Shalamar

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Hewett, Watley, and Daniel

Shalamar was an American music group of the 1970s and 1980s that was originally a disco-driven vehicle created by Soul Train booking agent Dick Griffey.

[edit] Career

Their first hit was the 1977 Motown-inspired production "Uptown Festival", whose success inspired Griffey to replace his sessioneers with vocalists Jody Watley, Jeffrey Daniel, and Howard Hewett (the latter replacing short-time member Gerald Brown) in 1978.

The group was hooked up with legendary R&B producer Leon Sylvers III in 1979, signed with Griffey's SOLAR Records and scored a U.S. million seller with "The Second Time Around" (#1 US R&B, #8 US Pop).

In the UK the group had a string of hits with songs such as "Take That To The Bank" (1978), "I Owe You One" (1980) and 1982's "I Can Make You Feel Good", "A Night To Remember", "There It Is" and "Friends". The album of the same title Friends was also a big seller in the UK in 1982 crossing the genres of pop, disco and soul. The band's record sales in the UK increased dramatically when Daniel demonstrated his body-popping dancing skills on BBC Television's music programme, Top of the Pops.

The group took a knock when both Watley and Daniel left the band over artistic arguments with the SOLAR record label, prior to the release of their next album The Look in the spring of 1983. Nonetheless, the album wielded a number of UK hit singles including "Disappearing Act", and "Over And Over". The album itself moved Shalamar into a more rock/disco field, with rock guitars to the fore. But The Look generally was not the success that Friends had been the previous year.

With a mid 1980s line-up change with Delisa Davis and Micki Free, Shalamar returned to the U.S. Top 20 in 1984 with "Dancing In The Sheets" from the Footloose soundtrack, and they won a Grammy for "Don't Get Stopped In Beverly Hills" from Beverly Hills Cop in 1985.

But when Hewett left for a solo career in 1986, and was replaced by Sydney Justin, the band faded into obscurity.

The most successful of the classic trio was Watley, who, with former Prince sidekick André Cymone, made classy solo albums and found success with her own singles, which included 1987's "Looking For A New Love", 1989's "Friends", and 1994's "When A Man Loves A Woman". She rejoined with Hewett and Daniels, plus LL Cool J, on Babyface's 1996 single "For The Lover In You"; a cover of a hit single from Shalamar's 1980 LP Three For Love. Watley was also one of the American singers to perform on the original Band Aid record.

Shalamar scored a total of three gold albums in America during their heyday - with Big Fun, Three For Love (which eventually went platinum) and Friends.