Thursday, September 15, 2011

Pretty In Pink - Wake Up (1991)

Thanks to a request on The Music Spectrum, I decided to finally do a post on Pretty In Pink. They were a teenage girl R&B girl group signed to Motown in the early 1990s, their moniker obviously inspired by the late 80s movie of the same name. Their signing likely had to do with the clout of the mom of one of their members, main singer and songwriter Indira Milini Khan, whose mother was soul diva Chaka Khan. The other members were Maurissa Tancharoen, Taniya Robinson, Tameika Chaney and Shey Sperry. The girls sound was primarily new jack swing, though some tracks hearkened back to late 80s pop-funk. Their first single was "All About You", and it managed to just squeak into the Billboard Hot 100 at #96. They toured with Chaka, who assisted in promoting them on shows like The Arsenio Hall Show. But in spite of Chaka's help, Motown did little to promote them and their second single, "Dreams", had little impact. The group disbanded soon after, and most of the members seem to have left the industry. However, Indira continued to write songs and record, doing back up vocals and appearing as a featured vocalist on Phil Good's "Bring Me Up" in 2007. She's also toured extensively, most notably with the Daughters Of Soul, an internationally touring collective of successful female soul singers that includes soul royalty like Nona Hendryx, Deniece Williams, Caron Wheeler and Joyce Kennedy, as well as other daughters of soul icons such as Lalah Hathaway and Syleena Johnson. And while Maurissa recorded little else other than the Lance De Sardi single "Waterslide" in 2002, she did go on to great success as a screenwriter and actress. She married the brother of prolific TV director and writer Joss Whedon and wrote and appeared in some of his television shows, most notably Dollhouse. She also co-wrote the internet musical sensation Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog and recently co-wrote for the television series Spartacus: Gods Of The Arena, a prequel to Spartacus: Blood And Sand, which went on hiatus when it's star Andy Whitfield was diagnosed with cancer. Unfortunately he died this week on September 11, leaving the series' future in question.

Video for All About You

Download Wake Up

1
Boys Do Lie
2
All About You
3
Girls Night Out
4
I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend
5
Kiss And Tell
6
Two Hearts, One Love
7
Home By Midnight
8
Boy Is Mine
9
Dreams
10
Wake Up Everybody
11
All About You (House Version)
12
Testin' My Love

7 comments:

  1. You saw my request at Music Spectrum and immediately found it. Thanks Nasty G!

    You rock, BTW! And this site is fantastic. ((applauding))

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  2. These girls sucked. I remembeer that little fat black girl in the group, She thought that she was all that! I used to see her in the beauty salon every Saturday on Slauson here in Los angeles back in the late 80s and early early 90s. She was so full of her self I hated that chick!

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  3. I actually bought the cd in 91. It wasnt the best but i liked 5 songs off the album.

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  4. Will their songs be available on iTunes?

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  5. How funny and cool to hear Maurissa's old group - thanks for sharing! I'm a big of the tv show she and her hubby run - Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ...also, if anyone's interested, the two of them released free/pay-what-you-like music here: https://jedwhedon.bandcamp.com/album/this-girl

    Thanks again for Pretty In Pink! ~Chris

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  6. A Very Cool Group Of The Time. Glad To See There Coming Back

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