Sunday, March 7, 2021

"Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)" by Samantha Fox

Top 10 Alert!
Song#:  3426
Date:  02/27/1988
Debut:  90
Peak:  3
Weeks:  27
Genre:  Dance-Pop


Pop Bits:  Fox's second album was a self-titled effort that did well back in her UK home, but arrived to little notice in the US. Its first single, the Stock-Aitken-Waterman team track "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now" was a dud that stalled at a minor #80. With that result, the album initially peaked at #128 and then fell off the chart. If the LP was to get even close to #24/gold results of her debut album Touch Me, a rescue single was needed pronto. This track, which was headed up by the Full Force production team, was selected for the job. It debuted low on the Pop chart, but gained traction as the weeks went on. It finally peaked at #3 in its 15th week on the chart. Unusually, the song descended slowly and spent another 12 weeks on the chart. The hit did help the album, which re-entered the chart and got to #51. Although its peak was on the low side, it would be a consistent seller and it would receive gold-level certification in August of '88. With the song being a hit, it would seem logical that the label would release a follow-up, but it appears they did not. That could have been due to the fact that her next album was already in the works and a new single from that would be released in the fall.

ReduxReview:  Having Full Force (of Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam fame) go in and write/product a track for Fox was a good idea. Their brand of pop/R&B/dance that they perfected for Lisa Lisa was a good fit for Fox. It seemed they tailored the song just for Fox with its suggestive title and gave it plenty of hooks and a solid production. While the SAW track "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now" was a good one that got overlooked in the US, this song gave US audiences what they wanted from Fox and it paid off in a hit.

ReduxRating:  7/10

Trivia:  Several music artists, especially it seems in the 80s, made appearances on TV sitcoms. Some would appear as themselves while others played fictionalized music stars. Perhaps among the more famous appearances was Stacey Q who played Cinnamon in two episodes of The Facts of Life. Samantha Fox got in on the act as well. She ended up on the Scott Baio sitcom Charles in Charge. The show was in its last season and Fox guested on a 1990 episode as rock star "Samantha Steele." Her appearance didn't really kick off an acting career as she would only guest on a minor few shows after. In the UK, she later appeared in several reality shows including Celebrity Wife Swap, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, and Celebrity Big Brother.

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