Chart entered : 14 January 1989
Chart peak : 17
Number of hits : 15
We move into the last year of the eighties. It seems to be established wisdom that 1975 was the worst year for pop since the Beatles but I personally would nominate 1989. I remember having real problems compiling my personal Top 40 at the end of the year for want of candidates.
Adeva's only real significance for me is that she became my stock answer at pop quizzes whenever some mundane house / R & B track with a female vocal came up. The strategy worked once or twice.
Adeva was born in 1960 as Patricia Daniels in New Jersey. She began singing in her church choir before switching her attentions to the house scene. In 1988 she released the single "In and Out of My Life" on Seattle' s Easy Street Records label which isn't a bad piano house tune despite some clumsy phrasing.
On the strength of that she got a deal with the UK label, Cooltempo. "Respect" was her first release for them. It is the Otis Redding song made immortal by Arethra Franklin. Adeva re-tools the melody ( not the song's strongest suit in the first place ) to suit the sort of chugging backing track that M People would come to own. She eschews Arethra's spelling out of the word in favour of unlovely howls of "Respect Meeeee !" and comes up with her own ad libs. She's got a decent voice but it doesn't work for me at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment