Debbie Johnson - So Excited (1991)

By request, here is another 'lost' Canadian singer, Debbie Johnson. I was going to feature this album some time ago, but her daughter contacted me through Discogs about a year ago, praising me for submitting several of her mother's releases. I asked her to fill me in on her mother's current whereabouts, but unfortunately I never got a response. And then Isle fan Jarrett e-mailed me recently and asked if I had this album, so I just couldn't wait any longer. Debbie was born in Trinidad but moved to Toronto as a child with her musical family. She and her siblings formed Sweet Ecstasy and had a minor disco hit in Canada with "Pull Our Love Together". Then she hooked up with singer /producer / former Stampeder Rich Dodson in the mid-1980's (he also produced previous Isle postees Manee and Aashna, as well as Alanis' very first single as a child). She released the ballad "Mama Said Why" in 1986 on Dodson's tiny Marigold label. The single got a lot of local buzz and she received a Juno award nod. This led to the release two years later of the album Just Like Magic, also on Marigold, as well as many less successful singles. It is also rumoured that she released another album on the label entitled Touch The Sky, but if so, it is very rare. It was all enough to get her signed to a more established label, Aquarius. Her sound changed as well, from MOR ballads to R&B and dance-pop jams, though Dodson still produced. She was marketed as a dance singer, and the remixes of her first two singles, "I'll Respect You" and "Power To The People", became pretty ubiquitous on Canadian radio, as were the videos on Muchmusic. Also, like every other Canadian artist on the Isle, she was nominated for more Juno awards. But the buzz soon died down and Debbie appeared to leave the scene. It is rumoured that she continued behind the scenes as an engineer and producer, but there is no solid proof that it is the same Debbie Johnson. Her daughter Ashley informed me that she herself has started recording music, however, and directed me to her Myspace page. And I just discovered that Debbie herself has a Myspace page HERE, which indicates that she has a "Best Of" album coming out with a couple new tracks. But no one has logged in since December, so I guess we'll have to wait to see if that ever materializes.

Download So Excited

1		Power To The People
2		I'll Respect You
3		So Excited
4		If You Don't Call Back
5		Everlasting Love
6		Behind Closed Doors
7		Do It For The World
8		I Know You Very Well
9		Bad Business
10		Let Me Go
11		Missing You
12		Just A Little Love
13		Sun Doesn't Shine