Rick James

Due to this single, the follow-up top 40 smash, "Give It to Me Baby", the Teena Marie duet "Fire and Desire", and "Ghetto Life", Street Songs peaked at number-one on the R&B album chart and number-three on the pop chart, going on to sell more than three million copies; this became James' biggest-selling album and made James famous. Read Less

That same year, he produced his longtime background vocal group The Mary Jane Girls, with their self-titled debut album, featuring the hits "All Night Long" and "Candy Man". The "Mary Jane Girls" originally consisted of Joanne "JoJo" McDuffie (lead/background vocals) and longtime session singers Julia Waters and Maxine Waters. The trio had long sung with James, who later included Kimberly "Maxi" Wuletich, Candice "Candi" Ghant and Cheryl Bailey (who used the stage name Cheri Wells) to join the group, though they didn't sing on the original records. After Wells left, she was replaced by Yvette "Corvette" Marine. In 1985, the group's second album, Only Four You included their biggest hit, "In My House: "JoJo" continued to sing lead and contributed to the backgrounds with the Water Sisters, as the other group members could not sing at all or were extremely limited vocally. Rick's band sang for the group with JoJo for concert tours. James also produced a couple of albums for his Stone City Band, releasing material by the group in 1980 and 1982 respectively. Read Less

James would die later that year from heart failure at the age of 56.

James Ambrose Johnson, Jr. was born in Buffalo, New York to Mabel (née Gladden) and James Ambrose Johnson, Sr. Though renowned Temptations bass vocalist Melvin Franklin cited James as his nephew, that has sometimes been disputed. James' father, an autoworker, left the family when he was around ten years old. James was one of eight children. James' mother briefly danced for Katherine Dunham and allegedly ran errands for a Mafia-connected mob, just to feed her family. James' early life consisted of music and, sometimes, crime. Influenced by the then popular doo-wop sound as well as the emerging soul music scene, James began singing on street corners with neighborhood friends. James recounted that a school performance while on congas changed his life and he decided to become a professional musician. James would attend Orchard Park High School and Bennett High School before dropping out at 15 to avoid a possible draft as a result of his street criminal activity and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. A year later, James left the Reserve after he began to miss weekend training, because it interfered with his music career. Read Less