CoronaVinyl Day 268 (I): It's Your Night by James Ingram

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "I," and we've been on a pretty good run of albums from the early '80s over the last week, so fuck it, let's keep it rollin' with James Ingram's debut album, 1983's It's Your Night.

Like Michael McDonald -- who himself makes an appearance on this album -- James Ingram is one of those singers and songwriters that seemed to have his hand in everything for a few years.  In 1975, his band Revelation Funk made an appearance in the legendary blaxploitation film Dolemite.  In 1981, he sang two songs on Quincy Jones's album The Dude (not that goldbricking millionaire) -- "Just Once" and "One Hundred Ways" -- earning Ingram three Grammy nods, including a win for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "One Hundred Ways."  Both songs were Top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.  The next year, he had a #1 hit with his soulful duet with Patti Austin, "Baby, Come To Me."  And he also wrote songs for a variety of artists, including "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" from Michael Jackson's Thriller.

It's Your Night went to #46 on the Billboard album chart and #10 on the Billboard R&B album chart, his highest-charting album on both charts.  I expected it to be all early '80s soul/R&B, and while there is plenty of that, there are also some peppier and poppier songs.  It produced three charting songs on the Billboard Hot 100:  "Yah Mo B There," a duet with the aforementioned McDonald, which reached #19, "How Do You Keep The Music Playing?," another duet with Patti Austin, which went to #45, and "There's No Easy Way" (#58).  The album garnered Ingram another four Grammy nominations, and "Yah Mo B There" won Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1985.

Ingram was one of the artists who sang on USA For Africa's "We Are The World" in 1985.  All told, he was nominated for 14 Grammy Awards and won twice, he had eight Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 (including duets and collaborations), including three Top 10s and two #1s (the previously mentioned "Baby, Come To Me" in 1982 and "I Don't Have the Heart in 1990).  While he's no Kenny Loggins, Ingram seemed to have a knack for making songs for films, including his #2 hit duet with Linda Ronstadt for 1986's American Tail, "Somewhere Out There."  He was also  nominated twice for Academy Awards and Golden Globes -- in 1994 for the song "The Day I Fall in Love" from Beethoven's 2nd and in 1995 for the song "Look What Love Has Done" from Junior.

Sadly, he died in 2019 at age 66 from brain cancer.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Party Animal"
The album kicks off with a bang, with this fun-loving funky pop song that seems like it could have been featured during an '80s comedy party scene.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "One More Rhythm"
This is definitely the peppiest and jazziest song on the second side, which is generally more soul-focused.