"All This Love" by DeBarge

   Happy Valentine’s Day friends! As has become tradition on this day that celebrates love, the Radio Dial is doing its part by spotlighting a classic romantic ballad from radio’s past, which doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves nowadays. Prepare to get the “warm fuzzies” from DeBarge and their 1983 classic “All This Love”!

“I had some problems… and no one could seem to solve them… But you found the answer… you told me to take this chance and learn the ways of love…”

As I imagine you recall, DeBarge is a family group comprised of siblings Bunny, James, Mark, Randy, and El DeBarge, hailing from Detroit, Michigan. All family members play various instruments including bass, keyboards, and horns, and all contribute vocals, though El is typically positioned as the “lead” on their tracks due to his high tenor and strong falsetto.

An elegant quiet storm soul ballad, “All…” is a declaration of love and devotion from a guy who credits his lady with making him open up and become receptive to romance, and how his life has improved since she’s entered his life.

As classy and romantic as “All This Love” is, it’s amazing to note that it was NOT the lead single from the group’s 1982 LP which shares its title! That first single was “Stop! Don’t Tease Me”, which only reached US R&B #46, and earned no pop notice at all. Luckily for us, the record label had faith in the group and the LP, and issued “All This Love” as a follow-up single despite the underwhelming performance of the previous tune. This rewarded the group with their biggest hit to date, as “All…” hit US #17 pop, R&B #5, and A/C #1. A third single was extracted that did decently as well, the US #31 pop, and R&B #2 tune “I Like It”.

In addition to the DeBarge family, the recording is a bit of an all-star collaboration, as it prominently features an acoustic guitar solo by Jose “Feliz Navidad” Feliciano, smooth saxophone courtesy of jazz superstar Gerald Albright, and expert drumming by Ollie E. Brown, whom would have a hit of his own the following year as part of the duo “Ollie & Jerry” with singer Jerry Knight with their US #9 “Breakin’… There’s No Stopping Us”.

“You said that you loved me… said hurt only came to pass me… It sounded so convincing… that I gave it half a chance…”

This is another of one of those songs that seemed to drop off of top 40 playlists too quickly after its peak, and I actually forgot about it for several years until I caught it playing on a light rock station sometime in the ‘90s. I picked up the song near the end, right around El‘s ad libs ("I neeeed you... please hearrrr me."), and as such, I misinterpreted it as a lesser hit of Carly Simon's.

I know that sounds absolutely nuts, but to my ears, El’s vocalization of those adlibs reminded me of similar adlibs that Carly was doing in her later material which tended toward the smooth jazz / adult contemporary vein that DeBarge was mining here.

And of course, the deejay didn’t identify the title or artist (they never do when you need them to) and this was well before the internet, so there was no convenient way to look up song lyrics. Years later, I heard the song again, this time in its entirety, and looked up more of the lyrics online to discover that it was a DeBarge number (and not Carly Simon at all), and thus, my embarrassing blunder. But hey, nobody else knew about my mistake until now, when I just shared it with you, my loyal readers. I know you feel privileged, and you’re welcome.

“Say you really love me baby… say you really love me darlin’”

"All This Love" is one of the most calming pop songs I’ve ever heard. It is smooth, romantic, passionate, and gorgeous. Even as a kid, well before I could personally identify with love ballads, this song put me in a relaxed and centered mood and I always looked forward to hearing it, and I still do to this day.

So snuggle up to your special someone, share a glass of wine, and play for them DeBarge’s romantic classic. Go ahead and steal a kiss, I won’t look. And hey… Happy Valentine’s Day, from Kyle’s Radio Dial!

“All this love is waiting for you… my baby… my sugar…”



"Hyperactive" by Thomas Dolby

     Welcome back, friends! The Dial is BACK and ALL–NEW for 2018! Well, it’s as "all new" as a blog about older songs gets! But… you knew what I meant!

Anywho… we kick off 2018 with a new wave classic from an English keyboardist and producer whom is best known for blinding us with science! From 1984, its London’s Thomas Dolby and his nervous little ditty about being "Hyperactive"!

