There have been many reincarnations of Peaches & Herb since the duo first appeared on the Soul/R&B music scene in the 1960s. Tonight, I’m going to focus on the second reincarnation of Peaches of Herb that reappeared in 1977. Herb Fame and Linda Greene recorded six albums between 1977 and 1983. And this is the Peaches & Herb of my generation.
After their debut album flopped in 1977, the duo’s second and most successful album was 1978’s 2Hot! The album peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart, thanks to the success of two dynamite singles: “Shake Your Groove Thing” and “Reunited.”
“Shake Your Groove Thing” was a dynamite dance floor scorcher. The song has a really hot hook and it shook up the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, finally peaking at #5 in March of 1979. At the time, Disco had become the musical rage and the Top 40 was dominated by Disco artists– as well as Pop-Rock and New Wave artists who conveniently rode the Disco beat to the top of the charts. Think Rod Stewart “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” and Blondie “Heart of Glass.”
The pinnacle of success for Peaches & Herb was not a Disco song, however. Instead of following up “Shake Your Groove Thing” with another dance diamond, like “All Your Love” or “Love It Up Tonight,” the duo’s second single was an R&B ballad– “Reunited.”
“Reunited” was a shimmering, melancholy love song that took the United States and the world by the softest of storms. The song climbed to a four week in a row run at #1 on the Hot 100. It also went to #1 on Billboard’s R&B Chart and to #1 in Canada, while peaking at #4 in England. “Reunited” was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1980 Grammy Awards, and although it didn’t win, I will always consider it to be the most beautiful song of 1979.
2Hot’s final single “We’ve Got Love” was a good mid-tempo dance number, but it was the first single by Peaches & Herb to fail to crack the Top 40, stalling at #44. By this time, the album had reached platinum status in sales and Peaches & Herb seemed destined for greater future success.
Twice the Fire, released in late 1979, was the follow-up to 2Hot! The album’s lead-off single, “Roller Skatin’ Mate,” seemed destined for #1 honors. It had an extremely hot beat and the lyrics were perfect for the times. Roller skating/rollerball had become all the rage and it went hand in hand with Disco. There were movies and TV shows that featured rollerballing and Chic even mentioned “roller skates” in their mega 1979 #1 hit “Good Times.” But the new skating rage wasn’t enough for “Roller Skatin’ Mate” to break the Top 40. The song stalled at a very disappointing #66 and a disappointing #30 on the R&B chart.
The album’s second single “I Pledge My Love” did much better and provided Peaches & Herb with their third Top 20 single. The song, which sounded a bit like 1962 meets 1979, peaked at #19 (It did go to #1 in New Zealand). The last single from Twice the Fire— “Howzabout Some Love”— failed to chart. Although all of the single releases were basically a disappointment, Twice the Fire managed to reach a respectable #31 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart.
Part of the problem for Twice the Fire and for Peaches & Herb’s follow-up albums– Worth the Wait, Sayin’ Something and Remember— was a problem every successful artist is eventually faced with: Changing times. 1979 had faded into 1980. The late 1970’s had already introduced the new music genre of the 1980’s– New Wave. While Disco was still all the rage in 1978-79, artists like The Cars, The Romantics, Gary Numan, Squeeze and The Knack were slowly working their way up the Pop charts. By the time Worth the Wait was released in 1980, Disco was on shaky grounds.
The first single from Worth the Wait, “Funtime” was also dance floor dynamite, but the song failed to chart on the Hot 100 and peaked at #37 on the R&B singles chart. The follow-up single, “All Night Celebration” never saw the light of day on any chart. And the final single, “One Child of Love,” only charted on the R&B singles chart where it stalled at #51. The album itself was the first Peaches and Herb LP to bubble-under on the Billboard Albums Chart, where it peaked at #120.
Amazingly enough, the next Peaches & Herb album, 1981’s Sayin’ Something, peaked at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. It’s amazing because neither single– “Freeway” or “Bluer Than Blue”— charted on the Hot 100. “Freeway,” another disco dance track, did reach #37 on the R&B singles chart. And the follow-up ballad “Bluer Than Blue” peaked at #45.
There were no miracles left for the last Peaches & Herb album, Remember, which was released in 1983. By this time, Disco was completely dead. The Billboard Disco Chart suddenly became the Billboard Dance Chart. Remember is not a Disco album. R&B had moved back toward a Pop-Funk sound with ballads mixed in. Peaches & Herb took the cue and that’s the sound of Remember; but by 1983, Michael Jackson was all the rage and acts like Peaches & Herb were yesterday’s news.
Remember stalled at 202 on the Billboard Albums Chart and the first single– the title song– failed to chart on the Hot 100, although it did peak at #35 on the R&B Singles Chart. “Remember” and follow-up single “In My World” were both ballads. Unfortunately, “In My World,” a beautiful song, failed to even chart on the R&B Singles Chart. There are upbeat funk numbers on Remember, but there were no more singles.
Herb Fame and Linda Greene parted ways after Remember. It was obvious by 1983-84 that New Wave, Synthpop and Electronic Funk were the music of the 1980s and these genres were storming the charts behind such bands as The Pretenders, Duran Duran, Midnight Star and The Gap Band.
Since the 1980s, there have been various other versions of Peaches & Herb. Herb Fame has been featured in all of the reincarnations of the duo, but there have been at least four other Peaches since Linda Greene. The duo, as Herb Fame and Meritxell Negre, recorded one last album, Colors of Love, in 2009.
Meditation to the Groove! 
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