Flashback with Me...New Edition's NE Heartbreak LP

Happy Monday, Family!

Ronnie, Bobby, Ricky, Mike, Ralph and Johnny too!

How many of ya'll love New Edition? I mean really, really love New Edition? (If you are real fan, you will have a copy of the god-awful New Edition's Under the Blue Moon" in your collection. LOL! I know ya'll have it....) Then this post is for YOU!!!

The other day I was going through my massive CD collection and pulled out a few of my NE albums. As I waded through the cds, I couldn't help but smile when I saw the cover for the "NE Heartbreak" album. Man...it brought back so many memories of loves lost, homemade slow jam tapes, school dances and poorly executed NE dance moves.

As a 35 year old father of one, I am secure enough in my heterosexuality and manhood to say that I used to hollar like a "16 year old school girl", actually, like a "beeyotch"when these dudes performed. LOL! They were my era's Temptations and my Jackson 5. I mean, who didn't want to have the baby singing voice of Ralph Tresvant, the 360 degree waves spinning like Mike Bivins or Bobby Brown's braggadocio style and swag?? I know I did....

That album really shut down the singing group game. During that time, Super producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, fresh off of two Janet Jackson smashes, knew that guys had become men and needed a new sound. Once Bobby Brown was unceremoniously voted out of the group, ala Eddie Kendricks style, a young (but still older than the rest of the group) Johnny Gill was immediately recruited to provide the bass and grown man sound that they needed desperately.

My favorite cuts on the album had to be "Can You Stand The Rain" (uh..DUH), "Your Not My Type of Girl", "Crucial" and of course the title cut "NE Heartbreak".

NE Heartbreak Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnEi2MyqBlY

I think I sprained several ankles, tripped 1000 times and bumped into enough stuff in my mama's living room trying to learn that dance routine. Of course, it was never as tight as the groups', but I can say I looked more at ease than Johnny Gill. HA!

Thankfully, with the success of this album, Ralph and Johnny dropped smash solo albums and BBD blew up up like a gas leak at a bonfire. Ricky tried a solo album years later, but it wasn't as successful as the others. Bobby was a megastar at this point, laying the groundwork for a future Usher, Chris Brown and Omarion.

I am very most proud of is that a group from my era has lasted well over 25 years in the game. 25 years says something about your music. This album will always have a special spot in my heart and "teen hood".

One - Cap-D