When Alexander O’Neal emerged in the mid-1980s, his commanding baritone and emotionally charged delivery quickly set him apart in the evolving R&B landscape. One of the standout tracks from his debut album was the sleek and synth-driven single “Innocent.”
Released in 1985 from the self-titled debut Alexander O’Neal (1985 album), “Innocent” showcased the polished Minneapolis sound crafted by legendary production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Built around crisp drum machine programming, pulsing bass, and shimmering synthesizers, the track perfectly captures the sophisticated R&B style that Jam and Lewis were refining during the decade.
O’Neal delivers a powerful vocal performance on the track, balancing intensity with smooth restraint. Adding to the song’s distinctive character are the backing vocals performed by fellow Minneapolis artist Cherrelle. Her unmistakable harmonies weave throughout the track, giving the chorus an extra layer of energy and providing a subtle preview of the musical chemistry that the two artists would later display on their famous duet “Saturday Love.”
“Innocent” quickly found success in the United States, climbing to #11 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart in 1985 and helping introduce Alexander O’Neal to a wider audience. Interestingly, while many of his later singles would become major hits in the UK, “Innocent” remains the only single from the album not to chart there.
Before his solo breakthrough, O’Neal had already been closely tied to the Minneapolis music scene. In fact, he was originally slated to front an early version of The Time before being replaced by Morris Day. His eventual partnership with Jam and Lewis proved to be a turning point, producing a series of stylish R&B recordings that would define much of his career.
More than four decades later, “Innocent” remains a standout from O’Neal’s debut era—an irresistible blend of electronic funk, soulful vocals, and the unmistakable studio craftsmanship of Jam and Lewis. For fans of the Minneapolis sound, it’s a track that still feels as fresh and sophisticated as it did when it first arrived in 1985.
SIDE A: Innocent (Special 12” Extended Dance Remix) 10:34
SIDE B: Innocent (Instrumental) 9:54
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
Chart Performance – Alexander O’Neal: Innocent (1985)
Released in 1986, The Rain by Oran ‘Juice’ Jones became one of the most memorable and unconventional R&B hits of the decade. Blending smooth soul with a spoken-word monologue that unfolds like a dramatic confrontation, the track stood apart from nearly everything else on radio at the time. Its cinematic storytelling and unforgettable mid-song breakdown helped make it an instant classic of 80s R&B.
An Unlikely Hit for Def Jam
Jones, born in Houston, Texas, was among the first R&B artists signed to Def Jam Recordings, the pioneering label founded by Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. During the mid-80s, Def Jam was primarily known for groundbreaking hip-hop acts such as LL Cool J and Beastie Boys, making Jones’ polished R&B sound somewhat of an outlier on the roster.
Still, the label took a chance—and it paid off. “The Rain” showcased that Def Jam could reach beyond hip-hop and deliver a crossover R&B smash.
The Monologue That Made History
Musically, the song begins as a slick mid-80s soul groove built on drum machines, shimmering synths, and Jones’ smooth vocals. But halfway through, the track takes an unexpected turn when Jones launches into a spoken tirade after catching his girlfriend with another man.
The monologue—equal parts heartbreak, anger, and biting humor—plays out like a late-night street argument set against a rainy city backdrop. Lines like “I saw you—and him—walking in the rain…” instantly became part of pop culture lore, giving the song a theatrical edge rarely heard in mainstream R&B.
Chart Success and MTV Rotation
Despite its unusual structure, the single was a massive hit. “The Rain” topped the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart and reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States.
The dramatic music video—featuring Jones confronting his unfaithful lover in the rain—became a staple on MTV, further cementing the song’s place in 80s pop culture.
From the Album Juice
“The Rain” was the standout single from Jones’ debut LP Juice. While the album produced a few additional singles, none matched the cultural impact or staying power of his breakout hit.
