Also, her parents didn't understand why she was singing the way she did. They wanted her to sing like Barbara Streisand. If you've been following her career like I have you would know that when she was younger she didn't talked too much on her personal life. I mean, she played coy about her relationship with Rick James for years, but we knew... But, last year, she opened up about her father in an interview with Sister to Sister Magazine. Here's part of it--

*No, the man she's talking about is not Rick James*

Jamie: How come you never married?

Teena: Because the one person that I really, really wanted to marry...my family pulled us apart when I was really young. There has never been any man that I ever ran across that I can compare to him. And I still love him to this day. He's one of my best friends.

Jamie: Did he eventually marry someone else?

Teena: Yes, we were 19 and 20 and my family at that particular time in my life was not at all with the Black and White Thing. We were very much in love. Right at the height of everything that was going on, my father died. And my father died on a very bad note with me. (Teena dedicated her first album to her father, Thomas Leslie Brockert).

Jamie: What happened when you introduced your Black boyfriend to your father?

Teena: When I introduced him to this man my father didn't shake his hand. My father died of a heart attack. Some of the people in my family said I killed my father and it really sent me into a really bad mental thing. And eventually our relationship couldn't hold up at that particular time. But I have compared every man I've met to him and found that they were all wanting. He was the love of my life!


-S-
[Edited 1/9/05 14:12pm]

so sad

Back when T had a "crossover" hit with Lovergirl.... Madonna said that she didn't deserve to be in the top ten, that Teena was just one of Rick James girls.... in other words one of his talentless bimbos. It made me hate Madonna even more than I already did at that point.... She doesn't have a speck of T's skills.

But she never got the recognition she deserved outside of the black community... when I bring her up to my white friends, they go, "Teena who?" Teena is 10x more talented than almost any female singer I can name White or Black. And Madonna had the nerve to diss her a few years back.

Reggie Lucas (from the group, MTUME) produce Madonna's debut lp.....
Nile Rodgers produce "Like A Virgin"...

I also remember hearing that when Madonna came out with "Holiday" before people new what she looked liked and the videos and what not...they thought she was black as well because that song was a hit on black radio back then....

Yep....That's right

Yep....That's right

thats the p&r bullshit that her record label pushed...same thing debbie gibson's p&r people pushed...aint no way in hell anyone thinking madonna or debbie were anything but yuppy white-girls..


evidence madge: ending of borderline "la la la la la"...no way a soul person would sing the song the way she did...PROOF!


evidence debbie: the way debbie sings "now now now now"...its too whiney....aint no way a soul sista would sing that in that manner...

thats the p&r bullshit that her record label pushed...same thing debbie gibson's p&r people pushed...aint no way in hell anyone thinking madonna or debbie were anything but yuppy white-girls..


evidence madge: ending of borderline "la la la la la"...no way a soul person would sing the song the way she did...PROOF!


evidence debbie: the way debbie sings "now now now now"...its too whiney....aint no way a soul sista would sing that in that manner...

uhm and we were not talking about "Borderline" by that time her image had been exposed and we knew what she looked liked...she had already pimped out her black audience and got her foot through the door...even as a younging at the time I vividly remember 'Holiday" being on heavy rotation on black radio.


as far as Debbie...she was to me anyway, carbon copy freestyle..when she came out with that "Only in my dreams" ish...
[Edited 1/11/05 17:35pm]

uhm and we were not talking about "Borderline" by that time her image had been exposed and we knew what she looked liked...she had already pimped out her black audience and got her foot through the door...even as a younging at the time I vividly remember 'Holiday" being on heavy rotation on black radio.


as far as Debbie...she was to me anyway, carbon copy freestyle..when she came out with that "Only in my dreams" ish...
[Edited 1/11/05 17:35pm]

That's funny, because I remember thinking Madonna was black when I was a kid. Holiday was in pretty heavy rotation on the local R&B station. In fact, a lot of my friends thought the same thing. It's not such a big deal. This was, obviously, before I'd seen any of her videos. Now, Debbie Gibson? Come on. Nobody ever thought that, and I doubt she was ever marketed that way!

Back to Teena Marie - I think she gets her props for what she's contributed to the soul/R&B scene. Though I think she's corny as all hell, I like her. And like a lot of strictly R&B performers, she's amassed a good number of R&B hits (7 top 10 and 23 top 100) without ever making a steady presence on top 40 radio. That's not uncommon for an R&B artist.

What's corny about her?

If I Were a Bell is a corny ballad. Those Munchkins singin' backup on It Must Be Magic crack me up (same thing with the backup vocals on I'm a Sucker for Your Love). And I can't help but laugh anytime she raps. Sometimes she tries too hard to prove how down she is, and she needn't do it. Her music does it all on its own.

funkpill said:

I also remember hearing that when Madonna came out with "Holiday" before people new what she looked liked and the videos and what not...they thought she was black as well because that song was a hit on black radio back then....