1986 To 1988: Will To Power
Rosenberg attended a Winter Music Seminar in Ft. Lauderdale where he met singer-songwriter Suzi Carr, who had co-written two songs on Miami Sound Machine's 1985 breakthrough album, Primitive Love. After Rosenberg mentioned that he was looking for a vocalist, he and Carr provided vocals for a song he had written, "Dreamin'" (which would later appear on Will to Power's debut album), with Rosenberg on lead vocals and Carr on backing vocals. Rosenberg wrote "Dreamin'" as a tribute to his sister, Robin, after she had died. Radio program director Bill Tanner was the first PD to play "Dreamin" on Power 96 in Miami, Florida. Released in Miami on the Thrust Records label, "Dreamin'" became a regional hit and got the attention of Epic Records, who picked up the song for distribution to radio stations and dance clubs around the country. The song peaked at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in August 1987. It also reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart in September of that year. Epic Records asked Rosenberg if he had enough material for an album. In June 1988, Will to Power released a follow-up single, "Say It's Gonna Rain", which featured Carr on lead vocals. This song reached No. 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in July 1988 and spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in August and September of that year.
After Rosenberg spent much of 1987 and early 1988 working on new material with a variety of different musicians, including vocalists Carr, Maria Mendez, Donna Allen, and Sandeé, keyboardists Lawrence Dermer and David Rosenthal and a DJ/saxophone player, Johnny James, known as "Dr. J", the group's self-titled debut album was released on Epic Records in March 1988. Along with the aforementioned songs "Dreamin'" and "Say It's Gonna Rain", the album contained a medley of two popular rock songs from the 1970s, "Baby, I Love Your Way" (a 1976 hit record for Peter Frampton) and "Free Bird" (a well-known track by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1974). This medley, titled "Baby I Love Your Way/Freebird Medley (Free Baby)", which also featured Carr on lead vocals, was the last song from the album to be created. Although Epic was reluctant to release this hybrid song as a single, Rosenberg had distributed copies of the song to various radio stations in the Miami vicinity, including WPOW (Power 96). According to Rosenberg, "they played it, and a few other stations caught onto it, so Epic put it out." This song became the group's biggest hit, spending a week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reaching No. 2 on the Billboard adult contemporary chart in December 1988. It also became the group's highest-charting hit in the UK, reaching No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart. That month, the album reached its peak position of No. 68 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. A fourth single from the album, "Fading Away", spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in early 1989.
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