Take Rick James, Sprinkle in Motown Records, and put four girls at the front line, and you have Mary Jane Girls. JoJo, Candi, Corvette, and Maxi.
James founded the group utilizing several female background singers, and released their first self titled album in 1983. It had mild success with the lead single, All Night Long, not to be confused with the more successful Lionel Richie song.
This would lead to their second album, 1985's Only For You, and the success of their second single, In My House. While you would think a top twenty album would poise the girls for only bigger and better things to come, their third album, Conversation, was completed, then shelved.
Morris Day would end up recruiting Cheri Wells to front his upcoming group, Day Zs, but their 1990 debut would fail, and that group disband shortly thereafter. However, fans of MJG would eventually get to hear their third album when it was released in 2014 as part of a larger retrospective for Rick James.
Beyond that, there's not much to really say about the group.
Today, I'm jumping into their second album, Only For You, mainly as a result of the powerhouse hit, In My House.
Only For You starts with the chart topper, and in retrospect of also becoming more familiar with Rick James, definitely sounds like his style of music. It's heavily driven by his bass riffs, and overall is reminiscent of his past work. I dare say he could have easily taken the lead vocals himself, and just called it another solo album.
Though the tracks are full of groove and dance-able beats, nothing really stood out until I made my way to track seven, Girlfriend, which I vaguely remembered from the era it was released. Still, it's always fun during these listening sessions to stumble across a tune and say, "I forgot about that one!"
Overall though, a fan I am not. Listening to this didn't make me wish that the group had stuck around for the long term, no want to go back and listen to their prior released debut. Regardless, I'm happy to have this one in my 80's collection.
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