Jody Watley
Jody Watley (born
Chicago, Illinois on
January 30,
1959) is an American pop singer, songwriter, producer.
To date, Jody Watley has sold over 20 million albums and singles worldwide. Along with
Janet Jackson and
Madonna, ranks as one of
MTV Video Music Awards most nominated female artist ever, with ten nominations. She won the 1988
Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
She ranks at the #144 most successful R&B artist of all time according to
Billboard Magazine.
Watley got her start as a dancer on the hit TV show
Soul Train at age fourteen. From
1977 to
1984, she was a singer in the
R&B group
Shalamar with
Howard Hewett and
Jeffrey Daniel. The group achieved a
platinum-selling album,
Friends, and the #1 R&B singles "A Night To Remember", "This Is For The Lover In You", and "The Second Time Around" in the
U.S.; the group also scored numerous Top 10 hits on the
UK charts. After several conflicts within the group, Watley left disillusioned. Post Shalamar, Jody took part in
Bob Geldof's
Band Aid alongside such stars as
Sting,
Bono from
U2,
George Michael. Their charity single "
Do They Know It's Christmas?" helped raise millions of dollars for famine relief in
Ethiopia.
*
Take that to the Bank*
A Night to RememberJody Watley
 |
The cover to 1987s Jody Watley. |
Watley's solo debut album,
Jody Watley, was released on
March 31 1987 on
MCA Records. The lead-off single, "Looking For A New Love", became a hit with an instant catch phrase ("Hasta La Vista…Baby"). The single stayed at #2 on the
Billboard's Hot 100 Single chart for four weeks, and sold over 750,000 copies in the U.S.
 |
Winning the "Best New Artist" Grammy |
The album peaked at #10 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart and spawned four more hits, "Don't You Want Me" (#6), "Still A Thrill" (#56), "Some Kind Of Lover" (#10) and "Most Of All" (#60). It sold over two million copies in the U.S. and nearly five million copies worldwide.
At the 30th Annual
Grammy Awards, Watley was named
Best New Artist, and was also nominated for
Best R&B Vocal Performance - Female. That same year (
1988), she was also nominated for four
MTV Video Music Awards, three
Soul Train Awards including
Album of the Year and
Single of the Year and an
American Music Award.
*
Looking For a New Love Video*
Still a Thrill Video*
Don't You Want Me Video*
Most of All VideoLarger Than Life
 |
The cover to 1989s Larger Than Life. |
Jody's second album,
Larger Than Life, released on
March 28 1989, solidified her as a pop icon in the music industry. The album sold over four million copies worldwide, and hit the Top 5 on the
R&B Albums chart in
America. The first single release, "Real Love", was a sizable hit that set a trend with its new style of bass-thumping dance. In America, it hit #1 on the
R&B Singles chart, the
Single Sales chart, and the
Dance chart, while hitting #2 on the
Pop chart; the single also went
gold there for attaining sales of over 500,000 copies. The album contained two more Top 10 Pop, Dance and R&B hits: "Friends" (feauturing
Eric B. & Rakim) and the ballad "Everything".
During the summer of
1989, Watley's "Real Love" video, directed by
David Fincher, was nominated for seven
MTV Video Music Awards including , , , and at the 1989 award show. That record was held until
Michael Jackson and
Janet Jackson's video "Scream" received eleven
VMA nominations in 1995. The next year, she was also nominated for two
Soul Train Awards, an
NAACP Image Award for
Outstanding Female Artist, and a
Narm Award for
Best Selling R&B Female Album. While riding high on her Larger Than Life World Tour, a remix album,
You Wanna Dance with Me?, was released in October 1989 and hit gold in America.
*
Real Love video*
Everything video*
Friends videoDance To Fitness
|
The cover to 1990s Dance To Fitness. |
In
1990, Watley released a million-selling home video,
Dance To Fitness, a first for a black woman. Jody continued to be visible appearing in ad campaigns for
GAP, and fashion layouts in such high profile magazines as Harper's Bazaar,
Vogue,
Rolling Stone, and
Essence. Jody Watley was also named one of
People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People of 1990. That year Watley broadened her musical horizons by contributing a jazzy rendition of "After You" to
Red, Hot, & Blue, an
AIDS-awareness charity recording by contemporary stars singing
Cole Porter. The following year, Jody married long time producer André Cymone.
