As we all know, Jimmy and Terry are both from Minneapolis, where apparently if you were born in the '50s or '60s you were assigned to a band at birth.

As a teen, Jimmy was in a group called Mind and Matter (front/center), Terry was in a band called Flyte Tyme.

Terry convinces Jimmy to come over to Flyte Tyme, which is fronted by Alexander O'Neal.
Eventually they change their name to The Time and become Prince's tour band. Alex over-negotiates his way OUT of the band, and is replaced by Morris Day (which was definitely for the best)

Side note: It took me WAYYYYYY longer than it should have to realize Jerome and Terry are brothers.

Anyway...

So Clarance Avant hires Jimmy & Terry to write produce some songs for one of the acts on his Tabu label. Prince does NOT LIKE his people doing outside work. J&T get stuck in Atlanta in a freak March snowstorm (dusting; it didn't take much to close Atl down). Miss a Prince date.

When they call the Purple on to tell him. He fires them. From THEIR band. Because that's the kind of sh*t Prince did. Because Prince.
But it was actually fortuitous because they got fired for making a hit. They brought Alexander O'Neal & Cherelle to Tabu, and the story begins...

When Jimmy & Terry's names are called, most folks minds go directly to one place, appropriately.

But they did SOOO much more with SOOO many more, which is why we're not gonna do any chronology or segmenting, just run them down in my own alphabetical style. And we'll get to her.

A: Alexander Muthafckin' O'Neal.
I love this man. I do. He is every bad R&B singer stereotype, but I think that actually makes me love him more.

Alex didn't move to Minneapolis until I think his late teens (maybe early 20s) to pursue his singing career. His ass is from Natchez Mississippi, which makes everything about him make that much more sense.
HE has said Prince kicked him out of The Time because he was dark skin.

The drugs, though. THE DRUGS. Alexander O'Neal is Eddie Kane (not KING, Kane) Jr.
If you see him today, he definitely is giving you cracky uncle, but he will STILL SING. Almost SANG. Like he's clearly under the influence here, and slurred a cpl times, but notes and tone were on.

B: Boyz II Men & Bended Knee
Like I said (and have said often), Jimmy & Terry are Face & LA's most direct sonic contemporaries, to the extent that you can easily confuse who did what songs in some cases.

C: Cherrelle. The Tammi to Alexander's Marvin. The singing versions of your hood auntie and uncle.
Also, another very light LA & Face connection; Pebbles' cousin.

Long time #MusicSermon congregants know I love me some Cherrelle. And this cheatin' ass song.

I keep saying I'll give Alex and Cherrelle their own thread at some point, and I need to get around to that. Jimmy and Terry actually had Cherrelle on sh*t that was just a couple of years too far ahead. She could have killed if she was doing this in 87 instead of 84.

Cherrelle's original "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" in 84 peaked in the 80s on the charts. Robert Palmer's version two years later hit No 2.

So many of y'all tweeted me when Cherrelle & Alex came out to do Saturday Love for the Jimmy and Terry tribute at the Soul Train awards, and that's how I know you know me and love me. Because this has been my jam since the age of 9. (That Cherrelle album got burn in my house).