Timmy84 said:

Stephanie totally got in that ass with this one. Makes me forget about Peabo's and I can't even listen to his version anymore!

I like the duet with Teddy better than the solo version.

MickyDolenz said:

Timmy84 said:

Stephanie totally got in that ass with this one. Makes me forget about Peabo's and I can't even listen to his version anymore!

I like the duet with Teddy better than the solo version.

OH MAN DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THAT ONE!

Stephanie & Teddy should've done more duets after "Two Hearts". Goddamn you car accident!

1sotrue said:

yanowha said:

Because A) she never had a Clive Davis or Berry Gordy championing her music and mass-promoting her across multiple radio/video formats, B) her initial impact, for the most part, was mainly with Soul/R&B/Disco/Dance audiences, nothing at all wrong with that, but you know how some people are...if you're not consistently on the top of the pop charts you are irrelevant, and C) after her final major label CD in 1992 she stopped recording secular music for over a decade, in that time she only released one gospel CD, so you have generations who have no idea who she is because of her lack of presence on the music scene, though I'm certain many younger people have discovered her music via YouTube and their parents record collections. Plus I think Stephanie is a very outspoken person and not one to play the games one needs to in order to secure a spot in the very fickle and cut-throat world of the entertainment industry. Though I don't know for certain, this may have something to do with why so much of her catalog has never been reissued on CD. That, and some people just have no taste. I keed. I keed. ...........

[Edited 6/11/11 19:25pm]

Good points... After the success of 'Never Knew Love Like This Before' she shouldve had another pop single. Then again her voice sounds so Gospel. I wonder if James Mtume produce her second album. She deserves to be honored just as much as Patti Labelle at the BET awards.

James Mtume & Reggie Lucas produced 4 albums for Steph between 1979 and 1982. Though 'Tantalizingly Hot' did include 2 Ashford & Simpson productions and a song Steph produced herself. From your question I assume you believe the album containing NKLLTB was her debut album. It was not. It was actually her 4th LP.

Stephanie had a very successful run in the game. And I don't measure success solely on sales and chart positions. She made quality music, worked with the best of the best, and always received massive love, support, and airplay from R&B radio. She was a mainstay on the black radio for over a decade. Even her album cuts received heavy airplay. If the people now running BET are too witless to honor her acheivements, she is still a legend.

[Edited 6/12/11 14:28pm]

^ BET always honor the ones we know too fucking well. I stopped looking for them to surprise me. They'll never acknowledge Stephanie in her lifetime.

I've been listening to Stephanie's late '70's (I believe) stuff lately. Like "Deeper Inside Your Love", "Starlight" and "Never Knew Love Like This Before". I think my favorite from her is "I've Learned To Respect The Power Of Love".......it is right now anyway.

She's appreciated by me......

.

Timmy84 said:

Love me some Stephanie

Even though I love Patti Labelle she tends to scream to much in her songs and she loses her soulfness.

Stephanie next to Denise Williams always had that genunine sound where they can sing anything and it never sounds bad.

I am surprised she has had not had her own Unsung yet

Her story needs to be heard.

As Timmy has mentioned, Ms. Mills has something in her voice that touches you. Then all the great singers have that quality, don't they? How we do we define a successful career? I don't agree with the tired sentiment, crossing over a.k.a. watering down your style of music "to be accepted" was they way to go either. She wasn't the problem, a mind-set of American record companies were the major part of her problem.

The Wiz, the powers wanted name recognition not necessarily the best person for the part. To put it bluntly, Ms. Ross was too old for the part. She couldn't have pulled off (the part of Dorothy ) if she had been 17. I hope someone does a documentary about Ms. Mills too Timmy, but no Unsung crap... those people are no good.

That's why I said "a longer documentary". Fuck an Unsung.

Timmy84 said:

That's why I said "a longer documentary". Fuck an Unsung.

They did a couple of long Unsungs documentaries like Debarge and Phyllis Hyman but I agree a 2 part would be good

yanowha said:

1sotrue said:

yanowha said: Good points... After the success of 'Never Knew Love Like This Before' she shouldve had another pop single. Then again her voice sounds so Gospel. I wonder if James Mtume produce her second album. She deserves to be honored just as much as Patti Labelle at the BET awards.

