''Jeffrey Osborne'' is the debut studio album by American singer

Jeffrey Osborne Jeffrey Linton Osborne (born March 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and lyricist. He is the former drummer and lead singer of the American R&B/soul group L.T.D., with whom he began his musical career in 1970. Biography Earl ...

. It was released by

A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...

on May 18, 1982. His solo debut after leaving his band L.T.D. for a solo career, Osborne worked with

George Duke George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a pr ...

on the majority of the album, though legal issues had initially prevented him from signing his solo deal with A&M for a whole year.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

editor Jason Elias found that "unlike countless other acts who ent solo, Osborne'sself-titled release proves that it was a great decision. Producer George Duke offered Osborne an up-to-the-minute sound with a collection of great studio players ranging from drummer

Steve Ferrone Steve Ferrone (born 25 April 1950) is an English drummer. He is known as a member of the rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from 1994 to 2017, replacing original drummer Stan Lynch, and as part of the "classic lineup" of the Average Whi ...

to bassist Louis Johnson ..This is an impressive solo debut from one of R&B and pop's best vocalists."

Chart performance

The album reached number 49 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 along with three singles, " On the Wings of Love", "I Really Don't Need No Light" and "Eenie Meenie" peaking at numbers 29, 39 and 76 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, respectively. "On the Wings of Love" also reached number 23 on the ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' Top 100 as well as number 7 on the US Adult Contemporary chart, and number 11 in the United Kingdom.

Track listing

All tracks produced by

Personnel

Performers and musicians * Jeffrey Osborne – lead vocals (all tracks), vocal arrangements (all tracks), rhythm arrangements (1, 4, 5, 7-10), backing vocals (2-10), handclaps (5, 6, 8), horn arrangements (5, 8),

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

(6) *

– rhythm arrangements (1, 4, 8, 10), acoustic piano (1, 4, 8, 10), synthesizers (2, 3, 7), acoustic piano solo (2), handclaps (5), horn arrangements (5, 8, 10), vocoder (6), bells (7) * John Barnes – electric piano (2, 7), organ (5) *

Bobby Lyle Robert Lyle (born March 11, 1944) is a jazz pianist/organist and educator. Early life Lyle was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 11, 1944 to parents Robert and Elise Lyle. He grew up in a musical household after the family moved from Memphis ...

– electric piano (3) *

Ron Kersey Tyrone Garfield Kersey (April 7, 1949 – January 25, 2005), known as Ron "Have Mercy" Kersey, was an American keyboardist, songwriter, producer and arranger most known for writing the music to "Disco Inferno" by The Trammps. Kersey was born in P ...

– rhythm arrangements (5), electric piano (9) *

Michael Sembello Michael Andrew Sembello (born April 17, 1954) is an American singer, guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer and producer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sembello was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his 1983 song " ...

– guitar (1-4, 10), rhythm arrangements (2) *

Charles Fearing Raydio is an American funk and R&B vocal group formed in 1977 by Ray Parker Jr., with Vincent Bonham, Jerry Knight, and Arnell Carmichael. Career 1970s and Raydio After securing a record deal, the group scored their first big hit in early 197 ...

– guitar (3, 5) * Paul Jackson Jr. – guitar (7) *

David T. Walker David T. Walker (born June 25, 1941) is an American guitarist, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to numerous session musician duties since the early 1970s, Walker has issued fifteen albums in his own name. Career David T. Walker was born to ...

– guitar (7, 9) * Louis Johnson – bass (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8) *

Abraham Laboriel Abraham Laboriel López Sr. (born July 17, 1947) is a Mexican-American bassist who has played on over 4,000 recordings and soundtracks. ''Guitar Player'' magazine called him "the most widely used session bassist of our time". Laboriel is the f ...

– bass (4, 10) *

Larry Graham Larry Graham Jr. (born August 14, 1946) is an American bassist and baritone singer, both with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. In 1980, he released the single "O ...

– bass (6, 9) *

– drums (all tracks) * Paulinho Da Costa – cowbell (1), percussion (2, 3, 5, 6, 8), handclaps (6, 8) *

Sheila E. Sheila Cecilia Escovedo (born December 12, 1957) better known under the stage name Sheila E., is an American percussionist and singer. She began her career in the mid-1970s as a percussionist and singer for The George Duke Band. After leaving t ...

– handclaps (5) * Tony Maiden – handclaps (6, 8) *

Ernie Watts Ernest James Watts (born October 23, 1945) is an American jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who plays soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone. He has worked with Charlie Haden's Quartet West and toured with the Rolling Stones. On Frank Zappa's ...

– tenor saxophone solo (1) *

Larry Williams Larry Williams (born Lawrence Eugene Williams, a.k.a. Lawrence Edward Williams; May 10, 1935 – January 7, 1980) was an American rhythm and blues and rock and roll singer, songwriter, producer, and pianist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Williams ...

– tenor saxophone (1, 5, 6, 8), flute (10),

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

(10) * Lew McCreary – trombone (1, 5, 6, 8) * Gary Grant – trumpet (1, 5, 6, 8, 10) *

Jerry Hey Jerry Hey (born 1950) is an American trumpeter, flugelhornist, horn arranger, string arranger, orchestrator and session musician who has played on hundreds of commercial recordings, including Michael Jackson's '' Thriller'', ''Rock with You'', ...

– trumpet (1, 5, 6, 8, 10), horn arrangements (1, 5, 6, 8) * Bobby Martin – French horn (2, 10) * George Del Barrio – string arrangements (2, 4, 7, 9) * Paul Shure – concertmaster (2, 3, 4, 7, 9) * David "Hawk" Wolinski – rhythm arrangements (3) * Len Ron Hanks – rhythm arrangements (7) *

Arif Mardin Arif Mardin (March 15, 1932 – June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for ov ...

– orchestration (10) * Lynn Davis – backing vocals (3, 8, 9) Technical * Chuck Beeson – art direction * Wally Buck – assistant engineer * George Duke – producer * Bernie Faccone – assistant engineer * Matt Forger – assistant engineer *

Bernie Grundman Bernie Grundman is an American audio engineer. He is most known for his mastering work and his studio, Bernie Grundman Mastering, which he opened in 1984 in Hollywood. The studio, which includes engineers Chris Bellman, Patricia Sullivan, and Mi ...

– mastering engineer * Bobby Holland – photography * Lynn Robb – art direction, design * Robert Spano – assistant engineer * Nick Spigel – assistant engineer *

Tommy Vicari Thomas Vicari (born August 24, 1948) is an American recording engineer, mixing engineer, record producer and scoring mixer known for his work with Quincy Jones, Gino Vannelli, Nicholas Britell, Thomas Newman, Prince, George Duke and Barbra Streisan ...

– mixing engineer (tracks 2, 4, 5, 7 & 10) * Erik Zobler – engineer (tracks 1, 3, 6, 8 & 9) *Bobby Holland - photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control 1982 debut albums Jeffrey Osborne albums A&M Records albums Albums produced by George Duke