I thought I'd give this song props too since I have it on a compilation CD right next to Ardianna Evans's song "Trippin". This song is a masterpiece!!! I repeat a masterpiece. This song comes from the 1996 album House Of Music which was released in Nov of 1996, the same day The Artist released his three-disc set Emanicipation. I bought this album the day it came out...and I couldn't believe HOW GOOD it was. This was in my opinion was the best album of 1996. THE WHOLE ALBUM WAS GREAT!!! I really enjoyed their 1993 release Sons Of Soul{another superior recording}. But IMO, The Tonies topped themselves with this House OF Music album.

Listening to House Of Music was like listening to one of those old classic recordings from the 1970's. Full of soul, spunk, radiance and strong rhyhmic vibes, when you get through listening to it, you're still stunned by the effects of what you heard...On the surface,you can truly hear the AL Green and Stylistics influences on this album on songs like "I've Been Thinking Of You...And "Smokes and Gee Whiz".


It's not easy to pick a favorite on this album but I got to go with this one. This is one of those slow numbers in which Raphael and Dwayne Wiggins switch lead vocals{just like those vocal groups like The Spinners used to do back in tha day}.The musical backdrop here is so sweeettt.I love it. Love the way the song just builds and builds all the way up
to that climax in which the Tonies and the horn section just open up that rhythm section. CLASSIC STUFF!!! OOO WEEE, I love this song. This is how R&B/SOUL is supposed to be done... This was such a joy to hear especially in 1996{in an age of watered down, generic, medicore R&B}

The Tonies pulled out a masterwork with this track.


SouthernBrother aka BRO915
[This message was edited Wed Jul 2 4:02:04 PDT 2003 by SouthernBrother]

SouthernBrother said:

I absolutely agree with you 1000%. This entire album was so amazing. To this day, I play the hell out of it.

I later heard Dwayne call it a "failure". He said that it was basically a collection of solo stuff each of them worked on without the others. They got together when they finished it, listened to it all the way through, said "okay", walked out and haven't spoken more than a handful of times since. They even let the A&R choose the singles and the running order for the album.

An accidental masterpiece...

-SWANGintotheTonies

Okay...I can tell already that you and I have some talking to do!!! House of Music was totally underrated. I especially love the gospel-influenced "Lovin' You" reprise and the way the incorporated the early "Motown Sound." Still listen to it (as everything by Raphael Saadiq) to the very day!!!

I love that album it is my favorite tonies album, and wild child is my fav track.

Nice to hear there are others out there. "Lovin' you" is my favorite. "Still a Man" and "Wild Child" are really good too. I played the hell out of this album when it came out and is one of the few albums I play to this day from those years.