James Mtume & Reggie Lucas produced 4 albums for Steph between 1979 and 1982. Though 'Tantalizingly Hot' did include 2 Ashford & Simpson productions and a song Steph produced herself. From your question I assume you believe the album containing NKLLTB was her debut album. It was not. It was actually her 4th LP.

Stephanie had a very successful run in the game. And I don't measure success solely on sales and chart positions. She made quality music, worked with the best of the best, and always received massive love, support, and airplay from R&B radio. She was a mainstay on the black radio for over a decade. Even her album cuts received heavy airplay. If the people now running BET are too witless to honor her acheivements, she is still a legend.

[Edited 6/12/11 14:28pm]

Thanks for the info. I was aware that was not her first album that she was actually signed to the Motown label first before she starred in 'The Wiz'.

Yes I agree she did have a successful run in the game. In New York R&B radio always had massive support for SM. She was considered the 'hometown darling' since she hails from Brooklyn NY.

Lkie Timmy84 says she deserves a documentary not an Unsung episode you know she's got a story to tell.

I just wish someone would properly reissue all of her 80's Cassablanca catalog! There's actually been some discussion about it but there are some politics involved that's keeping it from happening.

Timmy84 said:

Stephanie totally got in that ass with this one. Makes me forget about Peabo's and I can't even listen to his version anymore!

Oh yes Stephanie killed it with her version. Its much more raw and passionate being sung by a woman than a man.

[Edited 6/14/11 18:26pm]

Killer combo of one of the then best synth producers (Harold Faltermeyer), along with Mills giving it her all as usual LOL.

Timmy84 said:

My fave Stephanie song along with "Never Knew Love Like This".

Stephanie is a very talented singer who truly doesn't get the credit she deserves. Very underrated.

Cinnamon234 said:

Timmy84 said:

My fave Stephanie song along with "Never Knew Love Like This".

Stephanie is a very talented singer who truly doesn't get the credit she deserves. Very underrated.

Exactly.

Hip-o’s New Stephanie Mills Anthology

Stephanie Mills’ very first LP was titled Movin’ in the Right Direction. And although the 1975 LP on the ABC-Paramount label didn’t launch her career as a recording artist with a bang, its title was certainly apt. A few years later, the label would be 20th Century Fox instead of Paramount, and Mills would skyrocket to superstardom in the disco era. Her hitmaking records for 20th Century Fox Records are being compiled by Hip-o Select for the August 23 release of Feel the Fire: The 20th Century Collection. This 2-CD anthology brings together Mills’ three albums for the label recorded between 1979 and 1981, and adds a brace of singles and 12-inch mixes for a definitive overview of her time there.

Mills was only 18 in 1975, but her showbiz career had begun many years earlier. At the age of 11, she won Amateur Night at New York’s Apollo Theatre a record six times, and shortly thereafter she was cast as one of the children in the 1968 Broadway musical Maggie Flynnstarring Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones. (The delightful RCA Victor cast album of Maggie Flynn has just been reissued by our good friends at Sony’s Masterworks Broadway.) Mills recorded her first single for ABC in 1973, and her persistence finally paid off with her breakthrough performance as Dorothy when William F. Brown and Charlie Smalls’ The Wiz opened at Broadway’s Majestic Theatre on January 5, 1975.

Mills was one major reason for the show’s phenomenal success when it finally arrived in New York after a tumultous tryout at Baltimore’s Morris A. Mechanic Theatre in late 1974.