A Timeless 80s Moment
Nearly four decades later, “The Rain” remains one of the most distinctive singles of the 1980s. Its blend of smooth R&B, storytelling, and spoken-word drama turned what could have been a typical slow jam into something unforgettable.
Whether remembered for its catchy groove or its legendary spoken confrontation, “The Rain” still stands as one of the most unique hit records of its era.
SIDE A: The Rain (Remix) 5:12 Juice’s Groove (Bonus Beats) 2:46
SIDE B: The Rain 5:09
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
Chart Performance – Oran “Juice” Jones: The Rain (1986)
Chart
Peak Position
Date
US Billboard Hot 100
#9
1986
US Billboard Hot R&B / Hip-Hop
#1
1986
US Billboard Hot Dance Music / Club Play
#7
1986
Australia (Kent Music Report)
#85
1986
UK Singles Chart
#4
1986
RELEASE INFORMATION:
Label:Def Jam Recordings – CAS 2496, Columbia – CAS 2496
Format: Vinyl, 12″, 33 ⅓ RPM, Single, Promo, Stereo
Country: US
Released: 1986
Genre: Hip Hop, Funk / Soul
Style: Rhythm & Blues
“Say I’m Your No. 1”: How Princess Launched a Pop Revolution in 1985
The song that put Stock Aitken Waterman on the map — and gave British soul a new queen.
Some songs simply exist, and then some songs arrive — songs that feel, from the very first beat, like they were always meant to be. “Say I’m Your No. 1” by Princess is firmly in the second category. Released in the summer of 1985 as the lead single ahead of her self-titled debut album, it didn’t just introduce the world to a remarkable new voice. It quietly announced the arrival of one of pop music’s most consequential production teams, and helped reshape what British R&B and dance-pop could sound like.
Who Was Princess?
Born Desiree Heslop in Birmingham, England, Princess was a young British soul singer with a voice that belied her age — warm, assured, and capable of stretching from a tender whisper to a full-throated, emotionally charged belt. Before her solo career took off, she had been singing backing vocals, honing her craft in relative obscurity. But when she stepped in front of the microphone for “Say I’m Your No. 1,” it became immediately clear that obscurity was never going to be her permanent address.
She brought a sincerity to her delivery that was unusual in the increasingly glossy pop landscape of mid-1980s Britain. While so much of the era’s pop was cool and detached, Princess sang like she meant it — like the emotional stakes in every lyric were real and urgent.
The SAW Blueprint — Before Anyone Knew It Existed
“Say I’m Your No. 1” was written and produced by the trio of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman — collectively known as Stock Aitken Waterman, or simply SAW. In 1985, they were still largely unknown quantities. That was about to change dramatically.
The production on the track is a masterclass in sophisticated pop craftsmanship. Lush synthesizers, a sleek, pulsing rhythm track, and shimmering electronic textures create a soundscape that feels both warmly soulful and crisply modern. Unlike some of the more mechanical dance productions of the time, there’s an organic quality to it — a sense of breathing, of space. The arrangement lets Princess’s voice live at the centre of the record, elevated rather than buried.
What SAW achieved here foreshadowed everything they would go on to do with acts like Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, and Bananarama — but with an R&B polish that distinguished this early work. There’s a sophistication and restraint in the production of “Say I’m Your No. 1” that the more factory-line pop hits of their later years would sometimes trade for sheer velocity. Here, they were still showing off.
The Song Itself
At its heart, “Say I’m Your No. 1” is a love song about the need for affirmation — the deeply human desire to know, without doubt, that you are the most important person to someone. The lyric is direct without being simplistic, romantic without being saccharine.
The chorus is an undeniable earworm: melodically memorable, emotionally resonant, and built for both the dancefloor and the bedroom. It has the quality that only the best pop songs possess — the sense that it could have been playing somewhere your whole life, even the first time you hear it.
