Life Is A Song Worth Singing

No longer having to share the already-bright spotlight with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, TP spent his late ’70s/early ’80s stretch of R&B superstardom putting himself all out there to the utmost as if he knew in advance it would eventually be taken away from him. The entirety of his ’77-to-’81 streak of five platinum albums is worth immersing yourself in, but his second solo record and first R&B #1 LP will, to paraphrase Eddie Murphy, scare you into loving it — he’s so intensely authoritative a presence on yougotyougotyougotwhatINEED thunderstorm “Only You” and a conflagration of tenderness on “Close The Door” that your whole libido will need to be completely recalibrated just by being in its proximity.