Perfect Combination

Infobox Album |
Name = Perfect Combination
Type = Album
Artist = Johnny Gill


Released = 1984
Recorded = 1983 - 1984
Genre = Contemporary R&B
Length = 36.55
Label = Cotillion
Producer = Narada Michael Walden
Reviews = "Disc Duos: Do's and Dont's"
Joe Brown, Washington Post, 3/15/84
Last album = "Johnny Gill"
(1983)
This album = "Perfect Combination"
(1984)
Next album = "Chemistry"
(1985)

"Perfect Combination" is a duet album by Johnny Gill and Stacy Lattisaw, the childhood friend who first brought Gill to the attention of Cotillion Records.

Joe Brown of the Washington Post wrote, "Producer Narada Michael Walden, who has written six of the eight songs on the album, crams these two impressive voices-in-progress into a constricting selection of tired trends. The idea seems to be 'something for everyone,' but the result is not enough for anyone. The synths, sound effects, speeded-up beats and computer drums rob the duets of what they're ostensibly all about--the interplay of two human voices. Lattisaw and Gill divide their time between trying to be heard over the din and trying to add some personal style to the mechanical lines Walden has 'programmed' for them....Gill, 17, has a deep, muscular, elastic baritone, but shows off a bit too often on the gospel glissandos after the shortest phrases. Lattisaw, a pop music vet at 17 years, is more polished and assured than ever, and shows a sense of restraint, making melody her strong point. However, because of Walden's knob-twirling tyranny, Lattisaw doesn't have the freedom her voice deserves...There are several pleasant surprises--the gossamer ballad 'Falling in Love Again,' by folkies Eric Kaz and Tom Snow, and a version of Burt Bacharach's 'Baby It's You.' On '50/50 Love,' the two voices, to quote one of the many clichés the song spouts, 'go together hand in glove,' with Gill scatting and growling to rival Al Jarreau, and Lattisaw purring and swooping. But most of this record is given over to competent, if tedious, Shalamar-style electropop."

--Excerpted from "Disk Duos: Do's and Dont's," Washington Post, March 15, 1984

Track listing

#Block Party
#Fun N Games
#Falling in Love Again
#50/50 Love
#Perfect Combination
#HeartBreak Look
#Baby It's You
#Come out of The Shadows

Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)
Singles - Billboard (North America)

Album Credits

*Johnny Gill – Performer
*Stacy Lattisaw – Performer
*Narada Michael Walden – Percussion, Drums, Producer, Keyboards, Simmons Drums, Computer Sequencing, Sequencing
*Myrna Matthews – Vocals (Background)
*Ray Pyle – Engineer
*Vicki Randle – Vocals (Background)
*Marc Russo – Saxophone
*Corrado Rustici – Guitar
*Carla Vaughn – Vocals (Background)
*Linda Imperial – Vocals (Background)
*David Frazer – Engineer
*Bob Defrin – Art Direction
*Randy Jackson – Bass
*David Michael Kennedy – Photography
*Zal Schreiber – Mastering
*Kevin Walden – Vocals (Background)
*Ben E. Epps – Vocals (Background)
*Dennis Saunders – Vocals (Background)
*Frank Martin – Synthesizer, Keyboards
*Frank Loverde – Vocals (Background)
*David Sancious – Piano, Keyboards
*Joaquin Lievano – Guitar
*Bobby Black – Pedal Steel, Slide Guitar
*Bonnie Boyer – Vocals (Background)
*Maureen Droney – Engineer
*Jim Gilstrap – Vocals (Background)
*Alan Glass – Guitar, Guitar (Electric)
*Preston Glass – Guitar (Acoustic), Glockenspiel, Producer, Vocals (Background)
*Yolanda Glass – Vocals (Background)
*Jerry Hey – Trumpet, Horn (Alto), String Arrangements, Horn Arrangements
*Leslie Ann Jones
*John Lehman – Vocals (Background)
*Mingo Lewis – Percussion