Does anyone remember this great post disco track from the early80s. It sounds a lot like prince. I wouldn't have a clue who Freez are, but its great. I bought this disco album set, and the last disc of 4 had this obscure stuff on it, mostly crap but there was this little gem right at the end. It sounds very S.O.S band, Klymaxx type music.

I don't think it sounds like Prince, but before I got into Prince this was my favorite song ever! (Give me a break, I was 13. )

Style-wise, "I.O.U." is more a precursor to the freestyle records (or Latin hip-hop as it was called back then) that dominated dance stations and clubs in the mid to late 80s.

And it's 'Freeez' with three E's.

still one of my favorite tunes 2 this day

I don't think that it sounded like Prince either it has this cool electro vibe, it was produced by Arthur Baker?

jn2 said:

Yep.

For the longest time I thought they were singing A E I O U & sometimes Y.
It's actually "I sometimes cry".

I never got Prince from this track. It's very poppy. It fits the mold of Five Star and Starpoint, but it's probably better.

Hell yeah, I got the 12 Inch at home. It's an ass shaker for sure.

vainandy said:

The 12" version is great. I had it on a Streetsounds compilation around 1984.

I stand corrected, I finally found the video on utube after the next person told me I had the spelling wrong. I then got the shock of my life when it was two Bitish white (gay) Wham lokalike boys with keyboard guitars!!!, when I was expecting a black girl with braids from Brooklyn. Still its an interesting period piece with the BMX's and breakdancing. Its definitely lost any street cred

tane1976 said:

You weren't the first person to think it was a Black woman singing. Many people were confused at first.

Lead singer John Rocca later went solo and had a similar sounding club hit called "I Want It To Be Real". That's a great song too.

Longer version.

/\ Mann, looking for this on youtube,
I found All Night Passion linked to it.
I had a cassette tape with these two songs back to back on it & I remember just chilling in my backyard, blaring these songs out on my monster boom box for hours.

Illustrator said:

Oh damn, I just pulled that Alisha album out last night, no lie. I didn't play it, but I did pull it out and looked at it in bewilderment.

Roxy Classic my Boy John Rocca on Vocals, Pop Goes my Love was the shit too

IAintTheOne said:

This guy is on Mars.



No gravity.

LOVE THIS SONG!!! Takes me right back to early 1984,the breakdancing era.Our local R&B station wore this song out!

Illustrator said:

Wow,I never saw that video before.Those big boom boxes remind me of my junior high days The early 80s was such a fun time.

jn2 said:

"cool electro vibe",indeed I remember at that time,there were alot of songs like these.One that immediately comes to mind is "Remember What You Like" by Jenny Burton,which is similiar to "I.O.U".Maybe we should have a thread on the early 80s electrofunk jams?

tane1976 said:

Are you referring to "The Disco Box",the 4-CD box set from Rhino Records? I have it too.Disc Four contains alot of early 80s jams,but I'm not sure if I would call some of those songs "disco".I was surprised to find "I.O.U" on there.

SoulAlive said:

The one I had was like five times bigger than that.
I hadn't gotten my driver's license yet, so, in lieu of cruising around in my ride with my woofers thumpin' (as was customary in my hood), I would stroll around the streets (in my thickly red-laced Addidas, of course) lugging around this massive piece of monstrousity sound-system, with the sonic-waves of this song enveloping a circumference radius of about 5 miles.

Illustrator said:

Well I'll be...I always thought that was a woman singing!

Aren't videos awesome?

Illustrator said:

I got my first boombox for Christmas '83,and I thought I was the coolest kid on the block walking down the street,blasting "Electricity" by Midnight Star,lol.

Illustrator said:

really? i thought the same thing to

heybaby said:

same here! A,E...A,E,I,O,U....and sometimes Y


you learn something new everyday,lol.

I had a huge one that had a cassette player in the top left hand corner and three speakers across the front. That thing would shake the walls. I remember watching QVC in the 1990s and listening to the salesperson brag on the fact that with new technology, the boomboxes were much smaller. What the bitch didn't mention was that the smaller boom boxes couldn't shake the walls like the big ones did.

vainandy said:

SoulAlive said:

Thats what the computer said when I got it, but it was actually a NZ only complimation called "The Greatest Disco album ever" Vol1 and Vol 2, and each had 2 CDs, and this song was on CD2 of Vol2, most of the songs are 80s except for 1979 hits like Love at First night, the Boss, Aint no stopping us now. On the CD was IOU, but also other early 80s gems like D.I.S.C.O, Lets Groove, Get Down on it etc. It was different to the Rhino set too, as all the music here is controlled by BMG Ariola a german subsidary of Sony, hence while we have to suffer crap from Baccart, Patrick Hernandez, Boney M, La Belle Epoque and other Eurodisco on hit wonders, but we do get Loves Theme, MFSB, The Hustle and some better early American stuff.

This song was very popular in New York in the early 80s

My question..... is what exaclty are the lyrics in the chorus:

"A....E....A, E, I, O, U.....

(here's the tricky part):

"and sometimes Y"

or

"I sometimes cry"