Colonel Abrams
Colonel Abrams is a House music and Urban contemporary musician who was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Brooklyn, New York.
Career
In 1985 he signed to the major label, MCA Records for a debut album Colonel Abrams this collaboration with the British producer Richard James Burgess produced the hits "Trapped", "I'm Not Gonna Let" and urban contemporary ballad "Table for Two".
"Trapped" reached the top five and went gold in the UK Singles Chart and topped the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1985, followed by the entire Colonel Abrams album, which spent two weeks at number one the following year. "I'm Not Gonna Let" also spent a week at number one in 1986. The album peaked at number 75 on the U.S. Billboard 200 albums chart and number 13 on the U.S. Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. His second album, You and Me Equals Us saw similar success.
Abrams also enjoyed a string of very successful entries on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Play chart in the 1980s and 1990s, including four entries that hit number one. In 1987 he had his fourth number-one U.S. dance hit with "How Soon We Forget." Colonel Abrams is also a very capable and strong balladeer as demonstrated in the Urban contemporary hit "Table for Two". All of the above singles performed well on the U.S. R&B chart.
An electronic remix of "Trapped" was later released in 1995 by Boards of Canada under the pseudonym Hell Interface. A new version of "Trapped" ("Trapped 2006") was released in the UK, one of many other Colonel Abrams remixes.The Colonel is the Godfather of House and is widely regarded as the most sampled vocalist in the industry.
On January 9, 2007, Colonel Abrams released the single "Just When You Thought." It became the third single released on his own record label, Colonel Records the others being "Heartbreaker" and "Let Us All Be Friends". On April 2nd 2007, Colonel also released a dance smash called "Never Be", available from Traxsource.com. Even though all of Abrams' recent singles output has become popular, none seem to have charted on the Billboard charts such as the Hot Dance Singles Sales, Hot Dance Airplay and Hot Dance Club Play charts. If they did, the exact chart peak of each single is unknown by most. Colonel Abrams' forthcoming album, entitled Tribute to My Brother will be released in either late 2007 or early 2008.
Discography
Albums
- Colonel Abrams, 1985 MCA Records (#75 U.S., #1 U.S. Dance)
- You and Me Equals Us, 1987 MCA Records
- About Romance, 1992 RCA Records
- Victim of Loving You, 1995 Strictly Rhythm
- Make a Difference, 1996 Dancefloor
- Best of Colonel Abrams, 2000 Universal Special Products
- Tribute To My Brother, 2007 Colonel Records
Singles
- "The Truth" (#53 UK, #78 R&B)
- "Bad Timing"
- "Music Is The Answer" (#11 U.S. Dance)
- "I'm Not Gonna Let You" (#24 UK, #1 U.S. Dance, #7 U.S. R&B)
- "Speculation" (#15 U.S. Dance)
- "Over and Over" (#45 U.S. Dance, #68 U.S. R&B)
- "How Soon We Forget" (#75 UK, #1 U.S. Dance, #6 U.S. R&B)
- "Nameless" (#54 U.S. R&B)
- "I'm Not Gonna Let You (1991)"
- "Trapped" (#3 UK, #1 U.S. Dance, #20 U.S. R&B)
- "You Don't Know (Somebody Tell Me)" (#58 U.S. R&B)
- "When Somebody Loves Somebody" (#70 U.S. R&B)
- "Never Be Another One" (#22 U.S. Dance)
- "So Confused" (#15 U.S. Dance)
- "I'm Caught Up"
- "Get With You"
- "As Quiet as It's Kept"
- "Make a Difference"
- "Trapped '97"
- "Heartbreaker"
- "99 1/2"
- "Music Is My Life"
- "Nothing Yet"
- "Don't Give Me a Love That I Can't Use"
- "Hurt My Feelings"
- "Could It Be"
- "As I Take You Back"
- "Release the Tension"
- "Leave the Message Behind the Door"
- "House of Stone"
- "Color the Roads"
- "Soon You'll Be Gone"
- "Let Us All Be Friends"
- "So Proud"
- "In the Air"
- "Do You Know What I Mean"
- "I'll Be Right There"
- "Where Do We Go From Here?" (duet with Ultra Nate)
- "Should Be Dancin'"
- "Victim of Loving You"
- "Love on a Cutting Edge"
- "Who Do You Love?"
- "Feel Free"
- "Love Is What We Need"
- "Sweet Love"
- "Celebrate"
- "Just When You Thought"
- "Never Be"