's, fans consider him our lucky charm. went through an osborne/ltd phase a few years ago and he can def. dignify most material you put in front of him.

just now, completely out of nowhere "on the wings of love" got stuck in my head and now i can't stop singing it

on the wings of LOVE
doo doo doo doo doooo forever flyin hiiiiiiiigh
on the wings of luuuuuuuv

hahaha
thanks youtube

imnathanandstuff 6 months ago

I work at K-Mart and I have to listen to this everyday. It's awful. I have nightmares about Jeffrey Osborne every night. Make it stop.

also apparently i didn't remember any of the words to this song at all aside from "flyin high upon the wings of looooooove"

George or Jeffrey? Obama mixes up his Osbornes at G8 summit

Just spotted this...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1014271_10152944565150215_67285437_n.jpg

So Obama gets all his information from Wikipedia?

Poor Al Green. He's been forgotten

Minister of State for Police and Criminal Justice Al Green?

Yes

"And when they come to march on ya
Tell 'em to make sure they got their James Brown pass
And don't be surprised if Ali is in the White House
Reverend Ike, Secretary of the Treasure
Richard Pryor, Minister of Education
Stevie Wonder, Secretary of Fine Arts
And Miss Aretha Franklin, the First Lady
Are you out there, CC?"

Story just getting silly now

i heard on the news that gideon was saying that he thinks that jeffrey osborne is a 'legend'.

umm .. go on then, name an album, a hit, anything - without any sideway glances to your media relations intern.