She earned two signature songs from Charlie Smalls’ score, as expertly orchestrated by Harold Wheeler (today the conductor of television’s Dancing with the Stars!), when she introduced “Home” and “Ease On Down the Road.” Following The Wiz, she focused on her recording career. Despite the lack of success of Movin’ in the Right Direction, Motown signed her. The storied label paired Mills with Burt Bacharach and Hal David for that team’s final co-production, recorded during a brief reconciliation during their period of estrangement. It was their only work for Berry Gordy’s empire, though the Motown stable of artists frequently raided their songbook. The long out-of-print For the First Time introduced many Bacharach and David originals along with a couple of remakes of songs associated with Dionne Warwick, “This Empty Place” (also popular with many Merseybeat artists) and “Loneliness Remembers (What Happiness Forgets).” Despite the strength of such songs as “No One Remembers My Name,” “I Took My Strength From You” and “Living on Plastic,” as well as Bacharach’s contemporary arrangements that showed his musical evolution from his sixties heyday, the album didn’t go anywhere. Typical for Motown, Mills continued to record, but her remaining tracks didn’t see release until 1982. By that time, she could bask in the glow of the recording success that had previously eluded her, thanks to the success of a string of albums on the 20th Century Fox label.

The production team of James Mtume and Reggie Lucas were responsible for producing and writing the bulk of Mills’ 20th Century material. The Philadelphia-born Mtume brought his varied experience to the table, which included playing percussion for Miles Davis and fronting his own R&B group, Mtume. Lucas, too, came from the jazz world, having played guitar with Davis as well as with Norman Connors. The combined Mtume-Lucas team would enrich the albums of a great number of soul divas, including Mills, Jennifer Holliday and Phyllis Hyman. On his own, Lucas wrote “Borderline” and produced Madonna’s 1983 debut album. For Mills, Mtume and Lucas wrapped her emotive vocals in rich disco arrangements. The title song of 1979′s What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin’ was a Top Ten R&B hit and the album itself peaked at No. 22 pop and No. 12 R&B. Peabo Bryson’s “Feel the Fire,” which gives this compilation its title, came from this album as well. That same year, 20th Century enlisted Mills to record a single of “Better Than Ever,” from James L. Brooks and Alan J. Pakula’s film Starting Over. The song was written by the white-hot team of Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager, and sung onscreen by Candice Bergen. The actress earned an Academy Award nomination for her role as a songwriter. ”Better Than Ever” has been included on Feel the Fire. (Its B-side was “You Can Get Over” from What Cha…)

Mills’ second 20^th Century effort, 1980′s Sweet Sensation, yielded her most enduring pop hit, the effervescent “Never Knew Love Like This Before.” The song won Mtume and Lucas a Grammy Award, and peaked at No. 6 on the pop singles chart while also meeting success on R&B and Adult Contemporary. The following year, the Mills/Mtume/Lucas triumverate reunited for Stephanie, which spawned another hit single (No. 40 pop), “Two Hearts.” She was joined by the velvet-voiced Philadelphia soul legend Teddy Pendergrass for this track. With disco largely having passed, “Two Hearts” joined the album’s other tracks in the slow-burning quiet storm vein. Luther Vandross contributed backing vocals, and David Spinozza brought his customary deft musicianship on guitar. Stephanie was Mills’ final album for 20th Century; she departed for Casablanca, a label with strong roots in disco and also reinventing itself by 1982. She continued her hit streak there with Prince’s “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore?” and dancefloor hit “Pilot Error.” The Casablanca association lasted through three albums, before Mills went to MCA, where she remained for a long tenure.

Stephanie Mills has maintained a busy schedule, diversifying into the gospel realm and even returning to the musical stage for the 1997 Paper Mill Playhouse production of Stephen (Wicked, Godspell) Schwartz’s musical Children of Eden. Universal (owner of Hip-o Select) now controls virtually all of Mills’ catalogue, not only the 20th Century Fox years but also her work at ABC-Paramount, Motown, Casablanca and MCA. Future anthologies of Mills’ work for those labels would be welcome, but Hip-o is certainly starting with the most familiar, essential hits with Feel the Fire. You won’t want to miss this one, and it’s in stores on August 23.