Affairs Of The Heart
 |
The cover to 1991s Affairs Of The Heart. |
On
December 17,
1991, Watley released her critically-acclaimed, yet commercially disappointing, third album,
Affairs Of The Heart. The album peaked at #21 on the Billboard Top R&B albums chart (#124 on the Billboard Top 200), and sold less than 400,000 copies in the U.S. Watley claimed to have had only minor marketing and promotional support for her new sound and artistic vision. Although the lead off single, "I Want You," peaked at #5 on the R&B Singles Chart, it only managed to climb to #61 on the Hot 100 charts. The next single, "I'm The One You Need" fared better, peaking at #19 on the Hot 100. The album's final single, "It All Begins With You," which she was invited by President
George H. W. Bush in 1992 to perform at the
White House, failed to chart.
Intimacy
On
November 9,
1993 MCA released Jody's fourth solo album,
Intimacy. The album only reached #38 on the Billboard Top R&B albums chart (#164 on Billboard Top 200), and sold approximately 250,000 copies in the U.S. Its two releases, "Your Love Keeps Working On Me" and the rap/hip-hop tune "When A Man Loves A Woman", achieved moderate success on the R&B and Dance singles charts; peaking at #26 R&B/#2 Dance, and #11 R&B/#16 Dance respectively. The Driza Bone Remix of "When A Man Loves A Man" also topped the dance charts in the
UKAffection
 |
The cover to 1995s Affection. |
After having parted ways with MCA Records, Jody took an independent and entrepreneurial path releasing her fifth solo album,
Affection, on
July 11,
1995 through her own
Avitone Records label. The noted independent
Bellmark Records distributed it. It sold approx. 143,000 copies, according to Soundscan and spent a few months on the Billboard R&B chart.
Greatest Hits
In
1996, Jody's career hit an upswing. On
February 13, MCA released a Greatest Hits package on Jody's recordings for the label. She then made history as the first African-American to play Rizzo in the hit
Broadway musical
Grease, and appeared in the
Saks Fifth Avenue catalog.
That fall, Watley scored a
platinum-selling single as a guest vocalist on
Babyface's "This Is For The Lover In You". The single, which also featured vocals from
LL Cool J and Watley's former Shalamar groupmates
Howard Hewitt and
Jeffery Daniels, was a remake of Shalamar's Top 10 hit by the same name. Babyface's version peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, and #2 on the R&B Singles Chart. The song's video also received heavy rotation on
MTV and
BET. As the year wound to a close, Jody signed with
Big Beat/Atlantic Records, and began working on what was to be her major label come-back.
Flower
 |
The cover to 1998s Flower. |
After spending most of
1997 in the recording studio crafting her sixth studio album, Flower, Watley was back in early
1998 with its lead off singles "Off The Hook" and "If I'm Not In Love." In spite of both songs hitting #1 on the Billboard Dance Charts, and "Off The Hook" peaking at #23 on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart, both ultimately failed to make waves on the pop chart. Big Beat Records was absorbed into its parent label,
Atlantic Records, which then shelved the album from a
U.S. release after its first single 'Off The Hook' charted Top 40 R&B, and #1 on the Billboard Dance Singles Chart, and the follow up remix single of "If I'm Not in Love With You' also topped the Billboard Dance Chart.. Flower, however, was only released in Canada, Great Britain and Japan. The critically-acclaimed release was championed by many UK magazines, including Blues and Soul, and Echoes magazine among others.
The Saturday Night Experience
 |
The cover to 1999s Saturday Night Experience. |
In November
1999, Jody reactivated her independent label, Avitone, and released her seventh studio album
The Saturday Night Experience. A collection of organic club music tracks, was released in
Japan, where she was still a bankable artist. Meanwhile,
Destiny's Child released a cover of Watley's
Flower album track "Sweet Sixteen", on their multi-platinum
The Writing's On The Wall. The next year, MCA released
The Jody Watley Millennium Collection, a sort of leaner version of Watley's previous Greatest Hits album.
Midnight Lounge
 |
The cover to 2001s Midnight Lounge. |
In
2001, Jody released her eighth studio album,
Midnight Lounge in Europe and Japan. A collection of tracks that combined a blend of soul, jazz, R&B, and club music. After achieving moderate success in its original origins of release, Watley arranged for it to be released in the U.S. through the independent label Shanachie Records on
March 11,
2003. Midnight Lounge was Watley's first studio album released in the U.S. in eight years, reaching Top 20 status on Billboard Top Dance Album chart, and her single "Whenever" hit No.19 on Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play Chart.
