D. Train
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D. Train (sometimes written as D Train, D-Train or "D" Train) was an American R&B duo who scored several significant hits on both the Billboard Club Music and R&B charts during the first half of the 1980s.
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[edit] Overview
The project was a collaborative effort between the band's namesake James "D. Train" Williams, who was featured as the lead vocalist and songwriter, and Hubert Eaves III, a keyboardist and producer who performed the instrumentation on the recordings. Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Williams himself was actually an R&B/dance music record producer as well. He and Eaves met during high school and began performing together. Eaves would spend most of the 1970s as a member of the R&B band Mtume. However, by the 1980s, he and Williams had teamed up again. The group named themselves "D. Train" after a nickname Williams had acquired as a football player in high school.
D. Train released their first single and their most memorable hit, "You're the One For Me" in late 1981. The track became an instant success, hitting #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart that year; it has been remixed and re-released successfully several times since. The duo's self-titled debut album (which prominently featured the "You're the One For Me" title on the front cover, and the album sometimes became known by this name) followed in early 1982, and several additional singles from this effort were successful on both the R&B and Dance charts, although they were not as popular as the debut hit. Among these tracks were "Keep On," which reached #2 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, and a cover version of the Burt Bacharach penned "Walk On By" that owed more to the Isaac Hayes version than to Dionne Warwick's take on the tune.
In 1983, the band released their follow-up album, Music. The title track became another dance-floor anthem and is the most gospel infused of D-Train's floor fillers. This track nearly equalled the success of the group's debut single. Several other singles from the album were moderately successful.
In 1984, D. Train had their only Billboard Hot 100 entry with "Something's On Your Mind," which climbed to #79 and was later covered by Miles Davis on his album You're Under Arrest. The single also cracked the top five on the R&B chart, becoming the group's biggest hit in that market as well. The accompanying album, also titled Something's On Your Mind, found the band branching out into new musical territory, incorporating elements of reggae and more adult contemporary-oriented R&B into their music. Williams himself even plays acoustic guitar on a cover of Carole King's "So Far Away".
The group released a remixed version of "You're the One for Me" in 1985, and the tune charted a second time. The remixing on this version of the song was done by British keyboardist/producer Paul Hardcastle, who became well-known for his own hit "19" that same year. Hardcastle's remix of "You're the One for Me" retains the same prominent keyboard riff heard during the chorus in the original version, and overall, this remix did not stray far from the arrangement of the original. Despite this success, the group would disband that same year.
[edit] James Williams as a solo artist
Following the dissolution of D-Train the band, Williams embarked on a moderately successful solo career. Although he was billed as a solo artist, however, he did continue to work with Eaves acting as a producer and key instrumentalist. In 1986, Williams released his debut album, Miracles of the Heart, which featured a top ten R&B single, "Misunderstanding." The follow-up single, "Oh, How I Love You Girl" also performed well in the R&B market.
His second album, In Your Eyes followed in 1988. The title track narrowly missed the R&B top ten, and one other single was also released. However, with the dawning of the 1990s, Williams' success began to wain.
[edit] Legacy
D. Train's hard funky style featured fat bass synthesiser rhythms that influenced other artists. However, by the late 1980s, as jazz funk fell out of fashion, D. Train's cheesy image became hard to shrug off. Also, D. Train recently has reissued all his albums on CDs through Unidisc Music Inc.
The song "You're the One for Me" exists in remixes by Larry Levan and Shep Pettibone, and most recently was sampled heavily by DJ Kue in his 2006 hit, "I Got Love." "You're the One for Me" is also sampled in the song "Girls" by The Prodigy from the album Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned.
D. Train contributed to the Pokémon anime's "Pokérap" on the official television soundtrack, 2BA Master.
Williams is currently a DJ for Heart & Soul Channel 51 on the Sirius Satellite Radio service based in New York. In 2007, his performances of "My Funny Valentine" and Hot Choclate's "You Sexy Thing" appeared in the soundtrack for the film, Perfect Stranger.
[edit] See also
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
