The 1984 Casablanca Records release from Stephanie Mills, "I've Got The Cure."

Although I was somewhat familiar with Stephanie Mills from her disco days, I was formally introduced to her with 1984’s “The Medicine Song”.  Cleveland, Ohio’s WDMT FM-108 was my favorite station, and they had switched over from disco to r&b/funk.  R&B in the 1980’s was filled with really cool stuff…Mtume, Skyy, Aretha, Gladys Knight, Atlantic Starr, Midnight Star, The Gap Band, Yarbrough & Peoples and many, many more.  I listened to Carol Ford’s morning show getting ready for school, and always listened to WDMT when I got home, while doing homework.  In any event, WDMT began playing Stephanie Mills’ “The Medicine Song” in the late summer/early fall of 1984.  I loved it IMMEDIATELY.

 

The frantic bassline, courtesy of composer/producer David “Hawk” Wolinski would inspire me and my songwriting (I write music too) for years to come.  From the beginning to end, “The Medicine Song” is a perfect slice of eighties r&b/dance, including the lyric “Mama’s gonna give you some medicine.”  I got the “I’ve Got The Cure” album for Christmas of 1984, and to this day, love the bright red cover with Stephanie dressed as a nurse!  Very fun and colorful.  I also bought the 12″ single for “The Medicine Song” which boasts one of the best remixes of its time…offering a complete breakdown of the bassline, removal of some of the Linn drums, then adding them back at the exact right moment.  For those of you wondering, you can get the 12″ remix of “The Medicine Song” on a few 3-disc remix compilations from Europe…

The overall album was pretty good, although none of the tracks matched the intensity of “The Medicine Song.”  The second single culled from the release was “Edge of the Razor”, which wasn’t as big of a hit as “The Medicine Song”, but I do recall Ms. Mills performing it on Solid Gold!

In addition to the 45, 12″s of “The Medicine Song” and “Edge of the Razor” and the vinyl lp, I also purchased the 8″ LaserDisc called “Television Medicine” which featured the video to “The Medicine Song”, “Pilot Error” and another track from the disco days.  The video is fun, with Stephanie as a nurse once again…dancing up a storm.  I also really liked during the transformation scene in the video, where she goes from a nurse to a dancing diva, her shoes turn to silver slippers (a la “The Wiz, in which Stephanie starred as Dorothy on Broadway.)

I was record shopping one day in the early 1990’s and was looking through the cut-out cds.  Low and behold I found “I’ve Got The Cure” in the mix.  It was a German pressing on Polygram, and I snapped it up.  As it turns out, it has become fairly rare, and sells for quite a bit on eBay. 

So, after that long-winded explanation, now you know why I ripped this cd into my iPod.  Stephanie Mills “I’ve Got The Cure”, a perfect slice of 80s’ r&b/dance/pop.