Jeffrey Osborne – Stay With Me Tonight 1983

 Stay with Me Tonight is the second studio album by American singer Jeffrey Osborne. It was released on July 22, 1983, on A&M Records. Osborne reteamed with frequent collaborator George Duke to work on the album which reached #25 on the US Billboard 200 and #3 on the R&B chart. The title track, "Stay with Me Tonight", was a #4 R&B hit in 1983, while three other singles, "Don't You Get So Mad", "We're Going All the Way", and "Plane Love", entered the top twenty. 

 At this point, some fans might have been hoping that Jeffrey Osborne would return to his former group, L.T.D.. If Jeffrey Osborne cast doubt on that proposition, Stay With Me Tonight made it so that even L.T.D. fanatics didn't want to see it happen. Unlike many R&B acts who either went solo and/or did pop-ish work, Osborne earned raves for retaining his quirky nature with his vocal inflections and ticks intact. The smooth, first single, "Don't You Get So Mad," picks up where Jeffrey Osborne and "I Really Don't Need No Light" left off. Osborne's best-sung up-tempo George Duke production, "Stay With Me Tonight," clicks from the synths and the Simmons drums to the off-center backing vocals. The best ballad from the album is also one of Osborne's strongest songs. With a strong string arrangement from George DelBarrio, "I'll Make Believe" has Osborne all but living the poignant lyrics and giving them more meaning by accenting the right words and phrases. "We're Going All the Way" is nearly as good. Tracks like "Other Side of the Coin," "When Are You Comin' Back," and "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right" can't help but come off as filler given the excellent songs surrounding them. The best songs here more than make up for any so-so tracks and this is more than recommended. 

 A pivotal album for Jeffrey Osborne – and a record that showed the world that he could stand proudly on his own away from his old group LTD! The album was actually his second solo outing, but the first to really gel together in that hit-making blend of ballads and catchy mid-tempo pop tunes – a crossover sound that put Osborne firmly on top at the time. As with Osborne's previous set, George Duke is at the production helm, keeping things in a lightly jazzy 80s soul mode. Titles include "Don't You Get So Mad", "We're Going All The Way", "Stay With Me Tonight", "Plane Love", "Greatest Love Affair", "Other Side Of The Coin", "When Are You Comin Back", and "Forever Mine".