Change (band)

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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-).

1 Big success from the start
2 1982-1985 - Change remain on the charts
3 The end
4 Discography
5 Sources
6 See also

[edit] Big success from the start

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 Deborah Cooper had replaced Vandross and Brown. Vandross left after an economical disagreement with Petrus regarding the payment for his intended role on the second Change album. That however didn't stop him from doing some background vocals on Petrus projects that year.

[edit] 1982-1985 - Change remain on the charts

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, "This is your time" in 1983 that also scored some mid-successful hits, Jam&Lewis produced "Change of heart" in 1984 and "Turn on your radio" in 1985. The first two turned more to American musicians and songwriters than earlier when Petrus used Italians and sounded also more R&B than Disco. That was also the case with the successful 1984 album for which album Petrus hired up-coming producer-duo and ex The Time members Jimmy Jam (James Harris III) and Terry Lewis. It included the hit "Change of heart" that hit spot #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).

[edit] The end

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.

Extern link: http://www.jacquespetrus.com/change.htm