Friday 6 January 2012

Soul Family Sensation - I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby (1990 & 1991))



In 1989 Johnny Male teamed up with Guy Batson and Jhelisa Anderson to begin the project Soul Family Sensation. Their debut album New Wave was praised by the UK media as was the single, I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby. 
Despite interest from the style press and radio play for the single release, SFS bombed. Too white for the dance kids, too black for the indie kids it seemed, SFS were stuck in a sort of no-mans land inbetween.
I Don't Even Know If I Should Call You Baby was re-released in 1991 and spent 4 weeks in the UK Charts, reaching no.49.
Their second LP, Burger Habit, recorded without Jhelisa under the band name of Sensation, disappeared without a trace and SFS split. Male,  after reputedly writing songs for Jimmy Nail, turned up next in Republica.
Jhelisa Anderson of course has become an accomplished solo artist singing, writing & producing under the name Jhelisa. She has made two albums and struck gold with Friendly Pressure. Her sister is P.Y. or Pamela Anderson (No, not that one) who sang with D*Note and Incognito and of course, her cousin is Carleen Anderson, daughter of Vicki Anderson & Bobby Byrd.
I've loved this song since day one, both versions here are absolutely sublime. Don't be misled by the alternate title of the remix, it's another version of the same song but remixed by the iconic producer Marshall Jefferson, produced just before he took a break from music in 1990; he then returned to DJing in 1993.

Original 1990 version

1991 re-release

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