André Cymone: "Dance Electric"

[Videoskooter]

Wasn't this a superfunkycalifragilistic floorkiller?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaxz...elated&search=

[K-Bee]

Classic Minneapolis funk!! It should have been bigger really. Cymone is underrated imo.

[SandraDee]

A Prince clone.

[DiscoDiva]

Hahahahaha! My exact sentiment! Thought Prince was pulling off a fast one.

[Videoskooter]

André was his buddy. They grew up together, they both headed for fame and unfortunately for AC, Prince hit the stars.

This is in fact a 100% Prince adventure and was followed by an album. It's in my collection but it seldom leaves the shelfs. Other albums by him are not bad at all but certainly don't have the impact of Prince's oeuvre.

Speaking of a Prince clone: mmmh, not André. The real jealous guy was The Time's Jesse Johnson, who tried to imitate Prince's looks and music but never really charted.

[Najee]

I have no idea what the music scene was like for soul music in the 1980s in Belgium, but in the United States Jesse Johnson was a far more successful recording artist than André Cymone. Cymone's only hit song was the Prince-penned "The Dance Electric," which barely made it into the top 10 of the Billboard R&B charts in 1985. Johnson, meanwhile, racked up about half a dozen top 10 singles during his career.

Cymone's albums have long been out of print, in no small part because of their lack of sales success. Meanwhile, all of Johnson's albums are still available to be purchased -- especially his debut album, "Jesse Johnson's Revue," which went gold and generated three top five singles on the Billboard R&B charts ("Be Your Man," "Can You Help Me" and "I Want My Girl").

Virtually all of Cymone's success has been a producer, most notably for Jody Watley's first three solo albums. If you're including that aspect, then the matchup is a lot closer -- but as recording artists go, Johnson easily outstripped Cymone.

And finally, both Cymone and Johnson were commonly known as having the same look and musical style and philosophies of Prince -- but that's to be expected, because each played solid roles in the definition of The Minneapolis Sound (Cymone as a childhood friend and later bass player for Prince's band; Johnson as the guitarist for The Time). However, I don't think it's fair to slap one with a label of "Prince clone" and not the other.

[paul]

Once Prince left the disco scene and these clones showed up, I knew for sure then that disco as I loved it was done

[QUINNY]

Andre Cymone's Dance Electric was and always will be, a certified A1 floorfilling funkalicious grooveathon in my books!! Fawkin' ace record!!!!!!!!

[ol'skinflint]

Originally Posted by Najee

I have no idea what the music scene was like for soul music in the 1980s in Belgium, but in the United States Jesse Johnson was a far more successful recording artist than André Cymone. Cymone's only hit song was the Prince-penned "The Dance Electric," which barely made it into the top 10 of the Billboard R&B charts in 1985. Johnson, meanwhile, racked up about half a dozen top 10 singles during his career.

Cymone's albums have long been out of print, in no small part because of their lack of sales success. Meanwhile, all of Johnson's albums are still available to be purchased - -especially his debut album, "Jesse Johnson's Revue," which went gold and generated three top five singles on the Billboard R&B charts ("Be Your Man," "Can You Help Me" and "I Want My Girl").

Virtually all of Cymone's success has been a producer, most notably for Jody Watley's first three solo albums. If you're including that aspect, then the matchup is a lot closer -- but as recording artists go, Johnson easily outstripped Cymone.

And finally, both Cymone and Johnson were commonly known as having the same look and musical style and philosophies of Prince -- but that's to be expected, because each played solid roles in the definition of The Minneapolis Sound (Cymone as a childhood friend and later bass player for Prince's band; Johnson as the guitarist for The Time). However, I don't think it's fair to slap one with a label of "Prince clone" and not the other.

ALWAYS loved "Can You Help Me?" That song clearly showed how much Jesse Johnson contributed to the Time. And Johnson also had success as a producer...he contributed to the smash album (now pretty much forgotten) by Paula Abdul: "Forever Your Girl". He also produced a big hit for Tamara and the Scene (probably misspelled that) called "Everybody Dance." And not many artists were able to coax Sly Stone out to play, but Jesse Johnson did (can't remember the song, though), long after Sly became a recluse....

[Najee]

Yeah, Jesse Johnson discovered and produced a group called Ta Mara and The Seen in the mid-1980s. They scored a couple of top 10 R&B hits, "Everybody Dance" and "Affection." Also, Johnson wrote and produced one of After 7's best songs, "Nights Like This" for the "Five Heartbeats" soundtrack.

Per the Sly Stone song to which you're referring, it was "Crazay" which was one of Johnson's biggest hits (it reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B charts). And don't forget "Lovestruck," my favorite song by Johnson that had a monstrous, grooving bassline coupled with a searing guitar solo at the end.

I wasn't discounting Johnson as a producer outside of his songs, it's just that I feel André Cymone had more success in this category, per his work on Jody Watley's albums. However, even with that you would have to say Johnson had the more successful post-Prince entourage career. It says something when Cymone's best work came when someone else either gave it to him (Prince with "The Dance Electric") or interpreted better than he likely would have done it (Watley).