''Big Fun'' is the third album by the American musical group Shalamar, released in 1979 through

SOLAR Records SOLAR (acronym for Sound of Los Angeles Records) was an American record label founded in 1978 by Dick Griffey, reconstituted out of Soul Train Records only three years after it was founded with ''Soul Train'' television show host and creator Do ...

. ''Big Fun'' was produced by

Leon Sylvers III Leon Frank Sylvers III (born March 7, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter, disc-jockey, record producer and multi-instrumentalist. He was a member of the family group The Sylvers and became one of the most successful producers in Black mus ...

and is the first album to feature what is considered the 'classic' Shalamar line-up (

Jeffrey Daniel Jeffrey Glen Daniel (born August 24, 1955) is an American dancer, singer-songwriter, and choreographer, and a founding member of the R&B vocal group Shalamar. In Nigeria, he is best known as a judge on the first three seasons of '' Nigerian ...

Howard Hewett Howard Hewett Jr. (born October 1, 1955) is an American singer–songwriter. Hewett rose to fame as the lead vocalist of the group Shalamar. In 1985, he left the group to pursue his solo career, but he later returned to the group in 2001. He si ...

and

Jody Watley Jody Vanessa Watley (born January 30, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter and producer whose music crosses genres including pop, R&B, jazz, dance and electronic soul.Paoletta, Michael (February 22, 2003) "Watley Relaxes In The Setting of The ...

), with Hewett having replaced Gerald Brown. The album features the group's most successful hit on the Hot 100 pop chart, " The Second Time Around". ''Big Fun'' has been certified

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in the United States for sales of over 500,000. It peaked at #4 on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

and #23 on the

Billboard chart The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, p ...

(Shalamar's highest-placing album on this chart). In the UK it reached #45. In 2002, ''Big Fun'' was re-released by

Sanctuary Records Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is, as of 2013, a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest ...

in the United Kingdom in a two-for-one CD format with Shalamar's following album '' Three for Love''. The song "I Owe You One" was sampled in Raw Man's "Beautiful", and

Le Knight Club Guillaume Emmanuel "Guy-Manuel" de Homem-Christo (; born 8 February 1974) is a French musician. He is known as one half of the former French house music duo Daft Punk, along with Thomas Bangalter. He has produced several works from his now-defu ...

's "Mosquito".

Reception

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called the album "a very eclectic blend of pop hooks and light disco with funk trimmings."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

rated the album four out of five stars. Writer

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited th ...

rated it three out of five. The album sold 625,000+ units as of July 1982. Its single "The Second Time Around" sold around 1.8 million units.

Track listing

Personnel

Shalamar

Jody Watley, Jeffrey Daniel, Howard Hewett: lead and backing vocals

Musical personnel

*Kevin Spencer: keyboards,

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

*William Shelby: keyboards, clavinet,

Fender Rhodes The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

*Kossi Gardner: keyboards, Fender Rhodes,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

*"Gip" Nobels, Gene Dozier, Joey Gallo, John Barnes, Ron Artists: keyboards *Ernest Biles, James Davis: bass *

: bass, percussion *Ernest Reed, Fred Rheimert, Steve Shockley: guitars *Freeman Brown, Gerald Thompson, Wardell Potts: drums *Greg "Popeye" Dawkins:

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

s *Fred Lewis: percussion *Christine Ermacoff, Edgar Lustgarten, Harry Shlutz, Marie Fera: cellos *Brian Leanord, David Johnson, Jerry Vinci, Ilkka Talvi, Irma Newman, Norman Carr, Norman Leonard, Reginald Hill, Ronald Fulsom, Sheldon Sanou: violins

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Single

References

External links

Shalamar-Big Fun at Discogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Fun (Shalamar Album) Shalamar albums 1979 albums SOLAR Records albums Albums produced by Leon Sylvers III