In
2005, Jody made history on the Billboard
Hot Dance Music/Club Play Chart, when she re-released her 1987 smash hit "Looking For A New Love", her 2005 remixes of the song hit No.1 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart for the 2nd time in 2005, making her the first artist ever to take the same song to No.1 in two different decades. [
1]. The 2005 mixes of the single also became good sellers on
iTunes.
Jody's new album,
The Makeover is slated for release on
August 8,
2006 on her own label,
Avitone Records which is distributed by
Shanachie Records. The 1st single/video is a remake of
Madonna's "Borderline".
Albums
| Album | Chart Statistics | Singles |
|---|
*Studio album
*Released: 3/31/87
*Label: MCA
*Billboard peak position: 10
*Billboard R&B peak position: 1 (3 weeks)
*UK chart peak position: 50
*Total worldwide sales: 5.0 million
*U.S. sales: Platinum [2]
*Canada: Gold [3]
*"Looking For A New Love"
*"Still A Thrill"
*"Don't You Want Me"
*"Some Kind Of Lover"
*"Most Of All" |
*Studio album
*Released: 3/28/89
*Label: MCA
*Billboard peak position: 15
*Billboard R&B peak position: 5
*UK chart peak position: 39
*Japan: 75 (11,700 copies) [4]
*Total worldwide sales: 4.0 million
*U.S. sales: Gold [5]
*Canada: Gold [6]
*"Real Love" U.S. sales: Gold single [7]
*"Friends"
*"Everything"
*"Precious Love" |
*Remix album
*Released: 10/26/89
*Label: MCA
*Billboard peak position: 86
*Billboard R&B peak position: 48
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Japan: 95 (4,000 copies) [8]
*Total worldwide sales: 1.0 million
*Gold
*"Real Love"
*"What'Cha Gonna Do For Me" |
*Studio album
*Released: 12/17/91
*Label: MCA
*Billboard peak position: 124
*Billboard R&B peak position: 21
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Japan: 53 (14,000 copies) [9]
*Total worldwide sales: 2.5 million
*Gold
*"I Want You"
*"I'm The One You Need"
*"It All Begins With You" |
*Studio album
*Released: 11/9/93
*Label: MCA
*Billboard peak position: 164
*Billboard R&B peak position: 38
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Japan: 43 (23,000 copies) [10]
*Total worldwide sales: 600,000
*"Your Love Keeps Working on Me"
*"When a Man Loves a Woman" |
*Remix album
*Released: 1994
*Label: MCA Japan
*Billboard peak position: na
*Billboard R&B peak position: na
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Total worldwide sales: 50,000
*"Your Love Keeps Working on Me" |
*Studio album
*Released: 7/11/95
*Label: Avitone/Bellmark
*Billboard peak position: na
*Billboard R&B peak position: 59
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Japan: 69 (15,000 copies) [11]
*Total worldwide sales: 100,000
*"Affection" |
*Hits album
*Released: 2/13/96
*Label: MCA
*Billboard peak position: na
*Billboard R&B peak position: n/a
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Total worldwide sales: 100,000
*"Ecstasy (House Mix)" |
*Studio album
*Released: 3/31/98
*Label: Atlantic
*Billboard peak position: na
*Billboard R&B peak position: n/a
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Total worldwide sales: 200,000
*"Off The Hook"
*"If I'm Not In Love" |
thumb|'Saturday Night Experience, Vol. 1.]]
*Studio album
*Released: 11/17/99
*Label: Avitone/Universal Japan
*Billboard peak position: na
*Billboard R&B peak position: n/a
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Total worldwide sales: 75,000
*"Another Chapter" | The Jody Watley Millennium Collection. |
*Hits album
*Released: 12/19/00
*Label: MCA
*Billboard peak position: na
*Billboard R&B peak position: n/a
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Total worldwide sales: 50,000 | *Studio album
*Released: 3/11/03
*Label: Avitone/Shanachie
*Billboard peak position: na
*Billboard Dance peak position: 13
*UK chart peak position: n/a
*Total worldwide sales: 100,000
*"Whenever" | |}Singles |
