Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 10/25/1990
Run Time: 46:51
When
Chaka Khan recorded her fifth solo album,
I Feel for You, in 1984, she knew that
R&B had changed a lot since the 1970s. Horn-powered
funk bands, strings-laden
Philadelphia soul, and orchestral
disco were out of vogue, and the
urban contemporary audiences of 1984 were into a more high-tech, heavily electronic style of
R&B. Many artists who had been huge in the 1970s found that they no longer appealed to black radio programmers, who had abandoned them and turned their attention to electro-funksters and
Prince disciples. But
Chaka Khan had no problem keeping up with the times;
I Feel for You made it clear that she could easily be relevant to the
urban contemporary scene of 1984. No one would mistake
I Feel for You for a
Rufus project from 1975 -- it's way too high-tech -- and yet, everything on the album is unmistakably
Chaka Khan. That is true of up-tempo items like
"Love Is Alive" (an interesting remake of
Gary Wright's 1976 hit) and
"La Flamme," as well as the
ballad "Through the Fire," which was a big hit on
urban radio but crossed over to
adult contemporary stations in a major way.
"This Is My Night" (which was written and produced by
the System) also became an
urban radio hit, but the album is best known for
Khan's unlikely remake of
Prince's
"I Feel for You." When
Prince first recorded
"I Feel for You" in 1979, it wasn't a hit;
Khan's version, however, soared to number one on
Billboard's
R&B singles chart.
Khan had a very different take on the song than
Prince; while his original version was subtle and restrained,
Khan went for exuberance and added a strong
hip-hop flavor. Excellent from start to finish, this album went down in history as both a creative and a commercial success.
~Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
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