Мэри Джейн Герлз: История американской R&B группы

American R&B, soul and funk group

The Mary Jane Girls were an American girl group formed in 1983, best known for their songs "In My House", "All Night Long", "Candy Man", and their cover version of "Walk Like a Man". They were protégées of musician Rick James and disbanded in 1987. Joanne "Jojo" McDuffie was the lead singer, the others filling out the group's style and appearance. On the studio recordings, McDuffie was backed by session vocalists rather than the other Mary Jane Girls. The group released two albums in the 1980s, and recorded a third – which was shelved for decades but finally released in 2014 as part of a larger Rick James retrospective. The group was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in 2019.

Rick James was frequently backed in his studio recordings by vocalists Lisa Sarna, Taborah “Tabby” Johnson, Joanne "Jojo" McDuffie and the sisters Maxine and Julia Waters. For live performances, starting in 1979, James was backed by McDuffie along with Sarna and Johnson Casually among the musicians, McDuffie,Sarna and Johnson used the moniker “Mary Jane Band”, a subgroup of James's backing band, the Stone City Band. .

In 1983, James proposed to Motown that McDuffie be offered a solo career but miscommunication caused the label to sign an all female group, which he determined would be the Mary Jane Girls. James filled the positions behind McDuffie with Wells, Ghant, and Wuletich. He also wrote all the original songs and produced all the recordings. Often compared to the protégées of his rival Prince, Vanity 6, who debuted in 1982, James told Jet that he had come up with the concept six years prior but shelved it for a lack of time. "I wanted there to be a Black female group in the industry that could express more reality with relationships to men. I wanted there to be Black girls who could really speak about love, the pain, money, power, hate and everything. Originally there were going to be three girls in negligees doing the punk thing." Marine was the daughter of singer Pattie Brooks. The name of the group referenced mary jane, slang for marijuana; a favored recreational drug of James. (James wrote a hit song titled "Mary Jane".) The group's image was styled as containing a street wise girl (McDuffie), a supermodel (Ghant), a cheerleader/valley girl (Wells, then Marine), and a dominatrix (Wuletich). The group released their second album, Only Four You, in February 1985. McDuffie was featured on most of the songs, and the Waters sisters were hired to provide background vocals, since the other members were vocally limited. However, a single was released from the project in 1986, a cover of The Four Seasons hit "Walk Like a Man", which was heard in the film A Fine Mess. It charted at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. Another single, "Shadow Lover", was also released in 1986, and the Mary Jane Girls appeared on Soul Train to lip sync it, but the single was not promoted by the label. Ghant obtained other work in 1986 when James and Motown were in dispute, since the Mary Jane Girls had no label support. The Mary Jane Girls officially disbanded in 1987.

Cheri Wells was recruited away from the Mary Jane Girls by Morris Day to be the lead singer for his all female band the Day Zs, which released one album and one single on Reprise in 1990. These releases did not chart. In 1991, Marine sued Virgin Records, claiming that she had shared lead vocals on the songs "Opposites Attract", "Knocked Out", and "I Need You", on Paula Abdul's debut album Forever Your Girl. In 1993, a jury ruled against Marine. In 1995, the song "All Night Long" was remixed by Mike Gray and Jon Pearn, subtitled "The Hustlers Convention Remixes" and released on 12" vinyl and CD single. These remixes gained attention in dance clubs and rose to number 51 in the UK. Blige did not pursue the project. In 2003, the Mary Jane Girls were featured on VH1 in a "Where Are They Now?" episode. Ghant, Wells, Wuletich, and Marine were interviewed together. McDuffie,returning from a concert tour backing Barry White in Europe, appeared in a separate interview. Later in 2010, Kimberly "Maxi" Wuletich applied for the trademark "MJG Starring Maxi and Cheri of the Original Mary Jane Girls", which she uses for performing with Cheri Wells. However, in 2013 the estate of Rick James sued Wuletich and Wells to stop them from performing under the name Mary Jane Girls. The estate held that the group's name was owned by James, not the singers. In 2014, the Mary Jane Girls (Candice Ghant, Val Young, and Farah Melanson) received an honorary HAL Award.

Year Title Peak chart positions Album US BEL CAN NLD NZ UK 1983 "Candy Man" 101 23 8 — — — — — — 60 Mary Jane Girls "All Night Long" 101 11 — — — 18 — — 13 "Boys" 102 29 — — — — — — 74 1984 "Jealousy" 106 84 — — — — — — — — 1985 "In My House" 7 3 1 19 8 6 — 6 6 77 Only Four You "Wild and Crazy Love" 42 10 3 — 26 — — — — 101 "Break It Up" — 79 33 — — — — — — — 1986 "Walk Like a Man" 41 91 — — 26 97 — — 48 — A Fine Mess 1995 "All Night Long" (The Hustlers Convention Remixes) — — — — — — — — — 51 Non album single "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.