Word Up!

Performer: Cameo
Artist: Stanley Clarke; Bernard Wright; The Brecker Brothers; Charlie Singleton
Engineer: Eric Calvi; Jerry Soloman; Dave Ogrin; Matthew Casha; Matthew Kasha; J. Rodriguez; Larry Alexander; Michel Sauvage
Producer: Larry Blackmon
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Recorded at Quad Recording Studio, Counter Point Studio, Power Station Studio, and Sound Ideas Studio, New York, New York. Cameo: Larry Blackmon, Nathan Leftenant, Tomi Jenkins. Personnel: Larry Blackmon (vocals, bass guitar, drums, percussion, background vocals); Tomi Jenkins (vocals, background vocals); Charlie Singleton (guitar, background vocals); Patrick Buchanon (guitar); Melvin Wells (saxophone, background vocals); Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker (saxophone); Crispin Cioe (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Arno Hecht (tenor saxophone); Hollywood Paul Litteral (trumpet); Robert Funk (trombone); Kevin Kendricks, Merv DePyere, Merv De Peyer, Kenni Hairston, Bernard Wright, Eric Rehl (keyboards); Peter Scherer (synthesizer, programming); Michael Burnett (bass guitar, background vocals); Aaron Mills (bass guitar); Sammy Merendino (drums, programming, drum programming); Duduka Da Fonseca, Giovanni Hidalgo, Steve Thornton (percussion); William "Willy Gunz" Morris, Wilbur Morris, Nathan Leftenant (background vocals). Audio Mixers: Eric Calvi; Dave Ogrin; Matthew Kasha; Alan Meyerson. Recording information: Counter Point Studio, NY, NY; Power Station Studio, NY, NY; Quad Recording Studio, NY, NY; Sound Ideas Studio. The most inescapable funk single of 1986 was Cameo's brilliant "Word Up!," a perfect fusion of gimmicky production--Larry Blackmon's distinctive lead vocal was recorded through a transistor radio to give it a curiously distant, almost robotic quality--and an almost painfully funky groove. Following it with the nearly as perfect "Candy" is by itself enough to make WORD UP Cameo's best studio album by far, but the other five extended funk-rockers are up to those high standards as well. More than any funk band who had been releasing albums before Prince blew up in the early '80s--and that includes the P-Funk crew--Cameo understood how to update their sound without losing their essential funk, adding synths and drum machines to their bass-driven rhythms and coming up with minor masterpieces like the self-evident "Fast, Fierce, and Funny" in the process.

This New York funk group, led by drummer/singer Larry Blackmon, began recording in the mid-1970s, but didn't reach its peak of popularity until the 1986 hit "Word Up," which defined Cameo's angular, synth-laced sound. Blackmon's outrageous stage persona and the group's simple hooks were key elements to the band's success.

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