Song:Change Of Heart
Album:Reach For The Sky: Anthology
Change were very successful on the early 80s dance charts. The 1984 single Change Of Heart was probably their biggest hit. Change had longevity for what was essentially a studio group. Jacques Fred Petrus was a DJ in Milan, Italy in the mid-70s. He became friends with Italian musician Mauro Malavasi and they decided to form the group Change. This was influenced by the success of Chic. What they did was very unusual. Malavasi and partners David Romani and Paolo Gianolo wrote and produced the instrumental tracks in Italy. They sent the tapes to New York to record the vocals. The vocals were by Luther Vandross and Jocelyn Brown. The 1980 album The Glow Of Love was certified Gold and A Lover's Holiday featuring singer Zachary Sanders was a top 40 hit. For the 1981 album Miracles, Petrus was unable to come to terms with Vandross. He was replaced by James "Crabs" Robinson and the album wasn't as successful. Then they started to flounder around and the next two albums didn't do well. They tried to turn Change into a real group and record in New York. But Malavasi was still producing in Italy. Malavasi left and bassist Timmy Allen and former Fatback Band singer Deborah Cooper remained with Change. Petrus hired Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis who had recently left The Time. They produced half the songs and Allen produced the others. Change Of Heart was written and produced by Jam and Lewis. It did well on the R & B charts and internationally. Change bounced back. Unfortunately, Petrus had financial issues with Jam and Lewis and they left. Allen produced the 1985 album Turn On Your Radio and it was a failure and Petrus disbanded Change. You can get all their hits on this 2CD comp. Petrus was murdered in 1987. He was under investigation for tax evasion. David Romani attempted to revive Change as X-Change. A 1992 album was produced but it sat unreleased until 2010. Here's Change performing Change Of Heart on Italian TV 1984.
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