I recently went on a solo road trip, and blasted The Ultimate Jesse Johnson CD. What a fantastic CD!

Back in 1985 when I was 14, going on 15 and obsessed with Prince, Jesse Johnson's Revue album came out and many of my friends initially thought that "Can You Help Me" that was getting radio play in Los Angeles was Prince. Loved the hell out of that album.

Not long after, I got the Pretty In Pink soundtrack. I had bought it because I loved INXS ("Do Wot You Do" is an amazing song!) and was surprised to find another Jesse track.

Probably 4-5 years ago, I stumbled across a Jesse Johnson track on the Breakfast Club soundtrack (don't know how I missed this for so long).

Now, today I find out that Jesse has songs on Another 48 Hours soundtrack, and White Men Can't Jump soundtrack!! Both unfortunately not available digitally. I'll have to track down some used CDs on ebay, though Another 48 Hours soundtrack goes for pretty high dollar (?!?!).

I wish I could find more of his B-Sides and extended versions online. I actually have 12" singles (and no record player) for Crayzay (W/ Sly Stone) and another that I don't remember the A-side, but the B-side is "Drive Yo Caddillac".

On a side note, I love Martika's singing as well, and recently found a new song on a Tribute Album for someone I never heard of. "Lay Me Down By The Sea" ... if you like Martika, this one is great! I was blown away, great song and great voice.

Anyone else stumble across some unknown finds by related artists??

Yes. Jesse has a great style. If you haven't try to find Bare my naked Soul. I used to play that over and over back when it came out.

I remember seeing the Another 48 Hours in the theater and thinking that voice sounded familar and I liked his version of that Bus Boys song and read the credits and saw that it was Jesse doing the song.

I may be wrong, I will have to look but I thought I have or saw a digital version of The Boys are Back in Town.

I have some of his records and cassettes that I transferred myself to digital and they sound good.

I myself was going to get that Ultimate Cd you have but it was out of print when I went to look for it.

I have Bare My Naked Soul. I got it the day it came out, though admittedly, I haven't played it but a handfull of times. Vastly different style than his previous work. I have listened to the two new-to-me soundtrack songs on youtube. Both are good.

Ultimate Jesse is great. A few B-sides, and extended versions mixed in with the album versions. The B-Sides on it are amazing.

Not to push the Martika song, but I only found it by chance. No mention of it on any Martika discographies, wikis, and didn't even see it initially when I searched amazon or itunes.

I used to think that pretty much everything in existance was cataloged online somewhere, but that is not true at all. Just found out that Incubus super deluxe HQ Live box set has 6 live cds, instead of the 2 disc deluxe I got. Never knew that until I stumbled across it on ebay, and took a while to verify on other online sources. That info would have been great around the time of release 10+ yrs ago. Now it goes for $800 or more.

I like funky Jesse more than guitar-driven Jesse. Not to say they're not great songs, just not my thing w/ him.

That said, I loved the visual aesthetic of Shockadelica. The pink, the polka dots, the hats! I wish there had been more hits from the record, but after "Crazay" it just sorta sat there. It carried on, a bit grown up, from the Revue era.

But my favorite album by him is Every Shade of Love. It sold half as many as its predecessor, but I believe it was a superior album. Both albums teetered on being a bit too reliant on the aural accoutrements of the day (like some of the remixes of the "Crazay" single). But ESOL is more bottom heavy, and feels like a funk/rock record. Big on bass and R&B foundations, builds with pop hooks and rock n' roll flourishes.

ESOL doesn’t have a bad song on it, but I think Shockadelica has some forgettable tunes. Just not quite there with quality. Oddly, I was very drawn to “Black in America.” I loved the rawness of it, and I remember him performing it on BET’s Video Soul.

“Love Struck” from ESOl charted as high as “Be Your Man,” and “Can You Help Me” charted one spot higher, follow by “Crazay” hitting #2.

Besides Andre, I think Jesse was the closest thing Prince had to real competition. Andre made a lot of bland R&B. I think he jetted a bit too soon. He should've stayed through the 1999-era, then left to do his thing. Jesse's talented as hell, but always comes across as the troubled spirit.

TrivialPursuit said:

I like funky Jesse more than guitar-driven Jesse. Not to say they're not great songs, just not my thing w/ him.

That said, I loved the visual aesthetic of Shockadelica. The pink, the polka dots, the hats! I wish there had been more hits from the record, but after "Crazay" it just sorta sat there. It carried on, a bit grown up, from the Revue era.

But my favorite album by him is Every Shade of Love. It sold half as many as its predecessor, but I believe it was a superior album. Both albums teetered on being a bit too reliant on the aural accoutrements of the day (like some of the remixes of the "Crazay" single). But ESOL is more bottom heavy, and feels like a funk/rock record. Big on bass and R&B foundations, builds with pop hooks and rock n' roll flourishes.

ESOL doesn’t have a bad song on it, but I think Shockadelica has some forgettable tunes. Just not quite there with quality. Oddly, I was very drawn to “Black in America.” I loved the rawness of it, and I remember him performing it on BET’s Video Soul.

“Love Struck” from ESOl charted as high as “Be Your Man,” and “Can You Help Me” charted one spot higher, follow by “Crazay” hitting #2.

Besides Andre, I think Jesse was the closest thing Prince had to real competition. Andre made a lot of bland R&B. I think he jetted a bit too soon. He should've stayed through the 1999-era, then left to do his thing. Jesse's talented as hell, but always comes across as the troubled spirit.

My FAVE Andre' Album is "Surviving In The 80's"!! As far as Jesse Johnson, after He released the 12" of "Baby Let's Kiss', I didn't really care for the ORIGINAL Version. But His Albums/CD's are ALL GEMS!!!!

Black in America is an amazing song. The passion and inspiration on that one is just unmistakable... and I'm a fairly conservative white guy. LOL. But that's kinda how it goes with music for me. On Prince songs, if I can't feel the inspiration, the song is flat. Sometimes I still like it, but its missing something. Though I'm not very religious, many of my favorite Prince songs are religious, and the passion and inspiration are what make them great.

"Black In America" is even MORE relevant 2day than it was in 1986! Sh*t: How about being "Black In Minneapolis"???

"Free World" is a JAM! In the summer of '85,that track,which was the B-side of the "Can You Help Me" single,was getting massive airplay on R&B stations.That's something that Jesse learned from Prince: place a kickass track on the B-side of your singles and it'll become popular too.I rushed to the 'wrecka stow' to buy that 12" single! I wonder if,nowadays,a lyric like "I think I'll buy a gun...go out and have some fun" would be accepted.

The Breakfast Club is one of my favorite 80s movies.The Jesse song was played during the ending credits.It's a good song...very,very,very 80s sounding He sings it with Stephanie Spruill,a well-known session singer who appears on numerous 80s albums.

Heart Too Hot To Hold, Br... - YouTube

Transformed1 said:

Probably 4-5 years ago, I stumbled across a Jesse Johnson track on the Breakfast Club soundtrack (don't know how I missed this for so long).

Jesse is the man. I have all that shit and more. Fortunatily, I got most of that stuff when it came out and tracked down the other stuff in the early days of the internet. Like Prince, his B sides were often better than the songs on the albums. The absolute highlight of the 2008 Vegas shows was Jesse's solo set. He fucking DESTROYED Skillet. I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

Square1entertainment said:

Yes,Jesse has done some great production work for others.Here are a few albums that he produced:

Everybody Needs a Dream...a b side from the Bare My Naked Soul album...wowowow! Man that guy blew me away with that one. I think it was the 1st time I'd heard him do a falsetto.