La Toya Jackson

"Shake your rump to the funk"

La Toya’s recording career began in 1980 with the release of her self-titled LP on Polydor Records and the singles If You Feel The Funk and Night Time Lover, the later produced by her superstar brother Michael. The album was a flop apart from the single If You Feel The Funk which was a Top 20 hit in Germany , and a club hit in America . Despite this initial disappointment La Toya put out a follow up LP, My Special Love in 1981 with the single Stay The Night. Sadly the album fared even worse than its predecessor and La Toya left Polydor.

"Gonna drop you like a hot potato!" 

Private-I records a CBS affiliate quickly signed La Toya for her third album ‘Heart Don’t Lie’ in 1984. This took La Toya in a more pure pop direction and saw La Toya perform to completely pre-programmed backing tracks for the first time. The results were marvelous and the single Heart Don’t Lie became La Toya’s biggest hit to date peaking at #56 on the Billboard Hot 100. Further singles impacted on the club and R&B charts, but fell short of repeating the success of Heart Don’t Lie. The album again sold poorly but did well enough to secure a follow up. La Toya also took part in We Are The Word the USA for Africa charity single, for which she received her first Grammy Award. She was also nominated for writing the song Reggae Nights for Jimmy Cliff. Imagination was released in 1986 and was another pop/dance affair. The single He’s A Pretender failed to make an impact and the album bombed. In this year she also release a single with Cerrone called Oops Oh No! And took part in the anti-drugs single Stop The Madness.

"This time you have gone too far, gonna sock it to your heart and leave a scar!"

In 1987 La Toya signed with Teldec Records in Germany . They put her to work with the finest producers in the business including Stock Aitken Waterman, Full Force, and Harold Faltermeyer. The album was licensed to RCA for a global release and in 1988 the La Toya album was unleashed upon the world. Full Force turned La Toya into a R&B diva with the style of Lisa Lisa, but with the fun and lightheartedness of the real La Toya. The B side had a European flavour, the complete album designed to cater to everyone. Sadly the whole project tanked! The cutting edge pseudo rap single ‘You’re Gonna Get Rocked’ couldn’t even break the R&B Top 40 in the US and it was too much for European radio. A further three singles did nothing to save the album. 

"I wanna be your toy!" 

Bad Girl was recorded as an immediate follow up, this time La Toya stuck with a more cohesive sound keeping it a little bit R&B but making the whole album very radio friendly, apart from the sensual House number ‘Sexual Feeling’. The single Bad Girl was released in Germany in 1989 and flopped causing the album to be only released as a limited run on LP. La Toya bought the rights to the album and licensed it to countless labels around the globe. The song You And Me from the album won the Best Song category at the Italian San Remo festival in 1989 and was released as a 7” single there. Later in the year La Toya posed nude for Playboy Magazine, much to the disgust of her family. In this year she also married her manager Jack Gordon.

Scandal!  

In 1991 La Toya released her best-selling autobiography La Toya: Growing Up In The Jackson Family. It was shocking expose of life growing up in Indiana with her famous brothers and sisters. It caused a major family feud and La Toya received an awful lot of criticism. It was at this time that she released an album called No Relations in Europe and gained a sizable hit in Holland with the single Sex Box. La Toya also posed nude for Playboy for the second time in this year. In 1993 La Toya released a country album entitled From Nashville To You on a budget label in America, it was followed up with a hinrg Motown covers album which sank without trace. In 1996 La Toya filed for divorce and regained her freedom after what had proved to be extremely abusive and controlling marriage.

Startin' Over

La Toya took 7 years out of her career to recover from the awful life she’d endured while married to Gordon. She had been reduced to performing in strip clubs and sleazy Eastern European gay clubs and her career was all but ruined. It took a long time to regain the trust of her family and repair the many relationships that had suffered during her time with Gordon. 

In 2003 she announced she was working on a new album called Startin’ Over on a very special episode of Larry King Live. In 2004 she released the popular club singles Just Wanna Dance which hit #13 and followed it up with Free The World which created enough interest to secure her a new record deal with Bungalo Records/Universal Music. 

Armed & Famous

After a long period of absence La Toya appeared on the CBS reality series Armed & Famous. The show involved La Toya training to be a cop in Muncie, Indiana and going out on patrol with other celebrity recruits. The series was axed after only a few episodes, but undeterred La Toya unleashed the hip-hop influenced single I Don't Play That. The single bombed. The network was very impressed with La Toya, however, and have commissioned a new show with her Jermaine and Tito - Pop Dynasty, which will premiere next year. 

La Toya is currently launching her own alcoholic beverage, Star Ice. Plans for her music are on hold.

- Jamie

Heart Don't Lie (1984)

Just Wanna Dance (2004)