| Friends | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | Shalamar |
| Cover: | Shalamarfriends.jpg |
| Released: | January 29, 1982 |
| Recorded: | 1981 |
| Studio: | Studio Masters Larrabee Sound The Record Plant Kendun Recorders (Los Angeles) |
| Genre: |
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| Length: | 44:55 |
| Label: | SOLAR |
| Producer: | Leon Sylvers III |
| Prev Title: | Go for It |
| Prev Year: | 1981 |
| Next Title: | The Look |
| Next Year: | 1983 |
Friends is the sixth album by American R&B group Shalamar, released in 1982 on the SOLAR label. The album, which features the 'classic' Shalamar line-up (Jeffrey Daniel, Howard Hewett and Jody Watley), topped the R&B chart and peaked at #35 on the Billboard chart. It has been certified Gold in the United States for sales over 500,000. It would eventually go Platinum.In the United Kingdom Friends gained impetus from a now-legendary demonstration of body-popping by Daniel during a performance of "A Night to Remember" on the BBC programme Top of the Pops. It reached #6 on the UK Albums Chart and produced four top 20 singles.
In 2002, Friends was re-released by Sanctuary Records in the United Kingdom in a double-CD package with Shalamar's previous album Go for It.
In The Boston Phoenix, Mike Freedberg wrote that the album "presents [Howard] Hewitt again and again overmatched by roseate fugues, overmatching lyrics so glib they vanish. He doesn't know whether to drive ahead or scat back--but neither would a Shalamar fan. Hewitt's stabs at sincerity fit into the I-can't-manage atmosphere that has all but replaced the buoyant bravado of soul, funk, and disco from today's black-teen music."[1]
| Chart (1982) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| US Billboard 200[2] | 35 | |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[3] | 1 |
| Chart (1982) | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[4] | 96 | |
| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[5] | 10 |
| Year | Single | Chart positions[6] [7] | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK Pop | US Pop | US R&B | US Dance | ||
| 1982 | "I Can Make You Feel Good" | 7 | 102 | 33 | - |
| "A Night To Remember" | 5 | 44 | 8 | 15 | |
| "There It Is" | 5 | - | - | - | |
| "Friends" | 12 | - | - | - | |