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’80s Jam Session

Forty records from the decade when Black American music went almost entirely electronic and somehow got warmer in the process.

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'80s Jam Session

The eighties are the most misrepresented decade in soul music. The received view is that the drum machine ruined it — that the warmth of the seventies gave way to something brittle and synthetic. This set is a straightforward refutation. The machines are everywhere, and the records are as full-blooded as anything from the previous decade.

What actually changed was the division of labour. Where a seventies record was a band in a room, an eighties record was a producer building an arrangement piece by piece, and the best of them — Jam and Lewis, Leon Sylvers, Kashif, Nick Martinelli — used that control to make things a live band could not.

What to listen for

Luther Vandross's "Never Too Much" is the decade's opening statement — his first single as a leader after years of session work, and the bassline alone justifies the whole playlist.

The Jones Girls' "Nights Over Egypt" is the connoisseur's pick and one of the most beloved records in British soul circles, where it mattered far more than it did at home.

The Gap Band's "Outstanding" in the twelve-inch mix and Rick James' "Give It To Me Baby" are the funk anchors.

The S.O.S. Band's "Tell Me If You Still Care" and Cherrelle and Alexander O'Neal's "Saturday Love" are the Jam and Lewis productions, and they are the clearest demonstration of what the new method could do.

Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" and "I Feel for You" are both here, and the second is a Prince song with Stevie Wonder on harmonica and Melle Mel rapping, which is an absurd and wonderful combination.

Maze's "Before I Let Go" is the record that is still played at every function, and Sade's "Smooth Operator" is the one that redefined what cool sounded like.

Soul II Soul's "Back To Life" closes the decade and opens the next one — British, sound-system built, and the template for a great deal of the nineties.

Meli'sa Morgan, René & Angela and The System are the deep cuts.

Go deeper

Luther Vandross's Never Too Much and Sade's Diamond Life are the two essential albums. The Jones Girls' At Peace with Woman is the one to seek out.

Follow Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis as producers and the whole decade reorganises itself around them.

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