High Inergy - shoulda gone dancin (1979)

Shoulda Gone Dancin' was the third album by High Inergy and the first after the departure of lead vocalist Vernessa Mitchell. Now reduced to a trio, this album features Barbara Mitchell (Vernessa's sister) on lead vocals. It peaked at #72 on Billboard's R&B Album charts and #147 on the Pop Album charts. The album spawned one chart single, the title track, which was a moderate dance and R&B hit.

 Regrouping after the effervescent Vanessa Mitchell decamped for a solo career in gospel, High Inergy, now with sister Barbara handling lead vocals, re-emerged in 1979 to take another crack at success with Shoulda Gone Dancin'. Unfortunately, that was not to be, as the band was unable to even come close to matching the chart successes of their earlier efforts. The LP limped to a mere number 76 R&B in May. The title track, which proved the album's sole hit, does utilize some sizzling arrangements and interesting vocal turns across an energetic beat, and would emerge the album's only real standout. The sultry beginning of "Let Yourself Go," meanwhile, which flips into disco without any warning, is interesting, but would have been better had it remained a ballad. That leaves the band to cover some of their more familiar bases across the traditional Motown trappings of "Midnight Music Man" and the closing "Too Late," a stilted blend of the Supremes and the Shangri-Las. While not a bad effort, Shoulda Gone Dancin' just doesn't have enough merit to render it one of the era's sparklers and, although the band would continue to record and chart into 1983, by 1979 it was already clear that their star power was well in decline.