Stephanie Mills, Feel the Fire: The 20th C...Collection (Hip-o Select B0015795-02, 2011)

1. What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin’
2. You Can Get Over
3. Deeper Inside Your Love
4. Feel The Fire
5. Put Your Body In It
6. Starlight
7. You And I
8. Don’t Stop Dancin’
9. Sweet Sensation
10. Try My Love
11. I Just Wanna Say
12. Wish That You Were Mine
13. D-A-N-C-I-N’
14. Still Mine
15. Never Knew Love Like This Before
16. Mixture Of Love
17. Better Than Ever

Disc 2

1. Winner
2. Two Hearts
3. Don’t Stop Doin’ What ‘Cha Do
4. Top Of My List
5. I Believe In Love Songs
6. Night Games
7. My Love’s Been Good To You
8. Magic
9. What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin’ (12″ Version)
10. Put Your Body In It (12″ Version)
11. You Can Get Over (12″ Version)
12. Sweet Sensation (12″ Version)
13. Two Hearts (12″ Remix)

Disc 1, Tracks 1-8 from What Cha Gonna Do with My Lovin’ (20th Century T-583, 1979)
Disc 1, Tracks 9-16 from Sweet Sensation (20th Century T-603, 1980)
Disc 1, Track 17 from 20th Century single TC-2427, 1979
Disc 2, Tracks 1-8 from Stephanie (20th Century T-700, 1981)
Disc 2, Tracks 9-10 from 20th Century 12-inch single TCD-86, 1979
Disc 2, Track 11 from 20th Century 12-inch single TCD-99. 1979
Disc 2, Track 12 from 20th Century 12-inch single TCD-1076, 1980
Disc 2, Track 13 likely from 20th Century 12-inch single TCD-2492, 1981

source: the second disc

[Edited 7/21/11 12:04pm]

^ Damn got all the 12 inches on disc 2.

This shit was like the Black woman's anthem in the day! Everytime you turned on the radio....everytime somebody put a quarter in the juke joint my uncle operated...everytime the little girls at school got together at PE and shit like that.

Adisa said:

This shit was like the Black woman's anthem in the day! Everytime you turned on the radio....everytime somebody put a quarter in the juke joint my uncle operated...everytime the little girls at school got together at PE and shit like that.

What song? Feel the Fire? lol

[Edited 7/21/11 12:11pm]

Timmy84 said:

^ Damn got all the 12 inches on disc 2.

That's what I'm sayin'.

Where's is my partner in crime with this type of stuff, Soul are you getting this?

TD3 said:

Timmy84 said:

^ Damn got all the 12 inches on disc 2.

That's what I'm sayin'.

Where's is my partner in crime with this type of stuff, Soul are you getting this?

Knowing him? Yeah lol

Timmy84 said:

Adisa said:

This shit was like the Black woman's anthem in the day! Everytime you turned on the radio....everytime somebody put a quarter in the juke joint my uncle operated...everytime the little girls at school got together at PE and shit like that.

What song? Feel the Fire? lol

[Edited 7/21/11 12:11pm]

Piece of shit org didn't load the vid, lol. "I Have Learned to Respect The Power of Love".

Adisa said:

Timmy84 said:

What song? Feel the Fire? lol

[Edited 7/21/11 12:11pm]

Piece of shit org didn't load the vid, lol. "I Have Learned to Respect The Power of Love".

Ohhhh lol yeah I can see why.

Harlepolis said:

Timmy84 said:

Gordy didn't want Ross to do it. So let's destroy that myth. Also, Diana practically begged the producers to choose her because she was a bigger name. For some reason she thought she could sell the film and not Stephanie. While the film version has become a cult favorite, the original play's fans still hasn't forgave Diana for that.

Gordy had enough clout and power to say "Nah bitch, I got this" but greed got into his head and evidently, he too was on the same page as Diane as far as sales attraction were concerned. And what were the results? A filthy powerhouse mess with epic proportions.

I think Diana threatend to walk on Motown if they didn't give her the role. I think Berry was second guessing himself about her clout as an actress because all of the real success that Motown had with movies were showcases for Diana. And because he was afraid Motown artists with clout were all starting to jumping ship on him. And his artist roster was starting to look like Stevie, Smoke and then - steep drop - Jermaine Jackson.

Whatever the reason, that casting was both shocking and heartbreaking. Thank Goodnes Stephanine won the GRAMMY AWARD in 1981 for best album. I little bit of faith restored in the universe.