Alexander O'Neal - Alexander O'Neal (30th anniversary)

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of the self-titled debut album from Alexander O'Neal. It spent eighteen weeks on the US Billboard Album chart, peaking at number 92.

For my full review of this, one of my 80's favorite debuts, click here.

For more from Alexander O'Neal, click here.

Cherrelle - Fragile

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of Fragile, the debut album from R&B singer Cherrelle (the stage name for Cheryl Anne Norton). This 1984 release, produced in part by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, spent eight weeks on the US Billboard Album chart and peaked at number 144. It also climbed up to number 27 on the US Billboard R&B chart.

Alexander O'Neal - Hearsay

Happy fifty-ninth birthday today (November 15th) to American R&B singer-songwriter and producer Alexander O’Neal.

After his self-titled debut album in 1985 (click here for that review), O’Neal put out his second studio album in 1987. Hearsay, which was produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, has gone on to be his highest charting album to date. It went multi-Platinum in the UK where it peaked at number 4. It also hit number 26 in the Netherlands, number 22 in Austria and Germany, number 18 in Norway, and number 13 in Sweden. Here in the US, it climbed to number 29 on the Billboard Hot 200 and number 2 on the Billboard R&B charts. Rolling Stone magazine even recognized it as one of the influential albums of 1987 in their year-end review.

Alexander O'Neal - Alexander O'Neal

The American R&B artist was born November 15, 1953, in Mississippi and moved to Minnesota at age 20. Alexander O'Neal spent a number of years on the Minneapolis music scene including the early days of the funk band Flyte Time with Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and Monte Moir. They combined sharply dressed suits with smooth R&B grooves that helped define the signature "Minneapolis sound". When Prince helped the group get signed with Warner Brothers and had them change their name to the Time, O'Neal and Prince had a disagreement that lead to his leaving of the band. While Morris Day stepped in, O'Neal went solo.

In 1984, he was signed to Tabu records. In April of 1985, he put out his self-titled debut album Alexander O'Neal which reached number 92 on the US Billboard 200, number 72 in the Netherlands, number 21 on the US R&B chart and number 19 in the UK. The record produced four singles which did well on the R&B charts.