hypersongs

Change

The Italian-American post-disco studio group formed in Bologna in 1979, whose debut The Glow of Love opens with "A Lover's Holiday".

A studio project

Change was formed in Bologna in 1979 by the businessman and executive producer Jacques Fred Petrus (1948 to 1987) and Mauro Malavasi, heavily influenced by Chic. It began as a studio project rather than a touring band: Italian musicians recorded the instrumentals in Bologna, with the engineer Maurizio Biancani at Fonoprint Studios, and American singers overdubbed vocals in the United States, with mixing at the Power Station in New York. Vocalists were hired per track, and the instrumentation came from Petrus's in-house Goody Music Orchestra. Petrus described the intended sound as more of a funky dance/R&B style to reflect the times, as Groove of the Day quotes him. Petrus and Malavasi had founded Goody Music Productions in Bologna in 1978, and had a club hit with the project Macho.

The first line-up of 1980 and 1981 included Luther Vandross on lead and background vocals, Jocelyn Brown, Krystal Davis, Yvonne Lewis, Dennis Collins and Zachary Sanders, with Davide Romani on bass, Paolo Gianolio on guitar and Rudy Trevisi on sax. Wikipedia lists Brown as Jocelyn Shaw in one place, which we treat as an error.

The albums

The Glow of Love (April 16, 1980) reached 29 on the Billboard 200 and 10 on the R&B chart and went gold in the US; its three singles, "A Lover's Holiday", "Searching" and "The Glow of Love", together held the top of the US dance chart for nine weeks in May and June 1980. Miracles (March 6, 1981) reached 46 and 9; Vandross could not sing lead on it and left for a solo career, and James Crab Robinson replaced him. Sharing Your Love (1982) moved toward R&B and funk, and This Is Your Time (1983) followed after Robinson left and Rick Brennan replaced him. Change of Heart (1984) was largely written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and its title track reached the R&B top ten; Turn On Your Radio (1985) was the last of the era, with a last US hit, "Let's Go Together".

Petrus died in 1987 and the original group ended. After an unreleased X-Change attempt in the early 1990s, Change Your Mind came out in 2009 or 2010 (Wikipedia gives both years), and in 2018 Romani, Malavasi and Tanya Michelle Smith reformed with the single "Hit or Miss" and the album Love 4 Love (September 7, 2018). Embrace followed in 2025. Janet Jackson sampled "The Glow of Love" for "All for You" (2001), produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and other samplers include Aretha Franklin (1998), Phats and Small's "Turn Around" (1999) and Alcazar's "Paris in the Rain" (2000).

Albums

Songs

  • A Lover's Holiday The Glow of Love · 1980

    The debut single, a number one on the US dance chart in 1980 and a UK top 20 hit.

Sources

  1. Change (band), Wikipedia
  2. The Glow of Love, Wikipedia
  3. Too Deep a Dive, Volume 6: Change, Groove of the Day
  4. Change, Omnivore Recordings