Chart entered : 24 April 1982
Chart peak : 7
Number of hits : 12 ( 11 solo, 1 as part of Council Collective )
Norman "Junior " Giscombe was born in Wandsworth in 1957 and grew up listening to doo wop, soul and reggae. He became involved in the Brit-funk movement at the beginning of the eighties. In early 1981 he released a single "Hot Up and Heated" on Fire Sign which is a fine Chic impersonation and a good showcase for his elastic vocals somewhere between Michael Jackson and Billy Ocean. He also started singing backing vocals for Linx although clearly a superior singer to David Grant. He also adopted Grant's "specs and suit" image.
Linx's keyboard player and producer Bob Carter got together with him to co-write and produce this single for Mercury. It covers similar lyrical territory to Linx's Intuition ( which Carter co-wrote ) in its tribute to maternal wisdom. It was originally released in September 1981 and did nothing; I'm not sure I've heard that version but the general consensus seems to be that it was poorly mixed with the vocals too far back. Six months later it was re-mixed in the US by Tee Scott, and, in what would become a familiar move in the eighties singles market, sent out again. Now it was a bright and brash pop funk number played mainly on synths with upfront production and Junior switching effortlessly from the growl on the chorus hook to the mainly falsetto verses. It did the business on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching number 30 in the US .
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