"At the tender age of three, I was hooked to a machine, just to keep my mouth from spouting junk."

Pulled from Dolby’s LP "The Flat Earth", Hyperactive peaked at UK #17, but charted much lower here in the states, at US #62. Thomas has discussed that he wrote the song for Michael Jackson for what was to become The Jacksons' Victory LP, but The King of Pop never got back to him after he sent him the demo. So, not to let a good groove go to waste, Dolby wisely recorded the tune himself.

A quirky, horn laden, new wave dance stomper, "Hyperactive" concerns itself with a guy that suffers from… well… hyperactivity. He mentions being diagnosed as a youngster, but the problem has grown worse into adulthood. 

The majority of the song makes it seem like his medical condition does nothing more than turn him into a dancing fool, however, the final verse takes a sinister turn, as Tom states that he is "the shape in your back room", "the breather on the phone", and he warns that you’d be safer at the back when he’s having an attack! (Somebody get this man some Adderall, STAT!)

Now, this may just serve as a creative synonym for his manic dancing, but then again, maybe it really points to a dangerous psychosis! Perhaps it was this dark quality to the song that made MJ not respond to Dolby.

"Must have took me for a fool, when they chucked me out of school, ‘cause the teacher knew I had the funk!"

Lately, as I reflect on the music of my younger years, I’ve found that certain songs continue to hold vivid memories of my childhood, and quite a few of these date from 1984 in particular.

For instance, even now, over 33 years since its release, Shannon’s "Let the Music Play" always reminds me of clothes shopping with my Mom and Grandma at Burlington Coat Factory, of all things. Shannon’s hit was playing over the in-store speakers that day and that specific moment, which likely would have been mundane and unmemorable for anybody else, for whatever reason, left a vivid impression on me.

Then there’s Chicago’s "You're the Inspiration". I always flashback to watching my two classmates Sheila and Brad slow dance to this song at a middle school dance and wishing I had the self-confidence to approach a girl (like Sheila) and dance with her. Which I didn’t. Sucks to be me.

Finally, and most dramatically, there’s Nena’s "99 Luftballons" via its English translation "99 Red Balloons". The entire ending of the song gets me. When Nena sings about walking through "this dust that was a city", coupled with that final ascending tone representing one red balloon being released into the sky… awwww man… it gave me serious chills as a kid once I understood it was about nuclear war, and it still makes me feel that same way today, no matter how many times I hear it. Absolutely brilliant.

"Semaphore out on the floor… messages from outer space… deep heat for the feet, and the rhythm of your heartbeat."

I place Dolby’s Hyperactive in this class of ’84 as well, mainly because of its bizarre music video. In particular, the ventriloquist dummy losing its head while continuing to "speak" creeped me out as a kid.

As I didn’t have MTV back then (cable TV wasn’t offered in my part of rural Maryland at the time, and satellite dishes were more than my folks could reasonably afford), I caught Dolby’s video on either Friday Night Videos, or a one-hour long music video show (that I’ve forgotten the name of, darn it) that aired in the evening on local UHF channel 50.

Whenever I’ve heard the song since, I’m always instantly transported back to my parents’ rec room in ’84, watching the arresting visual of that dummy’s neck elongate for the first time… wild stuff, to be sure.

Now, I have to apologize for how the music video will appear in the window below. Apparently a clean, unmolested version of the video does not exist on YouTube due to copyright concerns, so people uploading the video have to get clever. I had a choice between displaying a version of the video playing in reverse order, or this version with the split screen. I chose the split screen because you can look at the right half of the window and see the correct video as I viewed it all those years ago.

I’ve also posted an alternate way to watch the video (in its original form) by visiting Dailymotion.com at the link below. This should display the video in a different window. You may need to disable a pop up blocker at least temporarily to watch the video this way. It’s your call.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xclltw

So kick your February into high gear with this shot of nervous pop energy courtesy of Mr. Dolby! And after you watch it, make sure you calm the heck down… we don’t need you or anybody else getting hurt!

"Hyperactive when I was small, hyperactive now I’m tall, hyperactive as the day is long."