Album: Jane Child (Warner Bros.; 1989)
Songwriters: Jane Child
R&B Peak Position: #6
"Love cuts just like a knife/ You make the knife feel good..."
A Toronto-born singer/ songwriter/ producer/ musician with a nose chain and an exaggerated mullet that consisted of spikes and lengthy braids, Jane Child wasn't your typical-looking dance-pop star, let alone R&B diva, but in the spring of 1990 she nevertheless lodged a spot in both the Pop and R&B Top 10 with the perky, New Jack-lite number "Don't Wanna Fall In Love".
The subject of a major label bidding war once her demo started getting heard around the industry, Child ended up signing to Warner Bros., which released her self-titled debut in 1989. "Don't Wanna..." was the first cut to drop from the album and it screamed hit single, working a heavily synthesized club feel that fell in perfect line with the pop music sounds that had dominated Top 40 the previous few years.
The song saw Child "scared to death" of a new romance on the horizon to the soundtrack of some slick keyboard-funk. "Ain't no personal thing, boy/ But you've got to stay away/ Far, far away from my heart, my heart," she pleads of the guy who's got her feeling the piercing pangs of love, and she's willing to fight him to the end to keep from succumbing to her emotional, and bodily, desires.
With the catchy single and a distinctive look that helped her stand out amongst the rest of the female pop/ R&B pack, Jane Child became a brief MTV darling, and was even rewarded with a funkier remix handled by the one and only Teddy Riley. But after the disappointing chart showing of follow-up single, "Welcome To The Real World" and the largely ignored reception to her 1993 sophomore release, Here Not There, Warner Bros. dropped her from their roster. Child kept herself busy with the occasional music project, but wouldn't deliver another album until 2002, when she premiered Surge via her own label, Sugarwave Records
Best Moment: The "synth solo" (2:28)
DL: "Don't Wanna Fall In Love" (YFH)
4 comments:
THIS IS MY JAM! No idea she was white until i saw her VH1. and that NJS remix Teddy did...SICK.
I LOVE your blog! I just discovered this song last week on another blog, and I have been playing the mess out of it. Teddy Riley's skills are undeniable. The New Jack Swing era was a formidable time in my youth. Thank you for all of your thoughtful entries on these classics!
This was and is my jam, thanks so much for posting!
Kimberly Wyatt of "The Pussycat Dolls" record this song on the album "Doll Domination" !
Very good too !
I love it !!!
Jane Child and Kimberly Wyatt ROCKS !!
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