Overview
| “ | Excellent from start to finish, this album went down in history as both a creative and a commercial success. | ” |
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—Alex Henderson, Allmusic |
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After having balanced her two simultaneous careers as a member of the band Rufus and a solo performer during the years 1978 to 1983, which culminated with the release of the final Rufus & Chaka Khan album Stompin' at the Savoy - Live after which the band dissolved, Khan recorded the album that was to make her a pop star with mainstream chart success; 1984's "I Feel for You".
The title track, "I Feel for You" was a sample-heavy cover of a 1979 Prince track, featuring Grandmaster Melle Mel on the classic Ch-ch-ch-chaka-chaka-chaka Khan rap intro and Stevie Wonder on harmonica (and also a sample from one of his first hits, "Fingertips") and saw Khan embracing high-tech funk, rap and hip hop and stands as one of her best known songs and her biggest commercial hit, reaching #3 on the US Pop Chart (and becoming Billboard's #5 song of the year in 1985), and was #1 US R&B, Dance, and UK singles. The song earned her a second Grammy Award in 1985 for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female.
The album reached #16 on Billboard's Album Chart, #4 R&B and #15 in the UK. Additional hit singles were "This Is My Night" (US #60, R&B #11, Dance #1, UK #14), "Eye To Eye" (UK #16 ) and the ballad "Through The Fire," which reached the US R&B top ten (#15), setting a then-record for most consecutive weeks on the Billboard R&B chart. "Through the Fire" also rose to #60 on the US Pop chart during a 19-week run on the Hot 100, and crossed over to the adult contemporary chart (#16) and charted at #77 in the UK. The I Feel for You album's second ballad, "Stronger Than Before" co-written by Burt Bacharach, Bruce Roberts and Carole Bayer Sager, was released as the fifth single in certain markets.
"I Feel for You", "This Is My Night" and "Eye To Eye" were released as extended 12" remixes in 1984, and other mixes were created for the 1989 remix compilation Life is a Dance - The Remix Project. The 1984 mixes by Arif Mardin and Russ Titelman remain unreleased on CD.
1985 saw two other songs by Khan released on other albums: "(Krush Groove) Can't Stop The Street" from the Krush Groove soundtrack (US R&B #18, UK #80), and "Own The Night", from the Miami Vice soundtrack (US Pop #57, US R&B #66).
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