Rick James — “17”

Entered Top 40:  August 18, 1984
3  weeks 
Peaked at: 36

Lately I’ve been getting social-media ads about a Rick James jukebox musical. I think I prefer tribute bands to biographical jukebox musicals in general, but I get the idea Rick James’ life isn’t one I’d enjoy seeing dramatized on stage, in particular.

The do-they/don’t-they tale of a post-show encounter with a teenage fan, “17” may or may not have been autobiographical when written, but James met his eventual girlfriend Tanya Hijazi in 1989 at a party when she was 17. The pair would eventually serve prison time in the 1990s for kidnapping, sexual abuse, and torture of two women they met for “business meetings” (the second such case occurred while James was out on bail and awaiting trial for the first).

I wouldn’t think Rick James was ever as internally-conflicted as he is in “17.” Seemed much more decisive when he was abducting people and beating them up, and burning them with crack pipes.

This was the last time Rick James would hit the Top 40 on his own, but his proteges would be there soon enough. The Mary Jane Girls would reach #7 with “In My House” later in 1984, and Eddie Murphy would reach #2 in 1985 with the James-written/produced/backup-sung “Party all the Time.” James would stay bouncing around the R&B and Dance charts through the rest of the ’80s, then his drug-fueled legal problems would catch up with him. His #5 R&B hit “Glow,” from 1985, has a video fictionalizing/predicting his tailspin, and giving the world “I’m Rick JAMES!” long before Chappelle ever got hold of it.