It’s One-Hit Wonder Wednesday! Each week, I’ll pick a one-hit wonder to stir nostalgia and make us all ask “what were people thinking?”
One of the biggest hits of 1986 was “We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off” by the late Jermaine Stewart. A dancer for Shalamar and a backup singer for Culture Club, Stewart hit the big time with this lead single from his second album.
The song rose to number five in the U.S. and number two in the U.K. And it features many of the music trends (some would say cliches) of the mid-‘80s in one song:
Drum machine – check.
Synthesizers – check.
Horn section – check.
Record scratch – check.
Falsetto black voice – check.
Despite releasing two more singles from this album and producing a third album, Stewart was never able to crack the charts again. Sadly, he died in 1994 of AIDS-related complications.
Check back next week for another “One-Hit Wonder Wednesday.”
