Najee said:

Thanks!! Now I can finally leave this sanatorium.....

dseann said:

that song is DA BOMB! It reminds me of those early 70s R&B groups...Blue Magic,Delfonics,Intruders,etc.It's got a soulful 70s feel to it.

daPrettyman said:

PurpleCharm said:

i don't know if i'd say it's one of the worst songs of the 80's but it certainly wasn't great. it seems lke babyface found his niche within that song and ran with it which made him huge.

PurpleCharm said:

-----
A bad time rip off. Never liked them

I hate that damn "Two Occasions" also. It definately sounds pop sounding and a lot like the other late 80s crossover R&B. Late 80s...horrible years....horrible years.

vainandy said:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...OHEvfBLlIk

I know you can't watch any of the videos at work. But this video is a r&b classic for all of the wrong reasons. It's basically the 5 remaining band members at this point. 4 of them (counting Babyface) are wearing 3-piece suits. But one member is wearing something that looks too much like women pajamas!!!

vainandy said:

Now I agree with you that the late 80s was a terrible time for music,but come on...."Two Occasions" does NOT sound "pop" at all It's a straightforward R&B song.I think it's probably the best R&B song of 1988....one of the last great R&B songs before New Jack Swing and hip-hop took over.

So what do u guys think of "Sweet November" and "Just My Luck"? They are my favorite Deele trax. I liked "Two Occasions" until ALL urban AC stations played the hell out of them.
[Edited 9/17/07 5:26am]

daPrettyman said:

"Just My Luck"




I remember hearing "Two Occasions" long before it became a hit single.My sister bought the Deele's album when it was first released.The first single was the uptempo "Can U Dance",which didn't really go anywhere.Then they released "Two Occasions" and the album took off like a rocket! Radio stations wore that song out.Even now,I still hear it all the time on oldies R&B stations,although for some strange reason,they seem to always play the live version.I prefer the original version.

SoulAlive said:

Now, I did some good slow dancing to "Two Ocassions." There's nothing wrong with that song.

jbchavez said:

nothing at all

daPrettyman said:

I liked all of those songs, though I will admit I liked TROOP's version of "Sweet November" a little better than The Deele's. Another ballad I liked is "I'll Send You Roses."

Of the uptempo songs, I liked "Body Talk," "I Surrender" and "Stimulate," though I thought a lot of their faster material sounded corny even then and most did not age well over the years.
[Edited 9/17/07 8:39am]

daPrettyman said:

Just My luck was always my favorite ballad by the deele. I don't care for sweet november or two occasions. The only other ballad i like by them i know of right off hand is shoot em up movies. I think someone mentioned earlier it reminds you of the soulful ballads by 70's soul groups like the chi-lites, blue magic, the stylistics, the dramatics, etc.

phunkdaddy said:

Yeah, The Deele's "Shoot 'Em Up Movies" did have that early 1970s soul ballad vibe from the vocal groups. It reminded me a lot musically and vocally of Blue Magic's "Chasing Rainbows" and conceptually of The Intruders' "Cowboys to Girls."
[Edited 9/17/07 9:07am]

phunkdaddy said:

"Shoot 'em Up Movies" should remind everyone of the old school songs because it was written by Kenny Nolan. He wrote "Lady Marmalade" for Labelle and "Penny For Your Thoughts" for Tavares (among others). So, he was definitely a 70s writer.

daPrettyman said:

Sweet November is classic.

The only song I like is "Two Occasions" and up until a few years ago I always thought that was a Babyface song....then I realized he was in a group called "The Deele"....then I saw the video and it was so scary. They all looked scary with all that Jheri Curl juice running down their faces glad that look went out of style. They looked like they used up two cases of "Soul Glo" activator.

Maybe pop isn't the right word to describe it then. Adult contemporary would be more like it....which is worse.

vainandy said:

I would say the term is "conservative R&B."

missfee said:

If u think that's bad, u should check out some early performances/videos of the group. It was 10x worse.

First Album:

2nd Album:


3rd Album:


By the time the 3rd album had been released (that included 2 Occasions), LA and Face had written a few hits. I believe their biggest at that time was "Slow Jam". Face had also previously released his solo debut, but it failed to produce a "big" hit (although "I Love U Baby" went top 10).

daPrettyman said:

Babyface helped write "Slow Jam" with other members of Midnight Star, whose 1983 masterpiece "No Parking on the Dancefloor" came out before The Deele's first album "Street Beat." By the time "Eyes of a Stranger" was released in 1987, 'Face and L.A. Reid scored with their first hit as a production team -- The Whispers' "Rock Steady."

Babyface's "Lovers" album started picking up steam in the latter part of 1987, and "I Love You Babe" became a top 10 hit. In addition to The Deele's third album, L.A. and 'Face also had produced the post-Howard Hewett Shalamar's album (which featured the singles "Circumstantial Evidence," "Games") during this timeframe.
[Edited 9/18/07 18:38pm]

Don't Forget "Let No One Seperate Us", and "Video Villian"

Najee said:

"Shoot Em Up Movies" sounds like a homage to the early 70s vocal groups.I could imagine a group like the Dramtatics or The Intruders singing it in the early 70s.

Najee said:

On Suite 62 on XM, they refer to it as "Posh".

bboy87 said:

that song is my jam! by the way, i got the street beat albu in the mail yesterday and it is the bomb! i love it.

daPrettyman said:

Gosh they looked like girls!!!! At least "The Time" had a masculine undertone to their style...yeesh

It was the 1980s. Men were women and women were whores. Oh, what good times. The 1980s were a gay man's paradise.

Najee said:

Yeah i remember the song games. L.A and face got a little criticism for that song because it sounded a lot like cameo. Although the mikki free led shalamar group weren't as good as the original trio, i kinda liked the wild punk edge that the new group had. I also liked circumstantial evidence and plaything from that album. I think they released a follow up album around 1990 called wake up.
A buddy of mine had it and i remember listening to it and they had this wild hilarious song on it called pink box that was okay.