The song builds beautifully, too. It doesn’t just explode out of the gate; it draws you in, lets the verses establish intimacy, and then opens up into something bigger and more euphoric. Princess earns that release through performance rather than relying on the production to do the work for her.
Chart Success and Cultural Impact
“Say I’m Your No. 1” was a significant commercial hit in the United Kingdom, reaching a peak of number seven on the UK Singles Chart, spending four weeks in the top ten and twelve weeks on the chart in total. It was a statement of arrival — proof that a young Black British woman with a powerful voice and the right song could cut through in a pop landscape that wasn’t always generous with that kind of space.
The song’s reach extended well beyond Britain. It climbed into the top ten in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Switzerland, and West Germany. It was, in the truest sense, an international hit.
Making Waves in the United States
The American story of the single is a revealing one. The song didn’t storm the Billboard Hot 100 — in 1985, a British soul record from an unknown singer on an independent label had a steep climb ahead of it in the US mainstream market. But where it did land was significant: in the United States, it reached number 20 on Billboard’s Hot Black Singles chart. That placing tells you something important about where the record found its audience — not on pop radio, but in the soul and R&B world, among listeners with exacting taste and a sharp ear for the real thing. Breaking into that chart as a British artist, with a record produced by a team that was still finding its feet, was no small achievement.
It also hinted at something SAW would increasingly lean into: the American R&B and dance influence that underpinned their best early work. Princess didn’t just make a record that charted in the US — she made one that was embraced by the community whose music had inspired it in the first place.
The single set up her debut album perfectly, establishing Princess as more than a novelty or a one-off. It created genuine anticipation for what came next, and the self-titled album that followed in 1986 delivered on that promise.
Why It Still Matters
Revisiting “Say I’m Your No. 1” today, what strikes you is how good it is — not in a nostalgic, rose-tinted way, but in a fundamental, musical sense. The production holds up. The vocal holds up. The songwriting holds up.
It occupies a specific and interesting place in pop history: it arrived at the intersection of classic soul tradition and the sleek new sounds of mid-1980s British pop, and it synthesized those influences into something that felt entirely its own. It is also a document of SAW before their formula hardened into an assembly line — a glimpse of genuine artistry at work.
For Princess herself, it remains a defining statement. A song that said, loudly and clearly:
I’m here. I’m serious. And yes — I am your No. 1.
SIDE A: Say I’m Your No. 1 (H.R.H. Mix No.3) 8:58
SIDE B: Say I’m Your No. 1 (H.R.H. Mix No.2) 9:02
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
Chart Performance – Princess: Say I’m Your No. 1 (1985)
NEW 2026 Transfer NEW Meticulous Audio Restoration
Original post date: September 12, 2013
How Melissa Manchester Reinvented Herself — and Hit the Top Five — with “You Should Hear How She Talks About You”
By the summer of 1982, Melissa Manchester had a decision to make.
A decade into her recording career, she had built a loyal following on the strength of emotionally weighty ballads — “Midnight Blue,” “Don’t Cry Out Loud,” “Through the Eyes of Love.” She was known as a serious songwriter, a vocal powerhouse, a singer’s singer. What she was not known for was a synth-driven, uptempo dance track.
That’s exactly what she released in May of 1982.
“You Should Hear How She Talks About You” — a bright, propulsive pop single from her album Hey Ricky — would become the biggest commercial hit of Manchester’s career, and earn her a Grammy in the process. But it required a conscious reinvention, one Manchester herself was candid about years later.
“It was not the norm for me because I’m basically a troubadour,” she told an interviewer in 2012. “But I cut my hair off, lost lots of weight, glammed up, and ran it up the flagpole — and it worked.”
A Song with a Pedigree
The track was written by Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow, two of the more commercially reliable songwriters working in early-’80s pop. Pitchford had penned the title song for Fame and would go on to write “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” for the Footloose soundtrack. Snow’s catalog included songs recorded by Olivia Newton-John, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, and the Pointer Sisters.
