TGJ Replay: The Best Of Teena Marie

Much like our ‘Retro Rewind’ and ‘From the Vault’ segments, readers of That Grape Juice know what avid music lovers we are – especially of hits past.  So in a quest to re-spin the gems and jams of yesterday we introduced a new retrospective segment – ‘TGJ Replay’.
Unlike its ‘Rewind’ and ‘Vault’ predecessors, ‘Replay’ looks to dust off and showcase albums (and eras) from a library of pop music hits.  Today, we look back at the best of Ivory Queen of Soul Teena Marie‘s hits…

She was known as Lady T.  The past few decades have seen her signature bass licks sampled by the masses, but the soaring California born soprano herself rose to R&B prominence as protege of funk legend Rick James.  Even with his backing and blessing, it wasn’t long before the songbird swiftly flew by her lonesome to top charts with hits like ‘Square Biz’ and ‘Portuguese Love’.
‘Square Biz’

‘Portuguese Love’

And, despite enjoying moderate successes on Motown in the late 70s and early 80s with her remarkable blend of poetry, powerhouse vocals, and pop/R&B/funk fusions, the bass-beating beauty did not earn true star power until her Epic debut album ‘Starchild‘.  Yielding two of her biggest and most memorable hits ‘Lovergirl’ and ‘Out On A Limb’…
‘Lovergirl’

‘Out On A Limb’

Fans were truly in love with the self-proclaimed ‘Lovergirl’.  Despite the song being Marie’s only top 30 pop hit, follow-up albums still spawned memorable hits like ‘If I Were A Bell’ and fan favorite ‘Ooh La La’ (which was later sampled in ‘Fu-Gee-La’ by The Fugees).
‘Ooh La La’

Indeed, as avid fans of Miss Marie, we love to respin her gems and jams as they were oft overlooked during her storied career.  While many-an-R&B traditionalist often cites Teena as the Queen of ‘Blue Eyed Soul’, she is often (and unfortunately) unmentioned by a number of music when listing the true greats of the genre.
Today we ode the soaring songstress who showed us soul was colourless.  As we rock out to ‘Fire and Desire’, you tell us:

Your Favorite Teena Marie Hit?