Gravity | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 15, 1986 | |||
Recorded | 1985–86 | |||
Studio | Unique Recording Studios, New York City [1] | |||
Genre | Funk [2] | |||
Length | 39:40 | |||
Label | Scotti Bros. Records | |||
Producer | Dan Hartman | |||
James Brown chronology | ||||
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Singles from Gravity | ||||
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Gravity is the 53rd studio album by American musician James Brown. The album was released on September 15, 1986, by Scotti Bros. Records. It was largely written and produced by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight, the authors of the album's previously released hit single "Living in America", which had reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was prominently featured in the film Rocky IV . It was Brown's first album for the Scotti Brothers record label. [3]
The album's title track became a minor hit on both the pop and R&B charts, while the tango-based slow jam "How Do You Stop" cracked the R&B top ten. The album track "Turn Me Loose, I'm Dr. Feelgood" was used as the theme song for the Australian TV sketch comedy series The Late Show (1992–93) and is often played by Major League Baseball's Philadelphia Phillies when one of their batters hits a home run at Citizens Bank Park.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [4] |
Record Mirror | [5] |
Robert Christgau | C+ [6] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [7] |
The Milwaukee Sentinel | (favorable) [2] |
Gravity earned a lukewarm reception from critics. Robert Christgau went so far as to describe it as "[n]ot a James Brown album--a James Brown-influenced Dan Hartman record, with James Brown on vocals", and urged readers to seek out recent reissues of Brown's earlier work instead. [6] Ron Wynn of Allmusic.com described the album as "moderately interesting" but that, ultimately, Brown was trying to "catch up" with contemporary trends. [4] Brown himself stated that the album was "'about 10 percent of James Brown. This is about as real James Brown as we`re gonna put on (producer) Dan Hartman`s album.'' Nevertheless, Brown did praise Hartman and Midnight for capturing the essence of his style in "Living in America". [8]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Gravity" | Dan Hartman, Charlie Midnight | 5:58 |
2. | "Let's Get Personal" | Hartman, Midnight, Alison Moyet | 4:29 |
3. | "How Do You Stop" | Hartman, Midnight | 4:49 |
4. | "Turn Me Loose, I'm Dr. Feelgood" | Hartman, Midnight | 3:09 |
5. | "Living in America" | Hartman, Midnight | 5:57 |
6. | "Goliath" | Hartman, Midnight | 6:14 |
7. | "Repeat the Beat (Faith)" | Hartman, Midnight | 4:20 |
8. | "Return to Me" | Hartman, Midnight | 4:39 |
Daniel Earl Hartman was an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter and original frontman for several bands, including The Soploids, Mak and the Turnarounds, Our Wringer, Last Wing, and Orion. Among songs he wrote and recorded were "Free Ride" as a member of the Edgar Winter Group, and the solo hits "Relight My Fire", "Instant Replay", "I Can Dream About You", "We Are the Young" and "Second Nature". "I Can Dream About You", his most successful song, reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1984 and No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart in 1985. The James Brown song "Living in America", which Hartman co-wrote and produced, reached No. 4 on March 1, 1986.
38 Special is the debut studio album by American rock band 38 Special, released in 1977 by A&M Records. It was remastered and reissued on the Lemon record label in 2003. Two singles, "Long Time Gone" and "Tell Everybody", were released, but neither charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
Unguarded is the seventh studio album by Christian and Pop singer Amy Grant, released in 1985 on A&M Records. It is Grant's first album released by A&M.
"Living in America" is a 1985 song composed by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight and performed by James Brown. It was released as a single in 1985 and reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song entered the Billboard Top 40 on January 11, 1986, and remained on the chart for 11 weeks. It also became a top five hit in the United Kingdom, peaking at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart; it was his only top 10 single in the UK. It was his first Top 40 hit in ten years on the US pop charts, and it would also be his last. In 1987, it was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song and won Brown a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
I Feel for You is the fifth solo studio album by American R&B/funk singer Chaka Khan, released on the Warner Bros. Records label in 1984.
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Charlie Midnight is an American songwriter, record producer, and founder of Midnight Production House. He has been nominated for the 1987 Grammy Award for Best R&B Song, two Golden Globes, and has been a producer and/or writer on several Grammy-winning albums, including The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album, Joni Mitchell's Turbulent Indigo, and Marlo Thomas & Friends: Thanks & Giving All Year Long. He also is a writer on the Barbra Streisand Grammy-nominated, Platinum-selling Partners album having co-written the Barbra Streisand and Andrea Bocelli duet "I Still Can See Your Face."
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"Gravity" is a song written by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight and recorded by James Brown. It appears on Brown's 1986 album of the same name. It was also released as a single and charted #26 R&B and #93 Pop.
"How Do You Stop" is a song written by Dan Hartman and Charlie Midnight and recorded by James Brown. It appeared on Brown's 1986 album Gravity and was released as a single which charted at number 10 on the US R&B chart. Brown also performs the song on his 1989 album Soul Session Live.
"Waiting to See You" is a song by American singer-songwriter and musician Dan Hartman, which was released in 1986 as a single from the film soundtrack of Ruthless People. It was written by Hartman and Charlie Midnight, and was produced by Hartman. The song was also to be included on Hartman's album White Boy, which was shelved by MCA in 1986.
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