Go For It

Performer: Shalamar
Distributor: MSI Music Distribution

Notes: Coming on the heels of two Top Ten LPs, Shalamar's 1981 Go for It, their second album of the year, barely stumbled into the Top 20, reflecting the band's own brief mid-career slump. Still intent on delivering up-tempo R&B hinging on urban beats, disco strings, and funky interludes, Shalamar was suffering from the beginning of inter-band strife that would eventually find both founder members, Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniels, leaving the group for the less-stressful pastures of solo work. And although only one song, the bright-popped but bland "Sweeter As the Days Go By," broke away to enter the charts, there are still some fine moments across the LP. "Go for It," which uses strings and a remarkably fluid bass to marvelous effect, is particularly strong and it's surprising that it wasn't tagged for a single. This, in turn, is well complemented by the edgy James Ingram-penned "You've Got Me Running," while "Talk to Me," co-written by Watley, is a smooth piece of funk-inflected R&B. Elsewhere, though, the band degenerates into the fairly generic slow-movers "Good Feelings" and "The Final Analysis," which features singer Stephanie Mills, both causing Go for It to fumble as often as it flies. ~ Amy Hanson

When R&B impresario Dick Griffey, owner of the S.O.L.A.R. label and booking agent of the classic TV dance-party SOUL TRAIN, wanted to put together a singing group to capitalize on the growing disco trend, he didn't need to look any further than show regulars and dance partners Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniel. (The third member of Shalamar, Howard Hewett, was married to a SOUL TRAIN dancer.) The good-looking trio had strong, soulful voices and great dance moves--it's been said that Daniel created the "Moonwalk"--and had several high-charting hits between 1978 and 1984, after which both Watley and Daniel left for solo careers. Hewett defected for a successful solo run in '86. Although the latter-day group, with vocalists Delisa Davis and Micki Free, won a Grammy, Shalamar never quite recovered the popularity or hit-making power of their disco heyday, and the band folded in 1990.

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