Happy 40th Anniversary to Cherrelle’s debut album Fragile, originally released April 8, 1984.
1984 may have been the single hardest year to be a new artist. How could one stand out against Tina Turner’s Private Dancer, Sade’s Diamond Life, and of course, Prince’s Purple Rain? It might help to have a captivating look, distinguishable voice, work ethic, and a touch of swagger so that when you enter a room, people believe you belong there.
In truth, Cherrelle had all of these. But if she had lacked in any area, it didn’t hurt to be rich. Few would have guessed this gutsy, fly girl grew up in Beverly Hills privilege. After cutting her teeth singing background, her attorney father used his music industry connections to get her demo into the hands of Tabu Records head Clarence Avant.
Avant knew the perfect team to pair her with: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Following out-the-box smashes with The S.O.S. Band in 1983, Avant trusted them implicitly to give musical oomph to this new signee. Their instant chemistry reflected brightly in her first single “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On.”
With trilling blazes of synth and in-your-face drums, the ingénue anthem caught on quickly. Cherrelle inspired the lyrics telling her producers a story of disappointing an overeager suitor (“You read me wrong / I wasn't trying to lead you on / Not like you think / I didn't mean to turn you on”). With a “neener-neener” melody for its innocent sentiment, it comes off as a delightful tease. Adding to its fame is its King Kong-themed video in which the enchanted beast breakdances atop a high-rise building. For being such a soft-sung gem, it surely made bodies work hard, reaching #8 on the R&B charts and #6 Dance. Chasing this overnight success with a promising album could set up an impressive career, and Cherrelle would not waste her shot.
For her debut Fragile, she forged a lean but capable mix of street-savvy dance-funk and quiet storm R&B to announce her arrival. The process wasn’t without its challenges. As she was developing confidence as a singer, Jam and Lewis were still developing their Minneapolis-bred Flyte Tyme sound and faced a steep learning curve as producers.
“Cherrelle was such a trooper,” Jimmy Jam recounted. “We were just learning how to record. We had built a studio and then the engineer walked out on us, so we had to learn how to work stuff…We'd go, ‘Take your headphones off, Cherrelle, 'cause we're gonna start plugging some stuff in and there might be some problems,’ right? And sure enough, we’d [try something] and the speaker would blow…‘Sorry, Cherrelle!’ And she'd go, ‘That's alright, baby, you'll figure it out!’”
Listen to the Album:
Fragile follows a format not dissimilar from The Time with the A-side consisting of three lengthy, uptempo party-starters, beginning with the titular “Fragile…Handle with Care.” Its percussion and fuzz-bass borrow heavily from the style of early ‘80s Gap Band. The fanfare of this opener set a pattern that would continue on subsequent releases “You Look Good to Me” from High Priority (1985) and “Looks Aren’t Everything” from Affair (1988).
Without taking itself too seriously, “Like I Will” revels in youthful showboating. Adopting a tone like Blondie’s “Rapture,” Cherrelle takes to her whisper-rap duties well (“I’ll give you all I have to offer / Not to boast / But that’s an awful lot”). This extended danceable makes liberal use of new sampling technology to create a Funkadelic-style circus. Despite being in their mid-20s, Cherrelle, Jam, and Lewis give off a sparkling teenage energy—and that’s certainly Jam’s deep singing voice on the hook.
This Flyte Tyme sound played so well, it could have worked as well for Sheila E. or Lisa Lisa who certainly have the personality to pull them off. But for Cherrelle’s old school sensibilities, she needed to show off her crooning and belting skill. Accordingly, the disc’s B-side focuses on simmering slow jams.
Where Jam and Lewis bring a childlike playfulness out of Cherrelle, producers Michael Everitt Dunlap and Isaac Suthers surround her with grown up music. “I Will Wait for You” and “Stay with Me” are the type of sway-able ballads DeBarge might have chosen their sister Bunny to lead. Whereas “I Need You Now” plays its part perfectly, keeping a minimally electronic R&B ballad stable long enough to allow Cherrelle to prove her versatility as a vocalist. These last-chance-to-slow-dance songs might play at proms and house parties alike, and were essential to R&B albums of the time.
Still, the Jam and Lewis contributions to this flipside are some of their most compelling work outside of “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On.” On the heavily Prince-influenced “Who’s It Gonna Be,” Cherrelle test drives the type of ballad that turns into big hits for Alexander O’Neal, The Human League, and more later in the decade. Layered with gorgeous chords, “When You Look in My Eyes” also draws influence from breakdance and freestyle movements with its 808-programming and insistent congas providing a tempo boost late in the album sequence.
While Fragile reached #144 on the Billboard 200, its #27 entry on the R&B albums chart was a noteworthy one. That same year, an 18-year-old Janet Jackson released her sophomore effort Dream Street which charted similarly to Fragile but lacked its exuberance. However, the Flyte Tyme method of tailoring compositions for artists like Cherrelle was key to setting Jackson ablaze as they crafted her breakthrough Control the following year. In that sense, Fragile previews the sound that Jackson, O’Neal, New Edition, and others would ride to chart victory.
After this solid start, Tabu sent Cherrelle back to the studio quickly to turn out the targeted winner High Priority. Her career would deliver even bigger hits like “Saturday Love” and “Everything I Miss at Home,” but “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” alone would have kept Cherrelle’s name spoken for decades.
By 1986, Robert Palmer cut a rock-soul cover of Cherrelle’s debut hit that shot to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Queen Latifah later resung its hook for her slinky “Turn You On” from Order in the Court (1998). Mariah Carey went as far as commissioning Jam and Lewis to create a version nearly indistinguishable from the original for her Glitter (2001) film and soundtrack, and she preserved Cherrelle’s vocal arrangement to a tee.
Forty years later, Jam and Lewis have put an indelible stamp on music for countless artists, but couldn’t have executed it quite as well without Cherrelle as a muse. As for the lady herself, she can still bring a crowd to their feet with her undeniable breakout. Each time she does, she gives it all she has to offer, and that’s still an awful lot.
Listen: