Album: Love Letters
Year: 1984
Style: Boy Band Hip Hop, New Jack Swing
Similar Bands: New Edition, ABC, Bel Biv DeVoe, Boys II Men, Jackson 5, Jodeci, Color Me Badd,
"One-Word" Review: Clean-Cut Corner-Vocal Group Revival
Based Out Of: Staten Island, NY
Label: Tommy Boy
- Be Mine Girl 5:18
- Don't Make Me Dance (All Night Long) 5:18
- Tears 4:17 (single)
- Let Me Love you 5:04 /
- Itchin' for a Scratch 4:56 (single)
- Forgive Me Girl 4:22
- Let's Stay Together 4:37
- I Just Wanna Love You 4:50
Members & Other Bands:
- Tom Silverman - Exec. Producer, Mixing
- Trisco Pearson (Positive Vibe, Le Gent)
- TCD Antoine Lundy (Le Gent, Eric Gable)
- Stevie D (Lundy) (Eric gable, Janet Jackson, Milk, Full Force)
- Mercury (Charles Nelson)
- Jesse D (Jesse Lee Daniels)
- Robin Halpin - Co-Producer, Engineer, Mixing, Arrangements, Keys, Horn Arrangement (GLOBE & Whiz Kid, Hambo, Afrika Bambaataa, Special Request, Roman Sandals, TKA, Timmy Gatling, James Brown)
- Mr. Magic (John Rivas) - Co-Producer
- Keith LeBlanc - Co-Producer, Mixing, Arrangements, Drums, Keys, Percussion (Beatmaster, Double Edge, Dumb Guys, Fats Comet, Fine Quality, Forehead Bros, Interference, Mark Stewart & the Mafia, Noh Ground, Strange Parcels, Sugarhill Gang Band, Tackhead, Enemy Within more)
- Doug Wimbish - Arrangements, Bass (Black Jack Hohnson, Brand New Funk, Double Edge, Fats Comet, Headfake, Jungle Funk, Living Colour, Mark Stewart & the Mafia, Strange Parcels, Sugarhill Gang Band, Tackhead, Static Seekers, Sterling Esp, Wood Brass & Steel, more)
- Double Dee - Arrangements
- Steinski - Arrangements
- Frank Heller - Engineer, Mixing, Mix Engineer
- Doug DiFranco - Engineer
- Kathy Gazzo - Engineer Asst
- Mike Nicoletti - Engineer Asst
- Steve Griffin - Engineer Asst
- Kennon Keating - Engineer Asst
- Jay Burnett - Mix Engineer
- Skip McDonald - Guitar (Fats Comet Crew, More)
- Carl Sturken- Guitar (Lemelle, Ryrthm Syndicate, SRP, Sturken & Rogers, more)
- Brian Halpin - Keys (Al Swan)
- Josh Schneider - Sax (Irene Cara, Eric Von Schmidt, Randy Vanwarmer, Artie Traum & Pat Alger, Steve Forbert, Tom Rush, Late Nite Music Band, Joy Askew)
- Bashiri Johnson - Percussion (Hot Streak, Lionel Richie, Spinners more)
- Dr. Rock (Roger Daniels) - Scratching (C-Jam & Kid Frost, Fila Fresh Crew, DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Funk Connection, NWA)
- Craig Derry - Vocal Coaching
- Herb Powers Jr - Mastering
- Monica Lynch - Art Direction
- Stephen Crichlow - Photos
- Yolanda Cuomo - Design
Album: As expected, this is an example of hip-hop that was honoring and showing it's connection / roots in classic Smokey Robinson & the Miracles boy bands, updated with scratching, rapping and hip-hop. In vocal style, subject manner, and appeal, they painted themselves a very safe band to interact with and enjoy. Some soft ballads (Tears), to a cliched, almost parody of rap (Itching for a Scratch) and even Calypso (Don't Make Me Dance), this record runs the gamut showcasing the potential directions and almost a historical head nod to the styles that came before; styles that this band was built on. Originally the L.D's they changed their name to Dr Rock & the MCs, then to Force MD's with MD standing for Musical Diversity. They literally started singing on Times Square street corners and the Staten Island Ferry, but reached fame with their connection to DR Jr Rock and promotion from Vansilk in '81. Their popularity was fast rising and short, as they faded at the end of the 80's after scoring a #1 RnB hit (87) and helped the producer of the year Grammy go to Jam & Lewis (85). 3 members, Mercury, Dr Rock, and TDC passed away from heart attack (95), natural causes (96) and Lou Gehrig's (98) respectively, with Trisco succumbing to cancer in 2016. The surviving members and ex-members joined together in 2017 for a new album and still play out today (2020). And apparently Obama is a fan.
Stand Out Track: Forgive Me Girl
Links:
Spotify album
Wiki
Discogs
Allmusic
Philly Tribune Obit 2016 - Trisco
wikiwand
How members died - I Love old school music
new Sounds
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