Friends – Shalamar

Shalamar was one of the more underrated pop/soul acts of the early Eighties, never getting their just due in the musical world. They were the only successful act to be spawned from the Soul Train TV show, where members Jeffrey Daniel and Jody Watley were dancers. Paired with Howard Hewett (actually the band’s second lead singer), they embarked on a string of pop & R&B hits from 1979-1984 or so with a peppy, upbeat sound provided for them by producer/bassist Leon Sylvers Jr. (from The Sylvers of Boogie Fever fame) The three young, attractive members made music that was as palatable to teenage music listeners as it was to their parents’, giving their music a cross-generational flavor that’s missing from a lot of today’s music.

1982′s Friends was the group’s sixth album and one of its’ biggest successes, attaining Gold status in the US and spawning a series of hit singles and reaching the top 10 in the UK. It’s a great bubblegum funk album. Hewett and Watley trade off lead vocals effortlessly (it was rare to find a group with two lead singers back then, I don’t even know if one exists these days), and the overall result is a largely upbeat, if not incredibly substantial or mind-blowing, listening
experience.

The celebratory A Night to Remember was the album’s big hit single Stateside, and it’s a perfect piece of pop. It’s got a danceable groove and a winning hook. Hewett and Watley trade off verses, playing the parts of a couple celebrating their relationship. The peppy title track is another winner, with lyrics about friendship (“not the fairweather kind”). Hewett’s elastic voice (featuring a beautiful falsetto) is always a pleasure to listen to, and third member Daniel even gets a vocal cameo on this track. Slowing things down, I Don’t Want to Be the Last to Know has a metronomic drum-machine beat and pleading vocals. The song was resurrected nearly 2 decades later for the hit Bring it All to Me by Blaque featuring *Nsync.

Friends’ one true ballad is the lush I Just Stopped By Because I Had To, which finds Hewett in his element. After going solo, he became primary known as a slow-jam specialist and this song is an early teaser of that, although the lyrics are more heartbroken than lovestruck. Great group harmonies here also, proving that you can put together a prefab group off TV that actually has talent. The upbeat Watley showcase Don’t Try to Change Me and the sparkly On Top of the World are other solid tracks on this album, which really doesn’t have a bad song on it.

Shalamar recorded one more album with this lineup before Watley and Daniel left and the group started switching members like Destiny’s Child. Watley had the most success, scoring hit singles throughout the late Eighties and early Nineties and winning the Best New Artist Grammy Award in 1988. Daniel released one solo album, but returned to his first love, dancing. He is rumored to have taught Michael Jackson the moonwalk, and he appeared in a bunch of MJ’s videos including Beat It and Bad. Hewett, who left the band in 1985, also embarked on a somewhat successful career, scoring a handful of R&B hits before turning to gospel music for a while.

Friends holds up remarkably well for an album that was released in 1982. Although it certainly sounds like it was made in the decade of excess, it’s still quite listenable and danceable-and strains of it can still be found in the more melodic pop & R&B music today. The production is solid-not totally organic, not totally synthesized-the keyboards are used for flavoring, not as the framework of the songs. So, basically, if you’re looking for some pleasant, inoffensive pop-funk that makes you dance, feel good and not much more, take advice from a friend and pick up Friends.