Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam were an urban contemporary band and one of the first

freestyle music Freestyle music, also called Latin freestyle or Latin hip-hop ''(sic)'' is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the New York metropolitan area and Philadelphia, primarily among Hispanic Americans and Italian Americans in the 1980s. I ...

groups to emerge from New York City in the 1980s. Cult Jam consisted of vocalist Lisa Lisa (born Lisa Valez),

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themsel ...

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low b ...

Alex "Spanador" Moseley, and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western bands that play rock, pop, jazz, or R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeeping and embellishing the musical timbre. The drummer's ...

/ keyboardist Mike Hughes. They were assembled and initially produced by Full Force.

History

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam was formed after Velez auditioned with Full Force, a production team from East Flatbush,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, at the age of 14. The group released their debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

'' Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force'' in 1985. The group was signed by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

and the label released their single " I Wonder If I Take You Home" to the European division of CBS Records in 1983 for the compilation album ''Breakdancing''. Stateside club DJs began playing the single from the import LP during 1984, and thus the U.S. division of CBS, Columbia Records, released the record. It quickly became a chart-topper on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large adverti ...

s Hot Dance/Disco chart. It then crossed over to the R&B chart where it peaked at No. 6, and then to the pop chart, peaking at No. 34 in summer 1985. The single eventually went

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

. "I Wonder If I Take You Home" was followed by another club hit, " Can You Feel the Beat", which also went to No. 40 on the R&B chart in late 1985. A sampling of the lyrics of this song would later be used by

Nina Sky Nina Sky is an American musical duo consisting of identical twins Nicole and Natalie Albino. Their debut single " Move Ya Body", released from their self-titled debut album in 2004, was a success, reaching number four on the ''Billboard'' Hot ...

for their hit single " Move Ya Body" in 2004. Their third single, the ballad " All Cried Out", also went gold, going to number No. 3 R&B and No. 8 pop in summer 1986. "All Cried Out" was later recorded by Allure in 1997 and was a hit in 1998. ''Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force'' went platinum. Their second album, '' Spanish Fly'', was a success in 1987. It spawned two No. 1 pop hits, "

Head to Toe "Head to Toe" is a song recorded by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam that appeared on their 1987 album ''Spanish Fly''. The song hit number one on three charts: ''Billboard'' Hot 100 on June 20, 1987, the Hot Black Singles charts on May 30 of that year, ...

" and " Lost in Emotion", both of which went gold. "Head to Toe" also parked at No. 1 R&B for two weeks and stayed in the pop top 5 nearly three months, while "Lost in Emotion's" video became the fourth most played of 1987 on MTV. ''Spanish Fly'' went platinum, peaking at No. 7 on the

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of ar ...

chart. Other singles from the album were the ballad "Someone to Love Me for Me" (No. 7 R&B), and "Everything Will B-Fine" (No. 9 R&B). In between albums they recorded "Go for Yours", which was featured in the movie ''

Caddyshack II ''Caddyshack II'' is a 1988 American sports comedy film and a sequel to the 1980 film '' Caddyshack''. Directed by Allan Arkush and written by Harold Ramis (who co-wrote and directed the original ''Caddyshack'') and PJ Torokvei, it stars Jack ...

''. Their third album was titled '' Straight to the Sky'' and was released in 1989. It featured the single "Little Jackie Wants to Be a Star". Their fourth and final album, ''

Straight Outta Hell's Kitchen ''Straight Outta Hell's Kitchen'' is a 1991 album by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. It is best known for the lead track " Let the Beat Hit 'Em" which reached #1 on the ''Billboard'' R&B and Dance charts. The only other single released from the album w ...

'', was less of a success, though it did include a hit with " Let the Beat Hit 'Em", which was a No. 1 hit on both the R&B and club charts. The group disbanded in 1991.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

*''Head to Toe'' (1995,

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

) *''Lisa Lisa and Friends'' (1995, Sony Music) *''Past, Present & Future'' (1996, Thump) *''Super Hits'' (1997, Sony Music) *''Playlist: The Very Best of Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force'' (2010,

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

Legacy In law, a legacy is something held and transferred to someone as their inheritance, as by will and testament. Personal effects, family property, marriage property or collective property gained by will of real property. Legacy or legacies may refer ...

)

Singles

References

External links

* * {{Authority control American dance music groups Electronic music groups from New York (state) American house music groups American freestyle music groups Columbia Records artists Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1991 1985 establishments in New York City 1991 disestablishments in New York (state) Musical groups from New York City