Album: Chain (East West/ Atlantic; 1990)
Songwriters: Peter Lord, Sandra St. Victor and V. Jeffrey Smith
R&B Peak Position: #3
"Ghetto heaven/ I need a little ghetto heaven"
Originally known as Evon Geffries & The Stand (the moniker behind their 1988 debut Changes) before taking on the much simpler name, The Family Stand, the trio of acclaimed vocalist Sandra St. Victor and instrumentalists/ producers Peter Lord and V. Jeffrey Smith scored a major urban radio hit in the summer of 1990 with "Ghetto Heaven", a club favorite that combined the ashen bump of Euro-centric soul with message-oriented content.
"Heaven" was a burbling funk mess in it's original album version (one of many moments in which the band's over-ambitiousness led to off-putting results), but when released as a single, it was awarded a trendy remix-ing by Jazzie B and Nellee Hooper, the production duo behind the Soul II Soul classics "Keep On Movin'" and "Back To Life". Their skilled re-production took looming synth lines, a rattling drum beat and a haunted bass underlining then sprinkled randomly scratched-in vocal bits all through it, forming this dense collage of atmospheric noise that felt otherworldly, yet miles more appealing than The Family Stand's confusing preceding version.
Lyrically, the song centered on the human being's pursuit of their own individualized ultimate high, or "ghetto heaven", with little vignettes that dealt with addiction of the alcoholic, love or drug ("Sister needs her sugar/ To get her through the day") variety. Some of the words were downright silly (especially the story about the God-loving Nana with the peach-flavored brandy by her side), but St. Victor sang them with the straightest of conviction, her hysteric high notes perfectly honing in on the desperate nature of addiction with tingling cries of "Baby baby baby/ All I need in this world is you".
If the song's elementary attempts at Marvin Gaye/ Stevie Wonder R&B consciousness didn't grab you, St. Victor's penetrating vocal did, and paired with Jazzie and Hooper's remixed beat, "Ghetto Heaven" worked as a B-rate Soul II Soul offering, reaching #3 on the R&B singles chart.
A year after "Heaven"'s peaking, The Family Stand drew massive attention for their input on Paula Abdul's Spellbound album (to which they created the hit singles "Rush Rush" and "Promise of A New Day") with production work on releases from Daryl Hall, Corey Glover, Tamia and Heather Headley following over the next decade and a half. While they never nabbed another strong radio hit, the Stand would continue to release new material (from '91's rock-heavy Moon In Scorpio to their '07 independent comeback Super Sol Nova), keeping them in favor with cult audiences who enjoyed an alternative spin to their R&B.
In 2000 a whole new generation of listeners would embrace the Family Stand cut when rapper Common sampled it for two different versions of the Like Water For Chocolate single, "Geto Heaven": one that was a duet with D'Angelo, and it's remix, which featured Macy Gray.
Best Moment: St. Victor's electric performance and the speckles of JB mixed into the track.
DL: "Ghetto Heaven" (YFH)
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