チェンジ (Change)

Change
Change was an Italian-American group formed in Bologna, Italy 1979 by the bussinesman and executive producer Jacques Fred Petrus (1949-1986) and Mauro Malavasi (1958-).

The band, that had the form of a studio group, came with their debut "The Glow Of Love" in 1980 on which two of Petrus closest Italian co-workers, Davide Romani (1959-) and Paolo Gianolio played a very important role as songwriters. They also arranged and conducted the entire set. The album became a huge hit and the three cuts "A Lover's Holiday", "The Glow Of Love" and "Searching" spent nine weeks at number one in 1980 enough to become the no 1 Disco single/album of the year. Petrus used Luther Vandross as one of the two lead singers on the album (Jocelyn Brown was the other) and his performances on "Searching" and "The Glow Of Love" opened up the world for his touching voice that eventually led to a solo career (his second) in 1981.

The brilliant 1981 album "Miracles", perhaps their most well-balanced, hit the top as the debut with the three album cuts of "Paradise"; "Hold Tight"; and "Heaven Of My Life" that spent one week at the number one spot in 1981. By now, James Robinson and Diva Gray had replaced Vandross and Brown. However, Vandross would continue as a backup vocal for this album and on selected tracks of the next album, leaving after that due to an economical disagreement with Petrus regarding the payment for his intended role on the second Change album. Singer Brown also continued to provide background vocal contributions and arrangements. Luther would leave Change to start his solo career in 1981, and his very first solo hit, "Never Too Much" was written and produced by Petrus and Malavasi themselves.

Change did release four more albums, "Sharing your love" in 1982 (#14 on Bilboard's Black Albums chart) including the title track that yielded to spot #16 on Billboard's Black Singles list and "The Very Best In You", which peaked at #33, "This Is Your Time" in 1983 that also scored some mid-successful hits, The Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis produced "Change Of Heart" in 1984, who's title track would bring the group back to the top five positions on the charts, and also featured "You Are My Melody" and "Say You Love Me", and their final album, "Turn On Your Radio" in 1985, which along with the title track, featured "Let's Go Together", but was their weakest output. By this time, vocalist Diva Gray was out and Deborah Cooper was recruited as the primary female lead vocalist. The first two lps turned more to American musicians and songwriters than earlier when Petrus used Italians and sounded also more R&B than Disco. Petrus was in fact, more of the manager, and left creative duties to Malavasi, so when Malavasi left Change in 1983, Petrus turned to outside help for the next album, by hiring up-and-coming producer-duo and ex The Time members Jimmy Jam (James Harris III) and Terry Lewis. It included the title track, "Change Of Heart", which made it to #7 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and #17 on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play list. The last album did reach the #64 spot on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list including the only charted track "Let's go together" (#33 on Billboard's Dance Music/Club Play).

Remaining Petrus' biggest commercial success from start to end with a polished and sofisticated sound Change were split up in 1986 after the tragic death of Petrus that year (murdered in Guadeloupe). Petrus was all through his career the firm controller of his musical empire that he built up together with Mauro Malavasi in the mid 70s. But when he died it all fall apart and so did Change.

Many of their songs are still used in today's music via sampling, examples being Black Sheep's 1991 single- "Strobelite Honey" and the most recent (and probably most successful) example would be Janet Jackson's use of "The Glow Of Love" as the rhythm track to her number-one hit "All For You" in 2001...
(Wikipedia: Change (band))