Cameo – Live 1986 (fltr: Nathan Leftenant, Tomi Jenkins, Larry Blackmon)
Introduction
In 1986, a number of my favorite albums were released, including Prince & The Revolution’s brilliant Parade, The Smiths’ umpteenth top album The Queen Is Dead, David Lee Roth outdoing Van Halen on Eat ‘Em And Smile, and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ journey into dark covers on Kicking Against The Pricks. The Netherlands happily joined in with albums by Claw Boys Claw and The Fatal Flowers! But 1986 was also the year of Cameo. Word Up! came, saw, and conquered.
Cameo – Find My Way – Dutch pressing single
Cameo
In 1974, singer and drummer Larry Blackmon started a funk group called New York City Players, which was renamed The Players a year later. The 13-piece band was signed by Casablanca Records to its new subsidiary label Chocolate City (named after the Parliament album of the same name). The band soon released its first single: Find My Way, a disco track with a funky feel.
Cameo – Cardiac Arrest (1977), We All Know Who We Are (1978), Ugly Ego (1978) & Secret Omen (1979)
To avoid confusion with The Ohio Players, the band’s name was changed to Cameo in 1976 (by request?), and the single was released only in the Netherlands in Europe. Cameo’s debut album followed in 1977: Cardiac Arrest, followed in 1978 and 1979 by We All Know Who We Are, Ugly Ego and Secret Omen. The band soon scored hits such as Rigor Mortis and I Just Want To Be. A re-recorded version of their debut single Find My Way became a major hit after it was featured in the disco film Thank God It’s Friday and on its accompanying soundtrack.
Cameo – Cameosis (1980), Feel Me (1980), Knights Of The Sound Table (1981) & Alligator Woman (1982)
With the start of the (19)80s, the band’s sound became more electronic. Albums such as Cameosis, Feel Me and Knights Of The Sound Table were certified gold and produced modest hit singles, mainly on the (Black) R&B Billboard chart. In 1982, Blackmon decided to reduce the group to five members, and in this lineup Alligator Woman (featuring Prince protégé Vanity on the cover) was released, an album that was also certified gold. In 1983, the Chocolate City label ceased to exist. Cameo set up its own label, Atlanta Artists, and would release its albums through that label until 1991.
Cameo – Style (1983), She’s Strange (1984) & Single Life (1985)
The new label and a further reduction of the band to four members resulted in an even more electronic sound, moving towards electro-funk. On Style, Cameo themselves called it “21st Century Bebop”. The albums She’s Strange and Single Life were just as successful as their predecessors. With the latter album, the band had been reduced to three core members.
Cameo – Word Up!
Word Up!
On September 9, 1986, Cameo’s twelfth (!) album was released. Word Up! would take the band to the very top for the first time. A platinum certification and three worldwide hits were the result. The album is characterized by electro-funk at its very best. Heavy rhythms and percussive instrumentation take Cameo to the height of their powers and onto charts around the world. Whereas Cameo had previously been primarily successful in the US, the band became a worldwide phenomenon, largely thanks to the hit Word Up!.
Cameo – Word Up! – Video
Review
What is truly impressive about Word Up! is that the album is Cameo through and through, that it creates a world of its own, and that it represents the band’s artistic and commercial peak. Cameo was uncompromising during the recording of the album and put it together exactly as they wanted. The fact that it connected with the audience was a matter of coincidence, luck, or simply ‘the right sound at the right time’. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t a calculated move.
The synthetic sound of the Linn drum opens the extremely funky Word Up!, a highlight of (electro-)funk. Drums, bass, funky guitar and synthesizers pave the way for Blackmon’s infectious nasal voice, which propels the song to great heights. When the horns kick in at 3:19, it’s evident: this song is an all-time classic. That was already obvious to everyone in 1986. The video accompanying the song was funny and presented a world of its own, where wearing a bright red jockstrap apparently was nothing out of the ordinary. The strap turned into a Cameo trademark.
But we’re only one song into the album. To be fair, the rest of the album doesn’t quite reach the ridiculously high level of the opening title track, but both Candy and Back And Forth are perfect songs that also did well in the charts. After a mandatory ballad (something Cameo never excelled at on any of its albums), the album does lose some momentum.
Still, the first three tracks prove that success can sometimes go hand in hand with great artistic value. I can’t agree with the criticism that the album sounds very much like ‘1986’. This album certainly hasn’t dated that much!
Cameo – Word Up! – Singles
Singles
Four of the album’s seven tracks were released as singles.
- Word Up!
(released in July 1986) - Candy
(released on October 21, 1986) - Back And Forth
(released on February 4, 1987) - She’s Mine
(released in June 1987)
Cameo – Word Up! – Back cover
Songs
Writers are listed in parentheses.
- Word Up! (Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins)
- Candy (Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins)
- Back And Forth (Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins, Nathan Leftenant, Kevin Kendrick)
- Don’t Be Lonely (Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins, Kevin Kendrick, Willie Morris)
- She’s Mine (Larry Blackmon, Nathan Leftenant, Antonio Matthews, Ray Malloy)
- Fast, Fierce & Funny (Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins, Nathan Leftenant)
- You Can Have the World (Larry Blackmon, Tomi Jenkins, Nathan Leftenant)
Cameo – Word Up! – Advertisement
Musicians
Cameo
- Larry Blackmon – vocals, backing vocals, bass, drums, percussion
- Tomi Jenkins – vocals, backing vocals
- Nathan Leftenant – backing vocals
With assistance from
- Merv De Peyer, Kenni Hairston, Kevin Kendrick, Eric Rehl, Bernard Wright – keyboards
- Peter Scherer – Synclavier programming
- Charlie Singleton – guitar, backing vocals
- Pat Buchanan – guitar
- Michael Burnett – bass, backing vocals
- Aaron Mills – bass
- Sammy Merendino – drum programming
- Duduka Da Fonseca, Giovanni Hidalgo, Steve Thornton – percussion
- Melvin Wells – saxophone, backing vocals
- Michael Brecker – saxophone on Candy, Don’t Be Lonely, She’s Mine
- Randy Brecker – trumpet
- Willie Morris – backing vocals
- Uptown Horns
- Crispin Cioe, Arno Hecht – saxophone
- Bob Funk – trombone
- Paul Litteral – trumpet
Cameo – Machismo (1988), Real Men… Wear Black (1990), Emotional Violence (1992), In The Face Of Funk (1994), Sexy Sweet Thing (2000)
After Word Up!
Following an extremely successful tour, the group released the album Machismo in 1988. It was still reasonably successful, especially among critics, but it was a clear sign that the glory days were over. None of the subsequent releases would achieve the minimum gold certification that had become standard for the band. Real Men… Wear Black, Emotional Violence and In The Face Of Funk were increasingly less successful. It would take until 2000 for the final Cameo album to be released: Sexy Sweet Thing.
Little to nothing was heard from the band until 2016, when Cameo announced that they would perform in Las Vegas for a year at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. After that, the band continued to perform regularly with various lineups until Larry Blackmon could no longer continue in 2024. He stopped performing and handed over leadership of Cameo to his sons. In 2026, Larry Blackmon was issued a lawsuit against him by former band members. He won the case and is officially the owner of the Cameo name.
In closing
What do you think of Word Up! and Cameo? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Cameo and the hit album Word Up!. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
