Just the Way You Like It (The S.O.S. Band album)
| Just the Way You Like It | ||||
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| Studio album by The S.O.S. Band | ||||
| Released | August 3, 1984 | |||
| Recorded | 1983–1984 Master Sound Studio (Atlanta, Georgia) Creation Audio (Minneapolis, Minnesota) |
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| Genre | Contemporary R&B, Boogie, Soul | |||
| Length | 45:19 | |||
| Label | Tabu | |||
| Producer | Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, The S.O.S. Band | |||
| The S.O.S. Band chronology | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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Just the Way You Like It is the fifth album released by the R&B band The S.O.S. Band on the Tabu label in August 1984. It was produced mostly by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis with additional production from the band themselves.
The band worked on their album III, which contained the song "High Hopes"- a song that was composed by Leon Sylvers III proteges Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Sylvers later took them under his wing to mentor them as songwriters and producers. Tabu Records founder and CEO Clarence Avant took a liking to the song and wanted to know who was behind it. When word got back to Avant that it was the creation of Jam and Lewis, he mistakenly thought they also produced the song. When Avant asked if they wanted to work on The S.O.S. Band's next album, they offered to do so at a reduced rate in order to receive some work as producers. Instead, Avant paid them a fair amount, which lead the duo to contribute three songs to 1983's On the Rise.
The band returned to the studio after Jam and Lewis were fired from The Time by Prince after being grounded in Atlanta, Georgia due to a blizzard. As a result, the duo ended up working with The S.O.S. Band again for their next album, Just the Way You Like It. According to Jimmy Jam, the album's title track was inspired by the Southern food chain Waffle House, as he and Lewis were frequent visitors of the restaurant. The duo noticed the company's slogan at the front door and were inspired to write the song. At the time, the song was done at the request of Avant as well as Tabu's then-distributor Epic Records, who wanted a single that was similar to their previous hit for The S.O.S. Band, "Just Be Good to Me". The song only had a backing track with no lyrics and remained unfinished until Jam and Lewis grabbed a bite to eat.
Another single on the album, "No One's Gonna Love You" was Jimmy Jam's favorite song on Just the Way You Like It as well as his favorite song overall by the band. He acknowledged the influence the song had on UK bands like Loose Ends and 52nd Street as well as it being sampled extensively since the song's initial release. Jam revealed his thoughts on rapper A$AP Rocky sampling the song for his 2011 single "Peso":
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