According to Pitchford, the conceptual seed came from an unlikely source: the Beatles’ 1963 hit “She Loves You.” The idea was to write a modern-day equivalent — a song where a third party reports to someone that another person is deeply in love with them. Rather than a direct declaration of affection, the emotion arrives as hearsay, observed from the outside.
The song was first recorded by British singer Charlie Dore for her 1981 album Listen! Manchester heard the track and brought it to her sessions for Hey Ricky, produced by the legendary Arif Mardin, whose credits ranged from Aretha Franklin to the Bee Gees.
A Commercial Breakthrough
The gamble paid off in measurable terms. “You Should Hear How She Talks About You” reached number five on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in September 1982, becoming Manchester’s highest-charting record. On the Cash Box chart, it spent six weeks at number four. It also reached number ten on the Adult Contemporary chart and number eight on the Dance/Club Play Songs chart.
The success enabled the song to rank at number 18 on the Hot 100’s year-end chart for 1982 — a strong showing in a year dominated by Michael Jackson, Joan Jett, and Olivia Newton-John. Internationally, the track was also a hit in Canada (number five), Australia (number four), and New Zealand (number 20).
It would prove to be Manchester’s commercial ceiling. Her follow-up single, “Nice Girls,” would peak at number 42 in 1983, and she never returned to the Top 40. In that context, “You Should Hear How She Talks About You” stands as a singular moment — a career-defining hit manufactured through deliberate stylistic reinvention.
The Grammy
In February 1983, Manchester won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She bested Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Juice Newton, and Laura Branigan — among the most commercially dominant female artists of the era. Branigan’s “Gloria” alone had spent 36 weeks on the Hot 100 that year, making the victory a significant one.
Manchester had previously been nominated in the same category for “Don’t Cry Out Loud” in 1979. The 1983 win confirmed she could compete not just artistically but commercially with the biggest names in pop.
The Song Itself
The track is built around a narrative inversion that sets it apart from standard pop love songs. Rather than a declaration between two people, it’s narrated by a third party delivering a message: the woman you’re with talks about you constantly, and in the best possible way. The chorus functions as testimony rather than confession — love confirmed through reputation rather than direct expression.
The production, helmed by Mardin, leans into the early-’80s dance-pop aesthetic without sacrificing the vocal clarity that had always been Manchester’s calling card. The result was a record that felt genuinely of its moment while showcasing the voice that had made her career in the first place.
Looking Back
Manchester’s own ambivalence about the song is telling. She acknowledged stopping it for a period to gain “perspective” before eventually returning to it — the complicated relationship an artist can have with work that succeeds commercially precisely because it is unlike everything else they’ve done.
For a self-described troubadour, a synth-pop hit can feel like borrowed clothes, even when they fit. But the numbers are unambiguous. In a career defined by vocal craftsmanship and emotional weight, “You Should Hear How She Talks About You” demonstrated something else entirely: that Manchester could read a room, adapt her sound, and deliver a genuine pop hit when she chose to.
It worked — all the way to number five.
A Hidden Manchester Original
The B-Side: The single also carries a track worth noting in its own right. “Long Goodbyes,” the B-side, is a non-album ballad written by Manchester herself — a reminder that beneath the reinvented pop exterior of Hey Ricky, the troubadour was still very much present. While A-sides are engineered for radio programmers and chart positions, B-sides often reveal what an artist actually wants to say. That Manchester used that space for an original ballad rather than an album filler speaks to where her instincts lived, even at her commercial peak.
SIDE A: You Should Hear How She Talks About You (Extended Version) 5:04
Written-By – Dean Pitchford, Tom Snow
SIDE B: Long Goodbyes (Non-LP Track) 3:00
Written-By – Melissa Manchester
VINYL GRADE:
Vinyl: Near Mint
Sleeve: Near Mint
Chart Performance – Melissa Manchester: You Should Hear How She Talks About You (1982)
